Good news
At a preview event earlier this week, Quantic Dream boss David Cage revealed that their upcoming PS3 game, Beyond: Two Souls, would not use QuickTime Events (QTEs). In an effort to create a more discreet and fluid UI, they’ve done away with prompts for button presses during cutscenes.
Cage said that those that did not play the company’s previous title, Heavy Rain, may have got the wrong message from trailers and early coverage, with the game looking like a long cutscene peppered with quick time events. And while those that have played Heavy Rain will tell you that the game is not simply a cutscene with prompts, it does feature many some with QTE action.
Beyond is not like that. Beyond is fully controllable, Cage stressed.
Good. No more Shenmue flashbacks.
In related news, outside of cutscenes, they’ve created an interface for Beyond to keep Heavy Rain‘s contextual left stick movement imitation system, but have done away with the big white squares and arrows as prompts. The world interaction system is completely new, using the right stick to input moves that make sense in given situations. A simple white dot will show areas of potential interaction. Moving the right stick at this dot in a way that makes sense for a given action, like pushing up to stand, or down to crouch, executes that action. See our previews for more on this.
A new action system also ditches QTEs and uses the right stick again for contextual movements. Fights will slow down in sections, bullet time style, giving the player a set amount of time to input a movement with the right analog stick. Fights we saw had main character Jodie blocking, kicking, and punching using this input method.
And while we didn’t get a chance to check out any live examples, Jodie can also control vehicles. Riding bikes or horses uses the same fully contextual stick control.
