[E3 2012] Behold, Virtual Ellen Page
We finally see all that Beyond: Two Souls acting David Cage was talking up at the press conference, and it's... impressive. Get the skinny on how the game played during a behind-closed-doors session.
Published: June 7, 2012
If you tuned in to catch the Sony press conference at E3 this year, you likely walked away with the same mixed impressions we did. Perhaps the most puzzling (besides the decision to demo the Wonderbook for something like half an eternity) was the way things started. After a lengthy intro extoling the acting chops of one Ellen Page, the opening cinematic for Beyond: Two Souls showed her literally motionless and expressionless for most of a police questioning -- hardly the sort of thing one uses to show off that acting talent.
Thankfully, we were allowed into a behind-closed-doors presentation (again by French developer Quantic Dream's David Cage) that revealed a solid 45 minutes of not just new information delivered verbally, but a lengthy visual hands-off walkthrough that showed just how far the studio has come since Heavy Rain.
The short answer is that nearly everything has been boosted; the visuals are more moody and atmospheric, the animations a little cleaner, and above all else, the performances captured had more nuance and detail. That comes to bear not just in Page's performance, but all the characters (though some were a little wooden by necessity, we suppose). Throughout the demo, we were consistently impressed by just how good Quantic Dream has gotten at displaying basic emotion while marrying the events with a bombastic, frankly heavy score. From what we could see, it wasn't a massive leap over Heavy Rain, but a kind of refined, more confident version of their previous game.
Make no mistake, though, Heavy Rain definitely paved the way for what Beyond is trying to do. As mentioned at the press conference, the game tracks just one character, Jodie Holmes at multiple points throughout her life. Jodie is... we'll call it "visited" rather than "haunted" by spirits, in particular one that only she can sense and hear named Aiden. The idea is to experience major moments in her lifetime as she ages, but we got to see her all grown up, and on the lam. As the intro cinematic showcased, she's being chased by more than just garden-variety cops, and the SWAT team is hot on her tail.
Before any of the drama went down, however, we got a chance to see the duality of controlling both Jodie and Aiden at various points in the story. Being utterly non-corporeal, Aiden as capable of going literally anywhere (including through objects, which plunges the world into a kind of hazy set of outlines around objects) with one catch: he's tethered to Jodie by way of a shimmering line that serves as both a way back to her and a limit to his free-roaming ways. Should he start to wander too far, the world is pulled taut at the edges until floating back into range.
Thankfully, we were allowed into a behind-closed-doors presentation (again by French developer Quantic Dream's David Cage) that revealed a solid 45 minutes of not just new information delivered verbally, but a lengthy visual hands-off walkthrough that showed just how far the studio has come since Heavy Rain.
The short answer is that nearly everything has been boosted; the visuals are more moody and atmospheric, the animations a little cleaner, and above all else, the performances captured had more nuance and detail. That comes to bear not just in Page's performance, but all the characters (though some were a little wooden by necessity, we suppose). Throughout the demo, we were consistently impressed by just how good Quantic Dream has gotten at displaying basic emotion while marrying the events with a bombastic, frankly heavy score. From what we could see, it wasn't a massive leap over Heavy Rain, but a kind of refined, more confident version of their previous game.
Make no mistake, though, Heavy Rain definitely paved the way for what Beyond is trying to do. As mentioned at the press conference, the game tracks just one character, Jodie Holmes at multiple points throughout her life. Jodie is... we'll call it "visited" rather than "haunted" by spirits, in particular one that only she can sense and hear named Aiden. The idea is to experience major moments in her lifetime as she ages, but we got to see her all grown up, and on the lam. As the intro cinematic showcased, she's being chased by more than just garden-variety cops, and the SWAT team is hot on her tail.
Before any of the drama went down, however, we got a chance to see the duality of controlling both Jodie and Aiden at various points in the story. Being utterly non-corporeal, Aiden as capable of going literally anywhere (including through objects, which plunges the world into a kind of hazy set of outlines around objects) with one catch: he's tethered to Jodie by way of a shimmering line that serves as both a way back to her and a limit to his free-roaming ways. Should he start to wander too far, the world is pulled taut at the edges until floating back into range.
