A story you can sink your teeth into, with characters you can believe in and a cause worth fighting for.
User Rating: 8.6 | Beyond Good & Evil PC
Beyond Good & Evil could best be described as primer for those looking to get into the action/adventure or stealth genres. It's got a little bit of this and little bit of that, and is fairly lightweight in both action and stealth, but it's the rest of the elements that really make BG&E a worthwhile purchase. The game doesn't mess about, thrusting you into the thick of the action from the word go. It's an incredibly well scripted sequence, and sets up the story, the characters, the action, and the setting. It's a well concieved and realised story as well - that of a planet under attack from the alien DomZ and the Alpha Sections that appear to be coluding with them. The world in which you inhabit is incredibly detailed. There are boats on the water, planes in the air, rolling hills, cities and caves. Best of all are the actual inhabitants of Hillys, who are actual people, walking around doing their business and having discussions, rather than just standing around waiting for you to talk to them. It is the characters that are BG&E's strongest point, especially the lead, Jade. You find yourself believing in them and their cause. The mix of humanoid and "alien" creatures is a nice touch. The story sees you recruited by the IRIS network to uncover the truth about the Alphas involvment in the attacks. This will take you to an old factory to rescue a fellow member, and to the old slaughterhouses, and then finally to the moon where the DomZ are waiting. Along the way, there are hovercraft races, magazines to subscribe to, and items to collect. Probably the most interesting thing you can do is use your camera to take pictures of all the wildlife on the planet. Doing this enough times gets you rewards from equipment to pearls to special disks. Finding the wildlife can be fun, especially if there's a set of circumstanses that must be met if you are to find them. One thing that might turn people off this game is the length. There's only 4 or 5 major sections of the story, and once they're done with, they're done with. You are free to revist any sections that you've run through, however, and there are a fistful of side-missions which you can complete for rewards. In fact, some of these side-quests are necessary in order to claim enough pearls to afford upgrading your craft to get you to the moon. Having said that, the game could have used a few more boss battles or another area to explore. Another aspect is the previously mentioned lightweight action and stealth sections. The action is easy enough to handle - just hit the mouse button and Jade will start swinging. It allows you change direction mid-swing as well, in case you find yourself surrounded. The problem here is, with the exception of the Alphas and the bosses, all the enemies are a bit thick. Stealth is the other problem. While some of the stealth areas are fun, there are times when you'd just rather break out the moves than wear out your sneakers. There are some sections, though, where you don't get an option. If you're discovered, you're history. You get the feeling, too, that all you do is move from one set of problems to the next. This sort of enforces the feeling of it being a linear game with not much scope, although the situations you find yourself in are varied enough to not warrant such concern. There's a nice little backup system in place, just in case you get in trouble. Should you or your companion buy it, instead of flashing a "Game Over" at you, you get taken back to the start of the sequence you were on, with 4 hearts of health. It's a interesting tack to take, and certainly saves a lot of frustration from walking into a trap, getting killed and having to start all over again, or from the last save point. There are some brilliant sequences to be had - the chase sequences are incredible, for example, which you'll find by doing some of the side-quests. The boss battles are excellent, well set up and executed, particularly the final battle. The sea serpent battles are a little boring, though. The battle with the Alphas General is fun, and the DomZ robot also puts up an interesting challenge. The game's cutscenes are amazing. It's all done in-engine and the quality shows. The whole game has incredibly high production values, particularly in the graphics and level design. The sound is another strong point, the soundtrack taking its influences from all manner of music, from speed metal, to classical, to trip hop, to mariachi. If I was to compare this game to a game of the past, I'd have to pick Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. A lot of the simplistic gameplay - the combat, platform jumping, boss battles etc - has much in common with that game. Sure, Jade is a little more versitile than Link, and prettier, but the comparison is there. It's a shame, though, that there's a 10% missing somewhere. Whether it's missing from the gameplay, the level design or whatever, it's missing something that would make it absolutely stand out from the crowd. One gets the feeling by the end that there's still a lot of story left to be told. There's cetainly scope for a sequel if Ubisoft's up for it, but it's a cheap trick to withhold some of the story just for that. Having said that, you'd have to try extremely hard to be disapointed by this game. It's a story you can sink your teeth into, with characters you can believe in and a cause worth fighting for, all set in a wonderfully realised world. I can heartily recommend this game. 
