Beyond Good & Evil

"Immersive in all ways"

Beyond Good and Evil is a game with so many different aspects to immerse you in the world, that you really can get excited about it. You play as a photojournalist in a futuristic world trying to help uncover a conspiracy to stop a war. However, even with the emphasis on the cinematic experience of the game, it doesn't feel cut-scene heavy and linear like Final Fantasy X or Metal Gear Solid 2. There are endless things to do, yet more than enough secrets to uncover to keep you focused, and not doing endless side-quests either.

Gameplay: This is the most important aspect of a real-time game, and it really shines in BG&E. The battle system itself is fairly simple, just swing around a Daï-Jo staff until your enemy dies, but the fighting is only the simplest part of the gameplay. You have to be quick with your camera, as you must take pictures of many things, often at great risk to life and limb. You must race your hovercraft against others and chase down pirates that steal your money, for some very intense racing sequences. The puzzles in-game are fairly simple, mostly manipulating things around you to help your partner keep up with you, or to progress in the dungeon, but it keeps the action flowing, so that you never have dead space where you are resenting the task you must perform. Difficulty level is almost nonexistent. Enemies are fairly easy, and you can continue from the beginning of the room if you should die (think Kingdom Hearts). But again, this just keeps you immersed in the cinematic experience of the game. You are very rarely sitting and doing nothing, and yet you are always involved with the story and plot progress. The controls are very smooth and easy to understand, exactly as I, as a gamer, would have placed them. The analog sticks are very important and used in ways I hadn't seen before in video games. The camera is very nice, not zooming in on walls in the middle of battles, or completely ignoring your character's perspective. The overall effect is very impressive and very fun.

Graphics: Nothing exciting as far as the texturing or smoothing of the graphics, but the design is incredible. The environment is endlessly detailed, with tons of animals, objects, and imperfections that make it seem real. The character design is wonderful, a world populated with many humans of various races, and demi-humans of even more varied races (Jamaican Rhinoceros, and a quite endearing Pig-uncle of yours named Pey'j, for example. Not to mention a particularly fetching catwoman ;) .)

Sound: The sound is wonderful. Every area has appropriate ambient sounds that continue to draw you into the game, and the populated areas have very diverse and fitting modern music, hard-driving rock, grungy hip-hop, and many others. These add more to the reality of the experience. The speech of the characters is very natural, and each has its own peculiarities, almost as if each voice actor had written his or her own part. The accents and dialects aren't stereotyped, but are quite varied. A few of the coincidental voiceovers are a bit strange, but none of those directly involved with the story.

Story: The story doesn't have endless twists and turns to the point of cheesiness, just enough that you want to know more. The basis of the plot is very interesting, and the main character's reactions are very realistic.

Okay, I know I haven't said anything negative yet, but there really isn't much to say. The PS2 version's framerate has been criticized, and I will admit it does drop some in very crowded screen areas, but never when it affects the gameplay, and never for more than a few seconds. I wouldn't have spotted it were I not looking for it. The advertisement for the game on GameFAQs compared it to Wind Waker. Seems a silly comparison, because the gameplay is only slightly similar (i.e. multifunction buttons, buttons for item shortcuts, a display on the screen of possible commands, and a real time battle system). The gameplay of BG&E is much more intense, if a little less strategic, and the story and characters are much better developed and executed. Overall, the game is extremely fun to play, completely explorable, and immersive in all ways.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/07/03