BEYOND: Two Souls Tribeca Film Festival Preview Part 1 April 29, 2013

At some point this morning my younger cousin gave birth to a seven pound baby boy who just so happens to share my name. As I looked at the pictures of the healthy baby boy I was emailed this morning by my mother I was reminded of everything I had witnessed this weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival.

BEYOND: Two Souls follows the life of Jodie, played by Academy Award nominated actress Ellen Page. She was born with a deep spiritual connection to a ghost she refers to as Aiden.

The section of gameplay that we saw was called “Homeless.” At this point in the game, Jodie has lost everything. She has no family, no money, no food, and she is now forced to live on the streets. As the scene opened, the audience saw a familiar environment very similar to what was outside of the theater. An unnamed urban landscape covered in snow came up on the screen. A lone police car drove the snow covered streets as more snow fell from the sky. Personally, this opening reminded me of the environment to Quantic Dream’s 2005 hit, Indigo Prophecy (Faherenheit) more than anything. Alone, Jodie shambled through the cold, trying desperately to stay warm. From her appearance, she looked like she didn’t have much time left before she froze to death. Her movements were slow, as she desperately tried to hold on to her life.

She makes her way to a lone payphone on the sidewalk, picks up the receiver and began to dial. She never says who she is calling, but it is quite clear that Willem Dafoe’s voice was on the other end. Previous material announced Willem Dafoe plays Nathan Dawkins, the scientist who has followed Jodie’s mysterious case since she was a small girl. Jodie says very little on the phone, but mentions that she didn’t have much time left. On the other end we can hear Nathan pleading for Jodie to tell him where she is so he could go get her and bring her somewhere safe. She hangs up the phone and collapses a few seconds later.

The player then took control of Aiden, and started to investigate the area around Jodie. In an alleyway near where Jodie collapsed, a single homeless man was investigating a dumpster for food and supplies. Suddenly, the player made Aiden blast some of the adjacent trash cans, getting the homeless man’s attention. The homeless man then started to investigate the area to see what could have knocked the trash cans over, and as he walked out of the alley he saw Jodie’s lifeless body. Immediately he rushes to pick her up and the scene fades out.

As the scene fades back in, we see brief flashes of Jodie’s nightmares. We see fire, and hear someone in the distance screaming for her to jump! We don’t know if these could simply be some of Jodie’s fears of perhaps visions of the future. As she wakes up, the homeless man who saved her offers her some coffee he made. He explains that she had passed out and he had brought her to his shelter. He seems like a genuinely nice person who looks out for other homeless people like himself. He asks her some questions, and the player can choose to answer or evade them however they wish.

After the conversation, Jodie looks free to investigate the area. In the distance, there look to be other homeless people seeking shelter there as well, but the player doesn’t instruct Jodie to talk to them right now. Instead, Jodie sees a blinding light coming from outside, and walks over to investigate it.

The player walks Jodie out from under the bridge and into the blinding light outside. We see that the shelter is located under a bridge several stories above a busy highway. If she were to fall, it would be quite deadly, if not from the drop, then from the cars that surely would not be able to stop or get out of the way in time. The player is then prompted to either jump or to back away from the ledge. The player chose to jump.

Jodie leans forward, but as she starts to drop an invisible force stops her fall. It is obvious that Aiden does not want her to die. In a scene that Ellen Page should win this year’s Academy Award for, Jodie pleads with Aiden to let her die. She says she has nothing, no food, no money, no family, and as she bursts into tears she says all she wants is to end it. As she backs away from the ledge, the homeless man who saved her steps outside to inform her that they ran out of food. We don’t know if he saw what happened on the ledge or not, but it is highly unlikely that he did. He then asks her to go with him so “she can see how things work around here”. With nothing else to do, Jodie goes with him.

As Jodie and the homeless group’s leader start to walk the streets, he explains to her that they need to make five dollars. That would be enough money to buy food and whatever else they would need for now. He sits down on a spot on the corner next to a cup, and Jodie sits next to him. It looks like they’re going to panhandle for money. Jodie asks how long it normally takes to make five dollars and he says depending on people’s charity it could be a few hours or a week. You can talk with him more if you like, but the player decided to get up and try panhandling from a different spot.

Jodie walks down the street a bit more, and we are presented with different options Jodie has to make money. As she walks past an alleyway, a very sleazy looking guy offers her ten dollars for her company. The player is presented with the option to accept his offer, but the player turned him down, and Jodie walked away from the disgusting offer. Jodie walks past another possible panhandling spot, this one near an ATM station, but the player chose to keep going further down the road.

Down the block, another homeless guy is also trying to panhandle, only he happens to be doing it with a guitar by his side. She asks him if he can play, and he says that sadly its far too cold and his hands are too numb to play. She asks if she can borrow his guitar for a bit, and he says that’s fine. She picks up the guitar, and starts to play. In one of the most beautiful scenes I’ve ever seen in a video game, Jodie plays the guitar and sings a beautiful song by Beck as onlookers pass by. As the song continues, the day fades into night, showing time is passing by in the background but the song continues uninterrupted. The song finishes, and Jodie’s made fifteen dollars. During the Q&A session after the demo, David Cage was asked about this scene, and he said that it was just something that he had come up with when talking to Ellen. They motion captured her playing David Cage’s own guitar while singing all in one take.

Fifteen dollars in hand, the homeless group’s leader heads into the supermarket to buy food. As he goes in, Jodie stands across the street to keep watch. As he comes out, we can hear some pretty nasty voices taunting him. Not wanting any harm to come to him, Jodie rushes across the street to investigate. Three college aged men, one of them holding a video camera, are beating the homeless man and videotaping themselves doing it. She warns them to back off, but they’re not intimidated by this young girl and attempt to attack her.

We quickly find out that Jodie is no pushover. It may be combat training, the assistance of Aiden, or some other kind of supernatural or purely explainable reason, but Jodie kicks their asses. As each of the young men attacked Jodie, the screen slowly turned to black and white and slowed down for a brief second. This was not explained in the preview, but looked to be some kind of player prompt to intervene. From the looks of it, if the prompt was responded to quickly enough, Jodie would deflect, block or counterattack. If the player missed, the screen flashed red for a brief second, indicating Jodie may be taking some damage. While the game’s interface looked very similar to Heavy Rain’s in a lot of ways, this kind of combat sequence was not used in Heavy Rain, and as such I cannot fully explain how I think it works.

The college boys run off, taking their video camera with them. Jodie picks up her friend, who has a few bruises on his face, but is alive. They pick up their food and head back to the bridge, where the homeless group enjoys their food together. This is the first time we’re introduced to some of the other people staying under the bridge with them. One of them is a young man who has been staying with them for a few months. Another is an older gentleman, who has been homeless for several years. Finally, we meet a young pregnant woman. Her boyfriend would beat her, and she ran away from him because she was concerned for the life of her baby. They ask Jodie about her life, and the player chooses that Jodie will tell them about her gift. She doesn’t go into specifics, except to say that she’s special, but that she really feels like a freak. The group doesn’t read too much into it, thinking that maybe she may have had a bit too much to drink.

The pregnant woman says she should be due any day now, but she’s concerned because the baby hasn’t been kicking in a few days. Jodie says that she can check on the baby if she’d like, and the player switches over the Aiden to investigate the woman’s tummy. As Aiden investigates, we can hear what sounds like the echo of the baby’s heartbeat. The player switches back to Jodie and she tells the pregnant woman that her baby is fine. The group goes to bed.

Jodie wakes up to the sounds of screaming, the woman is in labor. Waking up, the group checks on the woman, and quickly realize that they don’t have the facilities for her to give birth in. They have no blankets, diapers or even hot water. One of the group members says they should take her to a hospital, but the pregnant woman screams out, “No, no hospital. I’m afraid they’re going to take my baby from me.” The leader tells the young man that there is an abandoned building not far from there, and to break into it however he can. He then says that he has a plan and he asks Jodie to come with him.

And that wraps up Part 1 of this preview of BEYOND: Two Souls. Stay tuned to the site for Part 2!

BEYOND: Two Souls is coming October 8th, 2013 exclusive to the Playstation 3.