Beyond

Beyond is a small top down action game that mixes dungeon crawling with twin stick shooting and bullet hell ideas. I play as Opal, who is carrying her father's soul gem to the village tomb after his soul has started to calcify. The problem is that the soul gems inside the tomb have been corrupted, so I have to fight my way through them and cleanse the place before it is too late. It has a darker mood than I expected, and I like that the story gives the simple shooting a reason to be there. The combat is the main thing I enjoyed. I have three different weapons to work with, and the enemies are built around dodging and positioning rather than just standing still and taking damage. As I move further into the tomb, the fights become more about watching the screen, avoiding attacks and finding a safe opening to shoot. The bullet hell side is not anywhere near as extreme as a dedicated bullet hell game, but it gives the combat a nice sense of pressure. I like having to move constantly instead of just holding the fire button from one room to the next. The four areas also help the game from feeling completely repetitive. Each section has its own look and brings in different situations, while the five enemy types give me enough changes in combat to stop every room feeling exactly the same. The boss fights are another good addition because they give me something bigger to prepare for instead of making the whole game feel like a long series of normal encounters. I especially like the atmosphere created by the lighting because it gives the tomb a darker and more mysterious feeling without trying to make the game look overly realistic. The biggest problem for me is how small the whole experience is. There are only four main areas, three weapons and five enemy types, so I can get a pretty good understanding of everything before I have spent very long with it. I never feel like the game has enough time to properly expand on its ideas. The story gives me a reason to continue, but it is fairly straightforward and I would have liked more character development or more background about the world and the soul gems. I finish the game feeling like I have played the beginning of something that could have been much bigger. I also think the combat could have used more variety. The basic shooting and dodging work well, but with only a few weapons and enemy types there is not a huge amount of room for different strategies. Once I work out what is effective, I can fall into a familiar routine pretty quickly. Some areas also feel more like a way of moving me towards the next fight than places I am actually exploring. That is not a huge problem in a short game, but it does make the dungeon crawling side feel less important than the shooting. What helps is that the game is completely free and was made as a student project at DigiPen. I can see that a lot of effort went into the art direction, lighting and custom engine, and I think those parts are actually quite impressive considering the size of the project. I would not expect the same level of content or polish from a small student made game as I would from a full commercial release. Looking at it on its own terms, I think it is a solid little project with a clear idea and some genuinely good combat. Overall, Beyond is a short game that I enjoyed mainly because of its atmosphere and straightforward shooting. I like the soul gem story, the dark tomb setting, the boss fights and the way the bullet hell elements make me pay attention to movement. The limited weapons, enemies and areas stop it from becoming something I could spend a lot of time with, and the story could have been developed much further. Still, it is a respectable free action game with a nice visual style, and I think it does enough with its limited scope to be worth playing. Rating: 6.6/10

Игра 'Beyond: Two Souls' - это интерактивное кино, которое оставляет после себя смешанные чувства. С одной стороны, потрясающая графика, реалистичная анимация и звездный актерский состав (особенно Эллен Пейдж и Уиллем Дефо) создают невероятную атмосферу погружения в историю. Сюжет, повествующий о жизни Джоди Холмс, связанной с загадочной сущностью по имени Айден, захватывает с первых минут и держит в напряжении до самого финала. Исследование взаимоотношений Джоди и Айдена, их влияния друг на друга и попыток найти свое место в мире, вызывает сильные эмоции. С другой стороны, нелинейное повествование, перескакивающее между разными периодами жизни Джоди, иногда сбивает с толку и не позволяет полностью проникнуться историей. Игровой процесс сводится к quick-time events и простым взаимодействиям с окружением, что может показаться однообразным. Некоторые сюжетные линии и принятые решения ощущаются незначительными и не оказывают существенного влияния на концовку. В целом, 'Beyond: Two Souls' - это уникальный и запоминающийся опыт, который порадует любителей интерактивного кино и драматических историй. Несмотря на недостатки в геймплее, игра обладает мощным эмоциональным зарядом и заставляет задуматься о важных вопросах жизни, смерти и человеческой связи.