Beyond Good & Evil

"Worth more than 20$ for more than 20 reasons."

After a frustrating month of wasting hard earned money on brand new PC games, I reluctantly purchased this 20$ XBox port and found that I would've been happy only buying this.
I've become very wary of ''sneak, find key, unlock door, go to next area'' games, mostly due to the stealth aspect of the games being boring or annoyingly unrealistic. Beyond Good & Evil does not have this problem; in fact, it has very few problems.
*Graphics: 9/10
I give it only 9 because of some framerate issues out on the world map, especially when I was cruising around at high speeds on the hovercraft with my settings at only 800x600. Otherwise, this game is beautiful; mists, rays of light, reflections, real-time shadows, the works. Animals scurry in and out of the shadows, massive whales leap out of the water, and the strange humanoid species of the planet Hillys wander about, making the alien world one of the most believable I can remember seeing in any recent game. The graphics even affect gameplay and make it realistic: many times I was stopped short of running into a room I thought was empty because a shadow passed through the beam of light stretching out past my hiding place. Crouching at the edge of a hallway, about to navigate through some strange room full of traps, I was able to aim the camera and look above a hidden enemy and watch the play of lights in the air to see when his built-into-his-suit flashlight told me that he had turned around and it was time to run to the next hiding spot. Rarely has the lighting system in a game tied into gameplay so well; the realism it adds makes the fear of getting discovered that much more real.
*Sound 8/10
There's no way to turn off the music. I wouldn't want to for most of the game, but the repetitive reggae-alien-hip-hop or whatever the heck it is during the races and at the shop you regularly visit for upgrades gets really aggravating, especially when you can't get the tune out of your head later! The rest of the music is appropriately paced, mostly slow and intense during sneaking, fast and exciting during combat, and light and peaceful while exploring. Before I had even finished the game, the dreamy piano music when you load from a neutral area reminded me that I was back in the world of Beyond Good & Evil. That amounts to good atmosphere, which amounts to a very critical and often underlooked aspect of games.
*Gameplay 7/10
The area's where the gameplay falls short, luckily, rarely affects the parts of the game where good game control matters the most. Steering the hovercraft could sometimes be a pain in area's with close or strange camera angles; luckily there's a first person view to take care of this problem. At one or two points in the game when I was actually doing battle (which is only about 10% of the game) the camera stuck in front of me and wouldn't let me zoom behind, probably because the angle was intended to providing me a good view of sneaking instead of fighting. Also, when hanging from ledges and peering around, sometimes you can get a full sweep of the surroundings, and sometimes the walls or ceilings won't allow this; classic Tomb Raider syndrome, where scooting a little left or right can resolve it, but you can't scoot while hanging in this game so I had to drop down and jump up somewhere else. The fighting is fun but it's not highly varied or original; you get only one upgrade for your weapon, which is not obligatory but it should be because it becomes almost necessary later on. Luckily the sneaking, hiding and running aspect of the game is done so well that you won't get bored in the long long times between battles. The premise of being a photographer really makes this game great; after a battle or getting past a tough patrol route of enemies, you'll see some strange animal scurrying down a hall or poking it's head out from behind some rocks. You chase it or wait for it, take a picture, and get money sent to your account; then it's back to more sneaking around. Good stuff, and very original, and just one more thing that makes the world believable.
*Overall - 8/10.
Not 10/10 because even the side quests to get all the pearls and photograph all the animals may not be worth a second run through for most people. Not 9/10 because the rare moments where the difficulty of the controls in a battle, or the annoyingly effective attack patterns of the enemies, can cause frustration in an otherwise engaging mission in enemy territory. These things aside, the game is wonderful: go buy it, now, and plan on rushing home from work and booting the system up as fast as you can to return to the deep, intriquing world of Hillys.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/20/04