Beyond Good & Evil

"Not buying this gem is a sin that is beyond both good and evil."

I must say that I overlooked this game myself. I never gave it a chance before its release, and after, I continued to act like it was just an overrated piece of French art (Ubi-Soft is a French game maker). There was a girl holding a camera on the front cover, I immediately thought of it as an on-foot version of Pokemon Snap, a game I did not enjoy. Then came the price drops. Suddenly, within a month or two of its release, it went from $49.99 USD to $19.99. My inquisitiveness for this game grew each and every time I walk past it in the store. Then, impetuously, I decided to pick it up, thinking, "Twenty bucks isn't a big loss if I were to abhor it." I unwrapped it and stuck it in my XBox, and as you can tell by the score I gave it, I really, really enjoyed it.

Presentation:

The game has a very navigable menu that isn't filled with options. It just urges you to stop trying to find cool sound toggles or graphic filters and get straight to the game. Once you start the game, you'll notice it's presented in a letterbox style, meaning that there are two black bars on screen, on at the top and at the bottom. It helps the game give off a more cinematic feeling so many games are going for these days. However, for people with small TVs or just don't like the letterbox presentation, this can become annoying. Such a small thing shouldn't detract the enjoyment of this game from anyone though.

Graphics:

The graphics in BG&E are pure eye candy. Everything looks so lush and profuse with life, even the sinister innards of the enemies' dwellings. When you are cruising the open waters of Hyllis in your trusty hovercraft, you'll see the serenity of the planet, complete with sparkling waters and green hilltops. Inside the city, you'll find hover cars whizzing by above your head. Life in the city portrays the rush hour of a real city pretty well, albeit there are far less vehicles in this city than in Los Angeles. When you are on missions, you will traverse through caves filled with luminous objects or sneak through the dark, metallic facilities all in order to uncover what the corrupt government is up to. If there is one thing I find a little redundant about the graphics, it has to be the over usage of green. A lot of things in this game are one or two shades of green, from Jade's lips and clothes, to the enemies.

Sound:

This category gets high ratings from me. The musical scores are great and the voice acting is better than most games. The music ranges from the calm and peaceful score you'll hear as you cruise on Hyllis to the adrenaline pumping opera-esque score you'll hear when battling the huge bosses found in the game. While on sneaking missions, however, there isn't any music, which helps keep the suspense level at its zenith. The voice acting is great too. Jade, the heroine of the game, speaks in a passive tone for most of her dialogue, but can be emotional and even sarcastic and funny when need be. Pey'j, Jade's pig uncle and sidekick, has a gruff voice one would expect to come out of a hog's mouth. Jade's other sidekick, the once abducted Double H, has a stereotypical superhero voice. My favorite is Secundo, Jade's holographic, Latino companion. His comments are mainly comical as he often throws in Spanish with English. He bickers with Pey'j quite a lot too, and the comments exchanged by those two are sometimes enough to produce a chuckle.

Gameplay:

This game plays like an adventure stealth game with picture taking and racing segments thrown in as “mini-games”, not to mention plenty of partner dependent puzzles. On missions, you have to sneak a lot in order to get past enemies to uncover the truth. You can sneak by crouching down (the L trigger or white button). This is the most useful way of getting around in missions because it creates the least amount of noise and keeps you shrouded in the darkness. You can break a guard's oxygen tank by sneaking up on the guard when he has his back turned to you. If you do get caught, your best bet is to run like the wind (the R trigger) as fighting the guards will get you killed really quickly. When there is just no other alternative, stand your ground and fight! Your weapon will appear in your hand automatically (you can't draw your weapon at anytime). Press A to attack with a volley of twirls, smacks and jabs from your staff, or hold the A button when you are standing still to do a charge attack. You can evade with the X button. Though the battle system is simple, it is, mysteriously, pretty satisfying. Your partner will also fight along with you, but most of the time you are saving them from death rather than the other way around. As earlier stated, there are tons of puzzles only solvable when a partner helps you. For the most part these are simple, push-the-buttons-at-the-same-time puzzles that surely won't have you in a quandary. If your partner is near the proximity of the button, a command appears next to his face on the HUD. Just press the B button and he'll do whatever it is that needs to be done for you to advance in your journey. Good teamwork idea that needs to be implemented into more games. Throughout your journey, you will need to take pictures of the different species of animals on Hyllis for documentation. As stupid as this sound, it's actually very fun. Once eight pictures are taken, the roll of film is complete, and you get a pearl. Keep a sharp eye out for those inconspicuous critters!

Overall:

Ubi-Soft deserves praise for its lauded efforts in making this game (and a whole lot of others currently available). What came to be wasn't a banal adventure game whose only differencing factor, that separated it from all the others out on the market, is having a female lead role. Though the game isn't quite that lengthy, only 8-12 hours or so, it leaves gamers with a great sense of satisfaction upon its completion. Then, the satisfaction turns into a yearning for more. Hopefully Ubi-Soft will see past its disappointing sales, and please the hunger of the fans by making a sequel, as the ending perfectly sets the stage for one. We can only hope.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/10/04