Quantic Dream's upcoming Sony PlayStation 3 psychological action thriller Beyond: Two Souls appeared at E3 last year with star power behind it, but today the studio has announced that in addition to Inception's Ellen Page appearing in a starring role, the game also features Willem Dafoe. Here's the PlayStation Blog with more information:
Today, we’re pleased to announce that Ellen will be joined by another Oscar nominee in Willem Dafoe (Platoon, Spider-Man) who will star as Nathan Dawkins, a government scientist who works with Jodie to analyze her powers. At a later stage we’ll have lots more to reveal on the interplay between Nathan and Jodie in the game (no spoilers today!), but suffice to say they form a compelling bond and together deliver some of the most unique and powerful scenes yet seen in gaming.
I was critical of Quantic Dream's last title, Heavy Rain, but something about Beyond has my attention. Perhaps it's the supernatural aspects of the story. Now that I know that Dafoe is involved, I'm even more interested. He's a fantastic actor and always elevates any production that involves him. I'm curious how that kind of energy translates to a video game. It's easy to see when actors encourage each other to raise their game in a film, but games are a completely different medium and the visual human element is lost in the transition between motion capture sessions and rendered imagery. Can that trademark Willem Dafoe creepiness cross over into a video game? We'll find out in October when Beyond is due to release, but for now we can have a look at the Dafoe announcement trailer.
