Too bad I couldn't post my impressions of this when they were fresh, oh well.
It may be the weirdest thing I've played since Indigo Prophecy, it's funny how the game goes full retard just like that one. Hopefully the of team writers Quantic Dream has hired rises to the occasion, because I believe creative control needs to be wrestled away from Cage.
The story for me is a mess, and the worst thing is you can see it could actually have been good. The non-chronological design is just baffling, I would even call it nonsense. Except for the last chapters everything seems to have been placed in a completely random order without any sense or reason. This is not conductive to good storytelling or to making me relate to the characters. Chapters are completely disconnected from each other and don't flow from one to another at all, there are no transitions of any kind. Going from one chapter to another is harsh, to say the least. For someone that is actively trying to create interactive movies this is truly a mystery. It was detriment to the experience I had with Beyond. I didn't really feel attached to Jodie, and as such the game was mostly emotionally cold to me, except for a some young Jodie moments where I truly felt sorry for her. But the apparently big gut punches were totally flat.
When it comes to gameplay I was hoping the demo wasn't indicative of the final game, regarding how little actual choice you have in here. Despite being able to free roam as Aiden and having all his powers, I never felt like I had options. Even less when you play as Jodie. I didn't feel like my actions were impacting the story, and the fact is they mostly did not. Undoubtedly another negative of using a non-chronological order. I replayed a couple of chapters for curiosity and the majority of my choices don't even impact the chapter itself AT ALL, things go just the exact same way. What is this? Why even bother? Even if you just want to give players the illusion of choice, you're not really doing it a good job at it.
I thought Aiden was underused. Conceptually the mechanic is actually pretty great and Cage could've done way more with it if he would've just given us a bit more control. Why does Aiden go away when Jodie is in fist fights? That makes no sense to me. I consider the QTEs in this game to be awful. Every single time I felt completely uninvolved, the slowmo one-direction mechanic Cage has crafted here is just a mistake. The opposite feeling of another story-game I recently played, The Wolf Among Us. I enjoyed all of those very much. Honestly Tell Tale is nailing what Cage wishes he did. I don't think he's a good game designer or story writer, so I'm not quite sure what he brings to the table at QD.
Speaking of QD, this game is gorgeous and at times the best looking game on the PS3. Undoubtedly the most impressive real-time facial animation in a video game. It's funny how I'm not as impressed with the The Dark Sorcerer demo after playing Beyond, it looks more than achievable now.
I bought this as a curiosity and ended up disappointed despite not having many expectations about it. I would simply say this was not for me.