"Better known as "As Good As It Gets""

Beyond Good & Evil is an action/adventure game for the Nintendo GameCube developed by Ubi-soft, known for games like Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and the recent Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time.

You play as a female human named Jade who lives on a planet with her uncle, who is a pig. (Not the drunken, dumb kind but the animal kind) Your planet is under attack by an alien race, and you run a home for orphans who's parents have died because of the war. Your main protection comes from a militia group who run a huge propaganda campaign but seem to do very little. As the game goes on, you will uncover a sinister plot going on concerning both the militia group and the alien race. Being a freelance journalist, you must sneak around and take pictures which prove this, so the resistance force can get more support in the rebellion against the militia group.

Different previews sold the game as the “new” Zelda. The first thing I have to say: it looks like Zelda, it sounds like Zelda, it plays like Zelda but it's not Zelda. Beyond Good & Evil fits in the line of games like Max Payne and Full Throttle, meaning you'll have an incredible gaming experience which will only last about 10 to 15 hours, after which the only thing you can do is play it again to get a higher score you can post on an on-line scoreboard. It simply is to short to be given the title of “Zelda” quality. Luckely, that's about the only negative thing there's to say about it.

The graphics are very sharp, with a sort of serious cartoon style. There ‘s a wide variety of places to see and explore and the many characters look funny and well drawn. Like in Wind Waker, you spend a lot of time on water, which looks very nice (You go around in a hovercraft, and even participate in races for money). The music is crystal clear and very fitting. The sound effects are good but nothing special.

The voices are a completely different story. Since I live in Europe (in Belgium), I bought the game in a local store here and it turned out to be a localized version. All the text in the game had been translated to Dutch and even the voices were dubbed by Dutch voice actors. Although this turned out very wrong with previous games ( every Dutch speaking gamer remembers the horrible voices in “Black & White”), it's actually very good in this game. The voices seem fitting and all English names/objects/places remain untranslated, which is very good in my opinion. (There's no point in translating for instance the word “Terminator” to Dutch). No complaints at all on this point.

The game-play is basically a bit of everything. You'll have to fight monsters with your fighting stick, solve puzzles to sneak around undetected in heavily armed facilities to take pictures to support the resistance, you'll have to sail around in your hovercraft shooting defence robots and winning money in races, you have to search and collect pearls around the world to pay for needed expansions for your hovercraft and such, you will take pictures of the many different species you run into around the planet which you will sell for money, there're a couple of mini-games to play like ice hockey and others, ect… .

In the end, this game is worth your time and money, especially because of the low price it sells for. It's an experience you can't miss as a serious gamer. Buy it, you won't regret it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/12/04