Beyond Good & Evil

"Way beyond Good....."

What do you get when you mix Zelda-type games, conspiracy games, and the insane Frenchman that created Rayman? This wonderful gem of a game. It's gorgeous, and most importantly, *fun*. It's about a spunky young 'action reporter' named Jade, who, get this, *looks Asian*! She, along with her adopted uncle, a hybrid human/pig named Pey'J, quickly become embroiled in the mystery surrounding the alien invaders of the planet Hyllis.

Gameplay 9/10: The most important part, obviously, unless you're a diehard graphics junky. It controls like The Legend of Zelda, mostly, though there are fun hovercraft portions. There are also simple stealth controls, which makes sneaking around intuitive, and fun. If you're found, you can bash your way out with your trusty staff, but oftimes stealth is your friend. There's loads of platforming action, though you never actually jump. There's no button for it. Jumping is the same as in Zelda. Run to the edge, and you can make the jump. You have buddys almost constantly, and they can help you out with boss battles, and puzzles. They have their own inventory, so they heal themselves when they need to (provided you keep them supplied). Points off for not being as customizable as I'd like. The controls are se the way they are, you can't re-map the button layout. Most people will find it smooth as silk, however. It *does* play as smooth as silk. It's a little on the short side, but then again, so is Zelda. You'll be at it for a while.

Characters 9/10: Everyone is pretty believable, ecxept for the whole hybrid human thing. But that is theoretically possible, so it's not that bad. It's handled pretty well, I think. They all feel real, like a good Disney cartoon or anime

Graphics 9/10: Beautiful. What else can I say? Everyone has smooth animation, there are beautiful lighting and water effects.... unless there are about 20 hovercars on screen, in the city. Then the framerate drops a little, but not really by a noticeable amount. To a human being, at any rate. The Action *NEVER* slows down. One or 2 skipped frames, nothing to complain too much about. And most of the time, It's *PERFECT* More games should look this good. There are lots of wild animals to photograph (and you get PAID, the best reason to play silly camera minigames.)

Sound 9/10 : Again, really good here, in terms of quality. The actual content seems forced sometimes. You know, like 'ooohhh, here's the Majesty of Nature, lets play some MAJESTIC MUSIC! And some of the music seems like it came from the Cirque De Solel. Crazy French stuff. You know. I was embarrassed for the first 15 minutes, and I had several comments about an overdeveloped sense of Whimsy, but I take it back. You get kinda attached to the audio. It's *very* diverse.

The Final Word 9/10 : This game is great. It'll probably be overshadowed by Prince of Persia, but that's everyone's loss. This game is crazy fun. Wait till you see the cow in the genetics lab. This game is obviously the work of a demented Frenchman, as opposed to a demented Japanese man. But you know what? The world needs more demented Frenchmen, if they put out such rare treasure as this!

Buy / Rent

BUY!

This game carries Jenova's Seal of Approval. There. I said it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/13/03