Quantic Dream's Beyond: Two Souls was a special entry at this year's Tribeca Film Festival and they sliced off 35 minutes of gameplay to showcase, which you can experience right here, right now, for free.
The project is an exercise in cinematic gameplay – following on the heels of Quantic's other movie-style experience Heavy Rain – where the game itself is more about watching a story unfold with minimal input or direction from the player. David Cage, the writer and director, seems to want to bridge the Hollywood blockbuster with the interactive video game. I'm not entirely sure if this game will be the game to break the perception most people have about games (mostly because gamers may not be fond of a movie with QTEs sprinkled about, and movie-goers may not be keen on having to mash buttons every once in a while during the more intense cinematic moments).
In any case, Beyond: Two Souls has picked up a lot of media momentum thanks to having Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe attached. The two Hollywood stars have brought a measure of gravitas to the project and a bit of media attention. Whether or not this will actually translate into sales or breach the casual audience or finally garner video games as a respectable entertainment medium is highly doubtful but it's an interesting production nonetheless.
Beyond: Two Souls is set for release exclusively on the PlayStation 3 this October. You can learn more by paying a visit to the Official Website.
