Quantic Dream Offices
56 Boulevard Davout,
F75020,
Paris,
France
Dear David Cage,
My name is Ben, and I am writing to you today to save you a bit of embarrassment.
I am a reviewer of videogames and movies, and upon completing your game Beyond: Two Souls, I was planning on writing a review discussing the pros and cons of the experience. I have, instead, chosen to write this letter to you in the hope of offering a helping hand. It didn’t seem right writing a review in light of what I found, and so I shall share my discovery with you.
I understand you are probably a busy man, and I imagine life as a playboy billionaire philanthropist games designer is quite frenzied at times, but on completing B:TS, I realised that you have shipped the game without putting any gameplay in it.
Now I know this is not your fault; I can’t imagine anyone shipping a game out to millions and millions of fans without any gameplay in intentionally, especially seeing as B:TS retailed at around £45. Here in England, that’s quite a lot of money. I think we both know no-one with any respect for their fan-base would do such a thing.
Now, the game was pretty, though without wanting to rustle your feathers I think it is a bad sign when that is the strongest positive I can come up with. Don’t worry, I’m sure that’s just because of the missing gameplay. The MoCap was done well, with Willem Dafoe providing a strong if mildly psychotic performance, and even the EllenPage did an OK job, EllenPaging her way through her lines in that way that we all come to know well after just seeing one of her films.
The music was an interesting mix of eclectic sting pieces and standard ambiance, and I can’t fault the sound design, so imagine how excited I am that there’s some missing gameplay that goes with it all! Whilst I was playing watching B:TS I did find a problem occurred with my disc, which meant that chapters were skipping back and forth with no chronological sense, but believe me I know that’s not your fault. I should probably get the lenses on my console checked.
One thing that did concern me though; you might want to have a word with whoever does the quality checking for your games. As well as for the obvious reason, I found that about halfway through the game some DLC from another game began playing. I’m not sure how that happens in a videogame, but I wonder if perhaps the wrong memory stick was plugged into the wrong machine at the wrong time? I can’t profess to have the answers, but I will be sending a similar letter to Ubisoft letting them know where their Assassin’s Creed III DLC went, as I imagine they are missing it.
A word of advice, if I may; there is a game I played a little while ago which did something similar to what you have done with B:TS, though they didn’t have any hiccups like missing gameplay as far as I’m aware! No, the game I’m talking about was very cinematic and included a lot of MoCap work, but it used these elements to tell an interesting set of stories that weaved through each other. I just think that, as you have to re-release the game with the gameplay put in anyway that maybe you could see if you could learn anything from it? I’ve included my copy with this letter, so you can borrow it and give it a play.
Anyway, just wanted to let you know about the old gameplay issue and give you a heads-up so you can get on it right away. The idea behind having a playable ghost with TK and stuff is great, and I can’t wait to see what you’ve done with it in the full game.
Kind regards,
Benny J North
Perhaps a chapter where Connor fights the ghosts of his ancestors would have made ACIII actually playable…
Northern Lytes and Shouting 