To what degree is Beyond: Two Souls an evolution of Quantic Dream’s Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain?
“The acting has certainly evolved. I think we’ll see a far better acting performance in the game. The gameplay has also evolved. We worked very hard to create a more immersive, yet more accessible experience for players. The game is going to release with an app. People can control the character with their touch device. This is the first time it has ever been done in a PlayStation game. We have a new engine so the graphical fidelity is even higher."
What do Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe bring to the characters?
“Ellen worked to bring all her personality and make the character her own. She had to learn around 15,000 words by heart - hundreds of pages of text. Your actions and decisions change the way the story unfolds. The dialogue involves multiple choices, so Ellen and Willem had to give a consistent performance in all sorts of directions. In a typical movie, you shoot approximately one page a day. On a motion capture set, we shot 30 pages a day.”
For a long time games were trying to emulate cinema. Has game storytelling and narrative become its own medium.
“That’s what we believe. We’re not trying to mimic cinema. Videogames can be a form of cultural expression that stands in its own right. We’re borrowing from different media, but we’re trying to create meaningful experiences that are interactive.”
Around 2004, you met Leonardo DiCaprio. What happened?
“He showed interest because he’s a gamer, but he was cautious, explaining to us that his image mattered to him as an actor. I think we’ve now come to a point where it’s possible to portray an actor, capture their performance, and show it in the game in a faithful manner.”
What can we expect from the gameplay?
“A lot of diversity. There are slow-paced, story and narrative driven moments, but there are also scenes with a lot of action.”
There have been some brilliant storydriven games over the last year, like The Last of Us. Why has storytelling and narrative become so important in games?
“Gamers are probably longing for something more meaningful, and game creators are realising the medium requites more than just fights and guns. Through narrative we can move the medium to the next level.”