Beyond Good & Evil is one unlucky game. Released in the crowded holiday season of 2003, it got ignored by the majority of the gaming population. TV Spots, media praise, and awards didn't seem to draw enough interest from the hordes of people getting the next Final Fantasy or Mario Kart. To this day, Ubi still hasn't met production costs, and after playing BG&E, you'll too question why this one is still absent from many game collections. You play as Jade, a freelance photographer determined to uncover the truth behind the repeated DomZ (think evil aliens) attacks to Hillys, your home world. I won't give any meaningful part of the story away, since it has its small share of plot twists, and it's worth paying attention to thanks to its interesting main characters. Still, if you've played as many story-driven games as I have, you'll likely foresee a couple of the more important plot revelations, but it's still engaging in its own right, and works well with the varied gameplay style. And it’s this gameplay approach that makes BG&E so compelling. Ubisoft borrowed many elements of existing game genres, like stealth, action/adventure and whatever you want to call Pokémon Snap. Playing your first couple of missions might lead you to believe that Jade will be taking photos of rare species while fighting strange creatures Zelda-style. However, while this gameplay style will be present throughout the game, it's the added elements of stealth that make it such a treat. In several cases, you'll be sneaking around heavily-armed enemy territory, and in about 50% of these cases, getting caught equals certain death. "Stealth mode" involves constantly having the L-trigger pressed for walking while crouching, learning enemy patrol routes while hiding behind walls or myst, and act accordingly. Needless to say, this mode gets tougher the deeper you get into the game, but you won't be complaining in frustration if you get caught, as it will be your fault alone. You may also choose to fight the guards in some cases, but usually that is the least convenient approach. The camera in BG&E is excellent, and better than most full-fledged stealth games out there. You control it with the right thumbstick, and a simple press will automatically put the camera behind Jade. The controls are easy to learn, and quickly become second nature by the time you fight the first boss. In addition to sneaking pass guards and fighting aliens while uncovering government and military conspiracies, you'll have several other tasks to accomplish. While some of these aren't necessary, they sure offer great rewards for completing them. One of your side missions, which you'll get as soon as you get a hold of your camera, is to photograph over 50 different species for a preservation research organization. Some of these species are hard to find, but it's not impossible with the use of a map and the animal locator. After photographing your first eight species, you'll get an upgrade for your camera, which increases your zoom capabilities and photo storage. After completing any following films, you'll get a pearl. Pearls are the illegal currency of Hillys, and only one place takes them as credit, Mamago Garage. You'll come here often to get upgrades necessary for your boat ship, which brings up the next gameplay style. To go to different places on Hillys, you'll have to cross the sea with your trusty boat. With enough upgrades you'll obtain early on, you can enter the boat into four races, and getting first place gives you more pearls, while second and third gives you credit for buying either more pearls, maximum heart upgrades (PA1s), or food for replenishing health, boat boosts, boat health upgrades or replenishers. There's an awful lot to do on Hillys, but it can all be done on a relatively small geographic space. Next to the vast worlds of games like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, BG&E comes up rather short, and as a result it's not as lengthy a quest as it could've been. Additionally, the game is somewhat easy, from the main quest to the sidequests. It's not a walk in the park to the point of boredom, but it's easy to master, as it won’t take much skillfull effort to uncover everything the game has to offer. Nevertheless, like Wind Waker, despite its lack of true challenge, all the positive gameplay elements definitely outweigh its small shortcomings. This is not to say gameplay is the only place where BG&E excels. The game is beautiful, from stylish-looking characters, to realistic water and lighting effects on buildings and characters, to creative and diverse species populating every corner of Hillys. This is one very unique-looking title, and while it doesn't push the XBOX graphics to the limit, it's easy to notice that Ubisoft succeeded in polishing to perfection the look they set out to accomplish. The soundtrack, in par with the high quality of the rest of the game, not only fits the current in-game events, but it's also a sound to behold whenever something of even the slightest importance to the story is uncovered. While some of the tracks may seem repetitive, they never become annoying or second nature, as they aren't abused. Like icing on a cake, the voice acting is top-of-the line, without a single awkward moment or dialogue. It's easy to get wrapped up in all the visual and musical splendor of BG&E, and it helps make the story and the gameplay that much more engaging. While the game is short, there's certainly some replay value after beating the main quest. On the file save screen, there's an "Internet code" that you can input in the game's website to see how you stack up against the rest of the world. It's not a new idea, since the Metal Gear Solid series has been doing it for a while now, but in BG&E it's much better executed. The site does its best to make you feel as if you're part of the revolutionary group, and once you input your code you're given a mission to "hack" the Hillys News site to obtain information for the rebels. If you successfully hack the site, you'll be rewarded with a special code that'll unlock yet another minigame in your BG&E copy. It's this level of interactivity that motivates players to play the game all over again and excel in every aspect of it to compete against players worldwide. Beyond Good & Evil is the perfect game to represent Michel Ancel and Ubisoft's commitment and love for their games. The level of polish to each and every aspect of the title is admirable, which in turn makes the game's poor sales seem like a major disappointment. When I submitted my score after playing the game one time through, I was in the 3,000s out of only 20,000 players that have submitted their scores. It's a total shame that this game didn't sell, and with the ending leaving an open door and red carpet for an epic sequel, it's doubtful that it'll actually happen. If you like either good, story-driven games, or action/adventure games, then by all means give Beyond Good & Evil a thorough try. You won't be disappointed.
I really can't believe that I never played this game when it first came out - I had heard some things about this game but I didn't get the chance to play it. While my sister got it for PS2, I decided to get the XBOX vers... Read Full Review
I finished this game over a year ago, and I am still recommending it to everyone I meet. Unfortunately I'm starting to understand why I'm having trouble convincing people - this game just has too much going on. Most peop... Read Full Review
