Finished it yesterday. Some impressions:
The review scores are spot on. By this I mean that both the 4's and 9's are justifiable (although Ausgamers' 2.5 is just ridiculous).
There are two ways of looking at this game. Firstly, as a linear, cohesive narrative focusing on the life of Jodie Holmes between the ages of 8 and 23. Judging it this way, the game is a complete disaster, in my opinion. The game consists of a bunch of loosely connected scenes that never quite come together to form anything remotely interesting. Instead, we get some terrible sci-fi nonsense which left me groaning throughout. Also, every major character except for Jodie is severely underdeveloped, and the non-chronological storytelling did the game no favours whatsoever. Looking at it this way, the game is a 4.
However, I, as well as many other in this thread, have chosen to look at this game in a different way: as a series of vignettes, individual slices of Jodie's life, with many of them having a self-contained storyline. Here, Cage both succeeds and fails, but more of the former than the latter. At its very best (Homeless), the game approaches GOTY quality, with this particular sequence succeeding on all fronts. Sure, Homeless is melodramatic as fuck, but Cage pulls it off perfectly, creating one of my favourite gaming moments of the year. However, at its worst (Navajo), it is probably the most boring thing I've played this year. While thematically interesting, I thought the execution of that chapter was laughably bad, with a cast of ridiculous caricatures, who I felt no connection to. Overall, the good far outweighs the bad, and unlike Heavy Rain and Fahrenheit, I can count the number of bad chapters in this game on one hand.
In a lot of ways, Beyond is very similar to Forrest Gump, although Cage is unable to succeed in his effort to make an 'epic'. Although, I have to give him credit for attempting it, and he is definitely on to something here. It is very ambitious attempt, and there are certain sequences that are entirely unique to gaming. Quantic Dream are on the verge of creating something truly special, but Cage is holding them back from true greatness. If he gets help from more accomplished writers (Cage is apparently scouting for writers for his next project), and if the studio perfects their style of gameplay, Quantic Dream's next game could be the masterpiece they've been wanting to make since Omikron. I'm very excited to see what they do next.
There's not much to be said about the graphics that hasn't already been said a million times in this thread. They are pretty phenomenal, with some scenes approaching next-gen quality. The soundtrack is also superb, but it's not as prominent as I would have wanted. C'mon, I wanted the whole of Dawkins' Suite, not just bits of it. Gameplay wise, I was a little disappointed by the number of things to interact with in the quieter, mundane moments. I felt like there were more in Heavy Rain. Surprisingly, I enjoyed the more 'gamey' moments, and thought Quantic Dream pulled them off rather well. I would like to see more of these in their next project.
It's a very difficult game to score. I've been toying between a 7 or an 8 out of 10, but based on the strength of certain scenes and the great foundations that have been laid, at a push, I'd give it an 8.
EDIT: If I did half scores, it would be a 7.5.
