Beyond: Two Souls is a game I really wanted to love. In many ways I do - but, there are some buts.

French writer/director David Cage and the Quantic Dream studio don't do normal games and their games don't get normal reactions.

Their interactive dramas, which blur the lines between cinema and games, divide opinion between two camps - those who think their work is sublime and those who just don’t get it.

I didn’t get to play their previous release Heavy Rain, and I seem to have landed somewhere between the two sides after my first experience of their storytelling style with PS3-exclusive Beyond.

Your Local Guardian: Beyond Two Souls

Starring bona fide Hollywood actors Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe, Beyond is an intense psychological thriller with undertones of horror, sci-fi, action and drama.

In arguably the most filmic game ever, Page plays the tragic heroine Jodie Holmes, a troubled young woman who has had a psychic link to a mysterious poltergeist-like entity called Aiden since her birth. A series of dark episodes have resulted in her spending most of her life in a government facility, part cared for and part held captive.

The invisible Aiden is a constant presence for Jodie. Through her telepathic attachment to the ghostly entity, she is granted various supernatural powers such as manipulating objects, possessing minds and even strangling enemies. Aiden is mostly protector and guardian for Jodie, but at times can be a malevolent and unhelpful companion.

Dafoe plays a professor who becomes a friend and father figure of sorts to Jodie.

The plot boils down to a 15-year journey for Jodie to discover who she and Aiden really are, and unfolds in a non-linear way through 24 chapters which flit between three stages of her life. She is seen as a vulnerable eight-year-old, a moody teenager and a grown-up woman as the story moves back and forth between key moments on her timeline.

There are pockets of hope for Jodie when she gets to experience brief spells of normal life, such as socialising at a teen party or having a seemingly harmless snowball fight with some kids. Unfortunately for her, these are fleeting and invariably end badly. Sooner or later comes an inevitable moment of petrifying peril or desperate plight which she must deal with, such as when she’s violently bullied or terrorised by demons.

The player's role is to guide Jodie through these pivotal moments using a combination of action and decision-making.

Your Local Guardian: Beyond Two Souls

The first thing about Beyond which I fell in love with, and which continued to be astonishing throughout, was how impressive it looks.

From start to finish, it is a gorgeous game. Quantic has used all its renowned motion capture skills to create some of the most realistic looking people ever seen in a video game.

Page and Dafoe's likenesses have been captured with outstanding authenticity, complete with fully nuanced facial expressions and movements. This contributes as much as the great scrip-writing and actors' voice performances to making the characters fully believable humans.

Locations range from the ordinary (science lab, suburban house) to the visually arresting (winter street, Navajo ranch) but all of them have very creditable attention to detail.

Beyond is right up there with The Last of Us when it comes to 2013's best looking games.

Your Local Guardian: Beyond Two Souls

Another aspect of the game I like is the jumbled-up non-chronological structure of the chapters.

In the beginning I felt it was too haphazard and disorienting, but as the game wore on I realised it brought variety and surprise to proceedings, I was never quite sure from chapter to chapter where I'd be next.

It also made the story something of a puzzle where the pieces only started fitting together as it neared its conclusion.

Beyond also packs a very powerful emotional punch. Using a blend of visual and audio ingredients, the game manages to be constantly atmospheric and tense. At different points it also evokes a full gamut of emotions including fear, heartbreak and anger.

You may think the story's events being presented in a jumbled-up form might harm the level of empathy players; have with the characters, but that's not the case.

Your Local Guardian: Beyond Two Souls

Out of the cast, Page in particular is memorable as she puts in a passionate and thoroughly convincing performance which makes it easy to feel a strong attachment with Jodie and to really care about her fate.

While the game as a whole has made an unsettling impact on me, it's some of the individual moments which I think will be the most lasting memories.

There are points when Beyond is truly moving, such as the Homeless chapter where Jodie finds herself destitute on the street. This chapter is extremely unpleasant and bleak, but also contains a couple of the game's more tender moments. The sight and sound of Jodie singing on a snowy street to beg for money really brought a lump to my throat.

There are a few scares along the way, and in one or two places Beyond isn't that far off The Last of Us with its fright factor. It can certainly be an unnerving experience sometimes. This thriller will twist and turn your mind as well as jangle your nerves and chill your spine.

Your Local Guardian: Beyond Two Souls

Beyond has many fine qualities but there are also several areas where it's a letdown.

For instance, while I like the structure, I have some misgivings about the actual story.

Some of it is absolutely fascinating and gripping, such as how it explores themes of human nature's strengths and frailties, how it raises the question of whether Jodie's link to Aiden is a curse or a gift and how it provides a warning about not messing around with things we know little about.

But for all the deep and complex parts, other parts are not so good, such as when Jodie iss recruited to the CIA and sent on an operation to Sudan to assassinate a supposed warlord.

Decked out in fatigues, Jodie is turned into a clichéd action girl on assignments that feel too Hollywood compared to the rest of the game's dark tone. This just seems to pandering to fans of bang-bang shooter games - except Jodie's weapon is her supernatural entity rather than a gun.

Your Local Guardian: Beyond Two Souls

My next problem with Beyond is its gameplay because, well, it doesn't have very much of it.

The narrative rolls along relentlessly in a smooth cinematic flow, so there can be no long pauses while the player completes a long mission. Everything that takes place has to do so while the story unfolds in order to fit seamlessly. This means all player interactions must be contextual so as not to cause any interruptions.

The result is the player ends up doing a lot of walking around as Jodie, pushing the right stick to interact with objects or people, performing quick-time events and ... that's about it.

You're given a lot of basic menial tasks to complete, and it can often feel like you’re just being given busywork to keep you involved in the story.

Everything is very tightly controlled in terms of where you can go and what you can do in any location. The game is carefully orchestrated so the story is always kept moving in the right direction.

It's a similar situation when you switch from Jodie's third-person view to a slightly blurry spooky first-person perspective to play as Aiden. You have slightly more freedom of movement, being able to move through walls and ceilings, but again the duties to be carried out are generally basic and clearly signposted.

There are some intense times when Jodie and Aiden must work in partnership to get certain things done and also some more complex moments such as fight scenes when you need quick reflexes to guess the correct moves to make, but generally there is little in Beyond which is difficult or challenging.

This is interactive fiction, with emphasis firmly on the fiction. This is a game which involves very little actual 'playing', at least not in the conventional sense.

As a side note on the controls, you can use your iPhone or iPad within the game, which is an ingenious albeit slightly gimmicky touch.

My third issue with Beyond is these shallow and superfluous gameplay elements could be forgiven if the decision-making part was up to the mark.

It teases the player with the prospect of being able to make significant choices that will shape how the narrative plays but doesn't quite follow through on this.

There are a couple of whoppers near the end that decide which version of the game's climax you see but all the decisions leading up to this are insignificant.

At some intervals you're given a multiple choice question which determines how Jodie reacts to a particular character or what she says during a conversation.

This affects Jodie in her current situation and provides players with slightly different scenes but generally the options offer little more than scenic routes to get to the same point.

Beyond is a game which aims to affect the player more than the player affects it, a game you watch more than play.

Despite misfiring in several key areas, Beyond is still one of the most interesting and imaginative pieces of entertainment this year.

It's a beautiful work of art, a rollercoaster ride full of emotion and different to almost every other game.

Cage and Quantic haven’t quite got it right this time, but if they can make everything work in perfect harmony in their next game they could have a real classic on their hands.

They’ve come frustratingly close to a masterpiece this time, but just failed to land it.

Verdict: 7 out of 10

Out now on PS3