David Cage On Beyond: Two Souls: “There is no game over in the game”

At a behind closed door session at gamescom 2013 Quantic Dream’s CEO David Cage told us that his latest game, Beyond: Two Souls “is about surprising you, not giving you what you expect. Giving you something you want without knowing you want it.”

Cage also said he wants the player to connect the dots; to see the consequences before the cause. To achieve this you as the player will be leaping about in Jodie’s lifetime (played by Ellen Page) playing a story told in chronological disorder and seeing 14 different versions of her, aged between 8 and 23.

Cage went on to reveal that “There is no game over in the game. There are a few points where Jodie can die and there are a few points where other characters can die so there are life and death consequences. But that’s not the key mechanic of the game.

“I always felt that game over was a failure not only for the player but also for the designer because if you didn’t play the scene the way I wanted you to then you are punished, you need to go back, play it again and just re-do it until you succeed.”

Quite how the game will handle a player hell-bent on killing Jodie or any of the other characters as soon a humanly possible is unclear. Given that the chronology of the game is all over the place anyway, Jodie dying later in her timeline presumably won’t stop you playing events from earlier in her life.

Death is not something new to Cage’s games. While playing Heavy Rain, I “accidentally” killed someone when I pressed the wrong button and selected the shoot action. The game handled my ambivalence to human life by bringing me back to the main plot arc by way of a new scene or two. This person’s death simply became part of the story.

When you add in the new mobile controllers and a 2-player mode, Beyond: Two Souls should provide the player with a whole different storytelling experience to Heavy Rain.

Beyond: Two Souls will be released on the 11th Oct 2013 for PlayStation 3.