Quantic Dream should go the whole way and drop any pretense of traditional controller support. A TV controller with its "play", "pause" and "Select" buttons is good enough for the "cinematic" experiences they are trying to offer.
OK, finished the game. Well, sort of. I actually just played it for an hour or two, got frustrated with the controls/design, and watched a playthrough on Youtube. To be fair, I do this with a lot of games, even GOTY-worth ones (Last of Us, BioShock Infinite, etc.). For games heavily based on stories, I like to speed through them to get the whole story in one (or two) sittings, rather than extend the playthrough across multiple weeks (and risk spoilers). I probably didn't have to do that with Beyond so much since it is so cinematic, but since the "gameplay" isn't really that fun (IMO), it is easy to get frustrated when you screw something up (and have to start over...depending on the situation). The game isn't hard per se, and the controls could be worse. But I don't think they're ideal IMO. Heavy Rain was pretty bad too (though I don't recall disliking it as much). I suppose some people might enjoy the gameplay, but for me, it just gets in the way. The actual story part is OK. Some really great parts, some really bad parts. I left the game feeling a little disappointed. Of the two, I felt more attached to Heavy Rain's story, which seemed more personal and less...out there. The subject matter being touched on in Beyond is interesting enough, but not really my cup of tea (and to be honest, it probably could have been handled better). Some things seemed like great ideas, but don't think they were executed very well. Then there were some things that...probably just shouldn't have been there (though admittedly, they tried to make it work). Don't really want to get into spoilers. From a technical standpoint, Beyond is MUCH better than Heavy Rain. Much more polish, obviously much better graphics (really jaw-dropping, especially when you realize this is all on 2006ish hardware), and MUCH better acting. Dafoe, Page, Hardison, etc., all do a fantastic job in this. I've always been pretty forgiving of bad acting in games, but it is a real treat to see how high quality acting can help a game (especially one reliant on strong performances). I feel like things were "shot" better in this game as well. Music was solid, though I prefer Heavy Rain's soundtrack (feel this one was relatively forgettable). Again, I think if you like Heavy Rain and that kind of game, you will probably enjoy this (maybe get a brief idea of what Beyond is about in case the subject matter is uninteresting to you). Some of the same kind of problems that plague Beyond also plagued Heavy Rain IMO, so if you can ignore it there, can probably ignore it here. But Quantic Dream and David Cage still have some work to do before really getting this type of experience completely "right" IMO. Despite its flaws, I think there are some excellent things being done here, and I'm excited to see what more is possible as we travel down this road some more. If GTAV is an alpaca, and the Last of Us is a sloth, I rate Beyond: Two Souls a prehensile tailed porcupine.
Ain't this like those old-school Sega CD games with the full-motion videos as part of the game itself?
Sort of. The game is rendered in real-time, so it doesn't have the limitations of those games (you can explore the environment and have more interactivity for example). But it probably isn't too far off from those types of games.
