‘Beyond: Two Souls’ Gameplay Footage & Featurette: Jodie & Aiden in Action

There have been many things said about David Cage, Quantic Dream and Beyond: Two Souls. From the obsession with giving characters true “emotions” to a reliance of on quick-time events, there have been plenty of supporters and detractors of David Cage’s work. The debate as to whether video games should be directly adopting techniques from film will continue to rage, and while we wait for the unanswerable question to die down, we now have new footage from Beyond: Two Souls to help you make up your mind.

Check out the video above (courtesy of Gamespot).

A new entry into the huge amount of available footage already released for the game, the clip is clearly an early build showcasing the scene ‘Hunted,’ where theBeyond: Two Souls‘ protagonist Jodie is on the run from police. The footage doesn’t feature voice acting or facial animations but it outlines the gameplay and construction of the sequence well enough. The game’s central gameplay conceit is that of Aiden, a supernatural force that protects Jodie – and can manipulate environments and possess people.

Towards the end of the footage, Jodie is pinned down by heavy forces and the player must control Aiden as he possess enemies and turns them on one another. The rest of the gameplay is generally quick-time event heavy, showing how combat works and the fluidity of what happens when you both hit and miss certain cues. Strangely, Cage recently claimed that the game had no quick-time events, or at least no more than God of War, Tomb Raider and Uncharted. Based on this footage that doesn’t seem to be the case, so it is not exactly clear what Cage could have meant by his previous comments – unless he has a very specific definition for QTEs.

To accompany the gameplay footage, a behind-the-scenes featurette has also been released putting a spotlight on the art and character creation within the game.

Take a look at the Beyond: Two Souls featurette below:

Inviting fans to look behind the curtain, the featurette shows the creative process in bringing the characters to life and designing the locations that they inhabit. While discussing the journey of the central protagonist, it is revealed that they have designed close to seventy models of Jodie. Interestingly, we get a look at some of the designs in concept form, which include Jodie in a red dress, as a goth ridden teenager, as a homeless traveler, in a white snow suit, in desert military gear as well as what looks like some sort of high-tech sui
Since we get a glimpse at concept art of a submarine later in the featurette, it is probably a safe bet that last outfit is a diving suit. Beyond: Two Souls clearly has a massive scope and puts Jodie in many different environments throughout her journey. Exactly how (and how well) they all come together in the final game still remains to be seen.