Beyond: Two Souls = Stranger Things (Netflix ripped this game off)

[Sledgstone 8,672]

We got this game free with PS+ membership a while back and I played it this last week. The game was originally released on PS3 back in 2013. 3 years later Stranger Things season 1 came out on netflix. I make that reference because Stranger Things is a blatant rip off of this game. The trailer shows Jodie and Aiden, the soul/entity attached to her.. and she has psychic powers. Based off the trailer alone it doesn't look anything like stranger things, but the game is all over the place in her timeline and you see her story from childhood to full adult. The more I played I thought to myself, wow that is so much like Eleven from Stranger Things.. but when exact scenes from stranger things started happening... repeatedly... I couldn't help but notice it can't be just a coincidence. Aside from exact scenes with different sets, the overall theme was the same. Government doing tests on a psychic kid, government running a secret facility to open a portal to another dimension, Jodie aka Eleven having to close said portal. When Jodie overexerts herself she gets a nosebleed and is weakened. But instead of a sheriff father figure its a scientist, still a strong father figure. The only thing stranger things did that was unique was throw a bunch of kids into this character's life so it wouldn't be nearly so dark and then made it cheery and funny, once again to not make the story so dark. I could go on, but I don't want to ruin the game, which by the way was great. It was like a full interactive movie mostly run with QTE inputs which sounds boring but its not. There is plenty of walking around, running, exploring and even combat. Using psychic powers to kill people was quite enjoyable as well.

I'm sure there are some youtube videos showing all the comparisons. My guess is Netflix paid this game developer/publisher money for movie/tv rights under the table with a clause that the game wouldn't be referenced as source material. If not I don't see how in the hell the game company hasn't filed a lawsuit. Direct scenes happen, multiple times, like almost shot for shot that occurred 3 years later in stranger things. When I got to the end of the game and saw scenes that took place in season 2 of stranger things theres no doubt in my mind this was the source material. It really opens my eyes as to how unoriginal Stranger Things actually is and I'm sad this game didn't get nearly as much publicity for being as good as it was back during its release. If you got this free with PS+ or can get it cheap, I think its on PC now, I recommend playing it.

If the next season of stranger things is a time skip and Eleven ended up joining the CIA.. well, play this game to find out what happens!

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

Imitation is the sincerest of flattery. Pretty much every movie/tv series with a definite start and end is a rip off of something. It's just in the past its normally been of obscure things. Anime was a huge source of this in the 80s and 90s before it exploded over here. They could still get away with it probably. Normally things that were getting ripped off were obscure comics, books, short stories. etc. Pretty bold to rip a game, but the producers and directors are probably boomers that think not a lot of people play games.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Imitation is one thing, but some of these scenes from this game were straight up plagiarism.  Lol. I still love Stranger Things and I think its an amazing show. It is definitely its own thing... except for Eleven's character.  I need to watch some videos for Beyond Two Souls to see the other endings. Even though its basically an interactive movie, your choices affect the entire game like a Telltale game except with actual real major changes. I read there is Eleven (  ) endings. I'm not interested in replaying the entire game though to see some of these. I think there is an apocalypse ending that I'd like to see because I think there was a chance to start it with specific choices if they were made throughout the game.