Combat is the weakest aspect of Quantic's new control scheme. Time slows down during physical fights, and you must move the right stick in the same direction as Jodie's body to block or punch or kick. Her body isn't always easy to read -and you only have a couple of seconds in which to do so - so frequently I found myself ducking instead of kicking, or moving backwards instead of forwards.

It's no matter: the outcome will be the same regardless. Jodie can get stabbed, beat up, pushed off the side of a building; she'll always be fine on the other side. In circumstances where this invulnerability system is overtly nonsensical - when she gets shot for example - Aiden will simply heal her.

This constant push and pull between our sense that we are impacting the story and the story itself has always been at the heart of everything David Cage has created, but it's examples like these that highlight just how passive Beyond made me feel. There are, of course, choices: on Quantic's whim, you can choose how Jodie responds in conversation, whether she'll dance at a party or not, or take revenge on someone who has wronged her. But unlike the critical decisions you make in Heavy Rain, Beyond's choices feel small, and the story will storm onward no matter how they are played out, never pausing to toss you a crunchy moral quandary to change its direction in any way that feels significant. It's disappointingly unadaptable.