In a recent interview, David Cage, founder of Quantic Dream, released more details on their new title, Beyond: Two Souls.
If you don’t know Quantic Dream, they’re the people behind the PS3’s Heavy Rain and the PS2’s Indigo Prophecy (or Fahrenheit, depending on your region). You may also recognize them from their tech demo Kara. At E3 this year, they showed a trailer for their new game Beyond: Two Souls.
There hasn’t been too much to go on besides that trailer, and PlayStation brings that up with their first question. Cage responds, “Development is going very well. Indeed, it’s nice to go to all these shows but we also have to make the game! We’re advancing – we’re now a few weeks off the alpha version. It’s always a very critical moment in the development of a game since it’s the first time all the game data is assembled in a complete version.”
In the interview, Cage describes the interface of Beyond as “ very different from Heavy Rain, probably much more than people can imagine. The first obvious difference is that there will be two characters to control: Jodie and this entity that is Aiden.” Whereas in Heavy Rain, players played as one character for an scene, Beyond may allow players to switch at will between Jodie and Aiden, or there may be triggered events that switch the player’s control of Aiden for specific puzzles or scenarios. To find out, we’ll probably have to wait for the game’s release.
As far as gameplay, Cage informs us that “It’s a balance that will be a little different from Heavy Rain, where we really aiming for the atmosphere of a psychological thriller. Beyond, of course, will also have these components of emotion, depth of characters, strong moments, but there will also be a more epic, dramatic dimension. All this will be part of a story with a logical narrative following the philosophy that each scene must be unique and different. Take the forest scene for example. This is the only scene like this in the game. We will have more epic scenes and other action scenes, but they will be radically different and have nothing to do with each other in terms of environment and the type of action involved.” Expect some roller coasters in this game. Emotional, maybe even literal. Who knows? It seems Cage is going to lengths to keep specifics on a need to know basis. Potential players? We don’t need to know.
There is a method to this apparent madness, though. When ask how he feels players should approach this game, Cage responds, “ I think there should be no preparation for Beyond. You must go into the game trying to learn as little as possible! “ After all, how much fun can you have playing a game for the first time if you already know all the twists and turns? With this goal, I believe Cage is doing an excellent job. Enough information has been revealed to pique the interest of players, but what do we really know about the game? Not a lot.
In closing, Cage sends this message to potential players: “For people who trust us and who loved Heavy Rain – we will surprise you, we will give you something you expect without even knowing that you were expecting it! I think it will be a real experience. We believe in it and we’re working hard for it.”
I don’t know what I expect from this game, and Cage promises I’ll get exactly that! What do you think about Beyond: Two Souls? Excited? Dubious? Let us know in the comments below!
If you enjoyed the minutes, but would like to read the full interview, click here.
