Beyond: two souls – New ways of interacting

Jodie is a special girl. She is connected to a ghost named Aiden. They have been linked since her birth. This has brought her to a military base where she lives with her foster parents. Jodie’s psychic connection to Aiden enables her to communicate with him and perform telepathic acts, such as manipulating certain objects and possessing peoples’ minds. As the story of the game progress, Jodie becomes a CIA agent using Aiden for missions and what not.

Jodie and Aiden’s story is not chronologically told. You are to play different scenes of her life, slowly piecing her life together. As an agent and psychic person, Jodie travels all over the world during the 20 years of her life you are able to play. She is in desert and snow landscapes, trying to survive or fulfill a mission. The long time span and the many places gives a very diverse experience for the player, playing a little girl and a grown woman. Furthermore, the player controls both Jodie and Aiden, changing between them by pressing a button.

Beyond: two souls is an action adventure game. The player mostly controls Jodie who can interact with other characters and objects in the scenes. These objects are marked with a white dot on the screen. For one to interact with them it is demanded that the player move the control stick in the direction that seems most natural for the interaction. When playing as Aiden the player cannot see him but they are able to float through walls and ceilings. Interactive objects are highlighted by a shining aura of color. The color determining the possible action.

The interaction possibilities in the game are very subtly done. The small dots prompts the player to figure out the interaction for themselves instead of a standard button press. Furthermore, the fight scenes in the game demands the player to pay close attention to Jodie’s movements. The picture moves into slow motion whilst Jodie perform the action. During that time the player must be able to determine the direction of Jodie’s movement and move the control stick accordingly.

This is another way of presenting on screen interaction to the player, and who knows maybe a look into future interaction.