Beyond Two Souls Review

Beyond Two Souls Review

The PS4 port of Beyond: Two Souls doesn’t fix the game's core issues. It’s still a very stilted, awkward experience in spots, usually right after a stretch where the gameplay and narrative get everything right. What it does do--thanks to this edition’s best new feature, where the timeline-hopping narrative can be played in chronological order--is strip away some of the high-concept pretense and deliver a straightforward story that's stronger as a result.

Beyond: Two Souls is about the life of Jodie Holmes (performed by Ellen Page), a girl who, since birth, has been tethered to an otherworldly entity named Aidan. Naturally, having a poltergeist as an impulsive companion doesn’t exactly equal an ideal life--especially since Aidan’s presence leaves Jodie open to frequent visits from the malevolent side of the hereafter. But even when she’s not being dragged around by invisible horrors, Jodie still has to contend with Aidan’s mischievous tendencies. And on days when Aidan is calm, there’s just life as a socially awkward girl who sees things that nobody should ever have to see. We follow Jodie over a stretch of 15 years, watching her deal with the world--and the world deal with her--and make decisions that change the course of her life.

This experiment went well.

Beyond feels right at home on PS4. Textures are noticeably upgraded from the PS3 version and lighting improvements galore create an even more stunning cinematic experience. The actual playing of Beyond hasn’t changed significantly in the transition to PS4. For the most part, it’s still a copy-paste job from Heavy Rain. Most of your time is spent wandering through closed environments, looking for the magical prompt that signifies when you can interact with an object or person.

In keeping with Quantic Dream's trademark style, action is handled by quick time events in a dynamic fashion, taking full advantage of the DualShock 4's motion-sensing functionality. The PS4 edition of the game does add a few tricky bits, where QTEs use diagonals instead of normal up-down-left-right prompts, but those only pop up in two of the chapters. The timing of the prompts seems stricter, which means that Jodie is liable to take a few more brutal hits when the going gets tough, but the QTEs don’t determine the course of the story so much as they bring the action to life. Yes, you could, in theory, just set the controller down during an action scene and let it play out on its own, but you’d be watching a sequence of Jodie getting the crap kicked out of her ad nauseum. Actively participating in Jodie's struggle is much more gratifying.

If only she had a Fulton baloon.

Through the course of the game, the best moments in each action scene require your input, whether you're jumping between moving vehicles, tossing soldiers into the road, stealing a motorcycle, blowing past a police garrison, or saving people from a burning building. There are even a few scattered sequences of stealth combat, where Jodie tackles hapless bad guys into the dirt.

Beyond’s big hook, of course, is the fact that, any time you have full control over Jodie, you can instantly switch to Aidan and roam the world as a phantom, floating through doors, walls, and objects, listening to secret conversations, force-pushing objects around, choking the life out of folks, or even possessing hapless victims. The seams of the gimmick show often. It’s built into the story that Aidan can actively hurt Jodie if he travels too far, but how far exactly seems to be determined by the needs of the scene rather than consistent logic.

Beyond feels right at home on PS4. Textures are noticeably upgraded from the PS3 version and lighting improvements galore create an even more stunning cinematic experience.

Having said that, the puzzles, obstacles, and story points built around Aidan’s powers are wonderfully plotted. A painful goodbye interrupted by Jodie’s irritating father can be salvaged if you choose to give him a much-deserved goodbye choke. More than once, Aidan will have to rescue Jodie from a sticky situation by possessing one of her enemies, forcing him to kill his friends and then himself. Its seldom that we get to see a story through the eyes of a spirit, and the extent to which its used in Beyond leads to some fascinating conclusions.

The chronological version of this story told in the new PS4 version is a marked improvement over the original, where the key points of Jodie’s life were scrambled up and presented as a random series of disparate moments as opposed to a life flashing linearly before her eyes. As a chronological narrative, we get a much better sense of the burden of Jodie’s powers, watching her grow from a curious but sheltered child into a rebellious teenager who longs to live in the real world, and ultimately, into a young woman who finds herself routinely beaten by society.

Page and Dafoe deliver excellent performances.

Much of the story's impact can be laid at the feet of Page. Her performance, both vocal and physical, is powerful; it retreats to hollowly call upon the full weight of Jodie’s collective traumas in one scene, using the same trauma to fuel a deep, embittered rage in the next. Willem Dafoe brings a similar gravitas. His side of the script is steeped in exposition, especially toward the end, but there are times when he demonstrates genuine warmth and paternal concern for Jodie--traits we rarely see from Dafoe. The supporting cast varies. Kadeem Hardison, the only other “name” actor in the game, is solid in his role, but elsewhere, actors fail to keep up and weigh down scenes with poor acting that contrasts with Beyond's more capable cast members.

Beyond remains an imperfect experience but is still compelling for what it accomplishes.

They’re bound to Beyond's schizophrenic script, which flips between sequences of earnest, pensive drama, high-octane action, and well-directed but conceptually goofy supernatural blather. The highs are spectacular: The sequence where Jodie deals with homelessness stands out, and a scene where she reunites with a heavily medicated relative is brutally harrowing. The lows, however, are bewildering in their shallowness: An eye-rolling incident at a bar, a detour into Navajo mythology, and a character’s sudden shift into comic book villainy ultimately disappoint. Occasionally, there are scenes like Jodie’s solo mission to take down an African dictator, which, while delivering a stellar dose of action, feels disconnected from the overarching narrative.

Beyond remains a unique experience, even as the tools implemented in its creation have become commonplace. It's filled with concepts that are immediately odd and illogical, but if you accept them on their own terms, they add up to a fascinating if unconventional tale. Beyond remains an imperfect experience but is still compelling for what it accomplishes.

Source : http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/beyond-two-souls-review/1900-6416326/

Rainbow Six Siege Review

The average Rainbow Six Siege multiplayer match contains a surprisingly small amount of shooting. Gunplay is, of course, still central to the Siege experience, but there's so much more to it. You'll spend just as much time strategizing with your teammates, carefully laying traps, reinforcing destructible walls, and feeling your heart race as the dull, distant rumble of your enemies' breach charges suddenly gives way to intense and immediate chaos. And that's just on defense.

Few modern shooters can match the heart-pounding exhilaration and immense strategic depth Siege achieves with its asymmetrical PvP. With no respawns, no regenerating health, and only five players per team, every life suddenly feels meaningful and precious (though you can still monitor security cameras and communicate with your team in death). Running-and-gunning will almost certainly land you on the sidelines, so you're much better off using your drivable drone to scout ahead or coordinating with your teammates to ensure all sightlines are covered.

Siege's spectacular sound design can save your life. Play with headphones on if you want to know exactly where the enemy's approaching from.

Not only does the intense one-life setup encourage players to approach every encounter thoughtfully and methodically, it also fills a long neglected gap in the FPS genre. While shooters that emphasize twitch shooting over tactics can grow tiresome, Siege's seemingly endless array of viable strategies makes every round memorable and organically begets the kind of brilliant, unpredictable moments you can't wait to tell your friends about.

In any given round, you could repel from a rooftop, smash through a window, and flash the room with a stun grenade, or just lie prone in a dark corner waiting for enemies to wander past. Maybe on defense you'll fortify four team members in a single room but send the fifth out into the wild in hopes of catching the other team off guard. You could also play some mind games by remotely detonating an explosive purely as misdirection before infiltrating through another point of ingress. All these mechanics breed creativity and allow the game to evolve as players develop (and react to) new strategies.

All these mechanics breed creativity and allow the game to evolve as players develop (and react to) new strategies.

Unfortunately, there is a campaign-sized hole where Siege's single-player should be, and while a carefully crafted, story-driven experience would have further solidified the game's position as one of the year's best shooters, Siege still manages to compensate in other ways. Franchises like Halo and Call of Duty have set the bar for the amount of desirable content you can cram into a game, and Siege clearly falls short of that mark. But consider a game like Rocket League, which has delivered serious longevity with a single game mode. Siege, to me, feels like Rocket League or even Team Fortress 2 in that its pure, competitive nature makes it eminently replayable.

Even outside of its natural competitiveness and deep well of mechanics, Siege's PvP provides enough variables to keep players engaged. There are multiple match types, over a dozen maps, randomized objective locations within those maps, differing times of day for every stage, mixed mode servers that automatically scramble all these options together, and, most importantly, 20 distinct Operators, all of whom open new gameplay avenues. Even characters whose unique gadget seemed useless at first inevitably proved me wrong. I assumed Doc's remote revive dart would never come in handy given that allies are far more often killed than wounded; then I saw someone punch a tiny hole through a wall to revive a fallen teammate pinned by gunfire on the other side.

Environmental destruction plays a major role in Siege's multiplayer.

And while Siege may not contain a campaign, it does offer 11 singleplayer "Situations" that are both legitimately helpful and surprisingly robust, considering they're essentially training missions. Each situation features three difficulty options and three optional objectives--which enhances their replayability--and each one focuses on a different aspect of the game like bomb defusal or destructible cover. They lack the cohesion, polish, and narrative drive of a campaign, but they're at least diverse enough to prove worthwhile.

You can also choose to tackle Siege's Terrorist Hunt mode alone, though it's definitely more approachable as a cooperative experience. As with the competitive multiplayer, each player gets one life and only a finite amount of health, but here you must hunt down a preset number of AI-controlled terrorists or disarm bombs while an infinite number of enemies attempt to interfere. Being so outnumbered while having no way to heal turns every round into an intense war of attrition; even if the first guy doesn't kill you outright, he might shave off enough of your health that the next guy can easily take you out. When you make it to the end of a 20-minute round with only a tiny sliver of health remaining, finishing off that final terrorist provides such an incredible high I found it nearly impossible to hold in my reflexive "Hell yeah!"

Despite all this excess adrenaline, Siege still suffers a few rough edges. The progression system, for example, feels slightly empty and metes out experience too slowly. Thankfully, Casual PvP will be available right out of the gate, but you'll have to accrue enough XP to reach level 20 before you'll unlock Ranked PvP. It makes sense the game would gate Ranked matches given that they remove much of the in-game assistance that makes Casual PvP accessible (a fact the game fails to explain, unfortunately), but grinding all the way to level 20 takes far too long. Why not set the limit lower and let players decide when they're ready?

Microtransactions are limited to weapon skins and XP boosts, so you can easily ignore them if you prefer to save your money

In addition to XP, players also earn Renown--Siege's version of in-game currency, which can be used to purchase new Operators, weapon attachments, and weapon skins. Again, forcing players to slowly earn new Operators makes some sense: it creates a sense of connection and ownership while encouraging players to really explore and capitalize on each character's unique skills. I was also able to unlock two attackers and two defenders in roughly three hours (thanks in part to some generous boosts early on), and that collection of four Operators proved substantial enough to enable my enjoyment despite limiting my options.

However, I still encountered situations where my operators had already been selected by other players, which forced me to play as the generic "recruit" stand-in. And more importantly, customization options are extremely limited. You can buy custom sights and scopes or equip your guns with various stabilizers and silencers, but these attachments only marginally impact gameplay, and because you're only outfitting one or two Operators at a time, you'll earn every upgrade with very little effort. This undoubtedly preserves the balance of the game, but it's pretty difficult to feel like you're progressing when there's so little to work towards.

Everything from the strength of your internet connection to the makeup of your team can impact your enjoyment of Siege, but importantly, Siege itself does everything it can to ensure you're able to enjoy the game in spite of these variables.

Being an always-online game, Siege also comes with it's fair share of minor annoyances that, while mostly unobtrusive, are still worth mentioning. Map rotation could be more consistent. Console players could use more in-game communication tools beyond the temporary marker icon. Matchmaking needs to be just as smooth on PC as it currently is on consoles. Purchasing and equipping new gear shouldn't require players to back out of matches. There needs to be an easier way to kick and report disruptive players.

Everything from the strength of your internet connection to the makeup of your team can impact your enjoyment of Siege, but importantly, Siege itself does everything it can to ensure you're able to enjoy the game in spite of these variables. Across all the hours I spent online, players were consistently cooperative and communicative, and to some degree, I have to credit Siege's tutorials and situations for adequately conveying how the game is meant to be played.

My experiences weren't always perfect, but when Siege works, there's nothing else like it. It's not designed to appeal to all players, and that's exactly what allows it to be something special. With so much strategic depth, those periods between firefights actually become some of the most rewarding, while firefights themselves are made all the more intense by the knowledge that you're fighting for your life, not just your kill/death ratio.

Source : http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/rainbow-six-siege-review/1900-6416324/