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cheshirescat on 08 July 2014
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CGI-Quality said:
cheshirescat said:
CGI-Quality said:

Sometimes, games play out more as motion-paintings, yet, retain the prompts of a video game. Nothing wrong with that. As I often defend Quantic Dream's games, yes games (you can't "interact" with a movie), I feel the same here. I'm glad they exist as something fresh to play.

I actually agree with you in that regard and feel there is a place for these games (I did say that was not my problem, at least not my biggest one), I take issue with the narrative.  In truth it's the same problem quantic dreams has (though there are others), namely David Cage and his atrocious writing.

Cage's writing isn't as bad as people make it out. In fact, Beyond: Two Soul's issues had nothing to do with the writing. 

I believe people aren't nearly as harsh on his writing as they should be, frankly.  The story in beyond two souls did have its moments (I think because Willem Dafoe saved the ever loving hell out of those scenes by being willem dafoe), certainly more than the plot hole ridden mess that was heavy rain, but there were sections that I had to be careful lest my eyes rolled straight out of their sockets from the trite cliche overdose; specifically the homeless and mystical injun sections.  And mother fucking maudlin, holy fuck, they may as well have named it The Ellen Page Crying Simulator. Not to mention the odd choice to tell the story in such a disjointed manner.  I mean I understand conceptually why they did it, the memories flying around out of order and what not, acting as a framing device, but it didn't accomplish anything.  If you are going to screw time like that then it really needs to add something to, or at least shed light on, the continuation of the narrative and build on the emotional arc, but in beyond the sections all feel like unrelated fragments which killed the rising tension and made the whole device seem like a feckless contrivance.  Had they simply told the story in chronological order it would have achieved the same effect.

 

I did enjoy the more Aiden heavy scenes however, and that really gets to the heart of my relative displeasure with quantic dreams past two games.  In both heavy rain and beyond two souls there are elements of what I believe could have been truly great and unique games, were it not for odd qte driven gameplay and being held hostage by Cage's weak narrative.  I speak of ari, which a more focused game could have produced a great adventure game, and Aiden, especially the Africa scene which could have been an amazing stealth, espionage game.

 

This went longer than I really anticipated, I think because I never really had the opportunity to vent my thoughts in regard to beyond two souls before.