Gen Reviews Beyond: Two Souls (Spoilers)
My gaming marathon is over and we did really well, but I want to take a quick moment to discuss one of the primary games I played. I enjoyed it for the story, for the graphics, but honestly I want to punch the writer for the main character.
Quick summary... girl, Jodie, is born and has an 'imaginary friend' named Aiden who is actually capable of manipulating things, possessing people, and allowing Jodie to see through its eyes as it peeks into rooms. She is shunned as her powers start to develop, and eventually her parents turn her over to an agency that observes her powers and then turns her over to the government who trains her to be an operative. As the story goes along she finds out her origins and the truth behind how she came to be.
And now that's out of the way...
I loved the animation in this game. The faces were deeply expressive, the motion capture was amazing, and they did an impressive job aging and youthening the actors for the scenes. The story was nice, but at the same time I ended up feeling more and more angry with the game as I played along.
Why? Because the lead character, Jodie, had been touted to me as a 'strong female character' and although she could fight and was put in difficult circumstances, the whole thing was nothing but what I refer to as “white knight porn”. The White Knight is the person who harbors fantasies of riding in and saving the girl from the horrible mean people around her.
I'd seen Jodie trained to fight, I'd seen her raised as a capable CIA operative... and yet so many scenes ended with her curled up and crying while someone else rushed in to comfort her and pet her and tell her everything was okay. Much of the trouble she got into was because she was feeling petulant and rebellious and just wanted to cause trouble, which later the 'big men' had to rush in and save her.
And 'Aiden', the entity that she exists with acted like a jealous boyfriend or a personal white knight half of the time. When she started dating Aiden would trash her apartment and cause problems, and a lot of scenes were you using Aiden to save Jodie.
It wouldn't have bothered me if it was just one of two scenes of Jodie needing help, but just about every damn one ended with her curled up and crying and the scene fading out to someone rushing up to hug and hold her, or else she'd been beaten up juuuust enough to look vulnerable, because she can't stop looking pretty if you want her to be sympathetic.
Jodie was not a strong female character. She was a damsel in distress with just enough trappings to make her look like a halfway capable person to appease anyone who might speak up.
Seriously, just about every damn scene ended up with her curled up and crying and needed someone to rush in and save her or comfort her. That got old really fast. Really REALLY fast.
Rent it, enjoy the pretty graphics, but don't see it as anything more than it is... a game made for people with fantasies of saving the damsel in distress for 8-12 hours.
Quick summary... girl, Jodie, is born and has an 'imaginary friend' named Aiden who is actually capable of manipulating things, possessing people, and allowing Jodie to see through its eyes as it peeks into rooms. She is shunned as her powers start to develop, and eventually her parents turn her over to an agency that observes her powers and then turns her over to the government who trains her to be an operative. As the story goes along she finds out her origins and the truth behind how she came to be.
And now that's out of the way...
I loved the animation in this game. The faces were deeply expressive, the motion capture was amazing, and they did an impressive job aging and youthening the actors for the scenes. The story was nice, but at the same time I ended up feeling more and more angry with the game as I played along.
Why? Because the lead character, Jodie, had been touted to me as a 'strong female character' and although she could fight and was put in difficult circumstances, the whole thing was nothing but what I refer to as “white knight porn”. The White Knight is the person who harbors fantasies of riding in and saving the girl from the horrible mean people around her.
I'd seen Jodie trained to fight, I'd seen her raised as a capable CIA operative... and yet so many scenes ended with her curled up and crying while someone else rushed in to comfort her and pet her and tell her everything was okay. Much of the trouble she got into was because she was feeling petulant and rebellious and just wanted to cause trouble, which later the 'big men' had to rush in and save her.
And 'Aiden', the entity that she exists with acted like a jealous boyfriend or a personal white knight half of the time. When she started dating Aiden would trash her apartment and cause problems, and a lot of scenes were you using Aiden to save Jodie.
It wouldn't have bothered me if it was just one of two scenes of Jodie needing help, but just about every damn one ended with her curled up and crying and the scene fading out to someone rushing up to hug and hold her, or else she'd been beaten up juuuust enough to look vulnerable, because she can't stop looking pretty if you want her to be sympathetic.
Jodie was not a strong female character. She was a damsel in distress with just enough trappings to make her look like a halfway capable person to appease anyone who might speak up.
Seriously, just about every damn scene ended up with her curled up and crying and needed someone to rush in and save her or comfort her. That got old really fast. Really REALLY fast.
Rent it, enjoy the pretty graphics, but don't see it as anything more than it is... a game made for people with fantasies of saving the damsel in distress for 8-12 hours.