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Beyond Good

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 16 / 19
Date: January 20, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Remember the first time you saw the movie "The Fifth Element"? Remember how cool it was to see what looked like a really entertaining dream you might have had, only it was a film? It's not that there's any one particular part that sticks out and makes it great, but just this almost implacable warmth and giddy sense of fun that flickered across every frame. It seemed like creator Luc Besson was just having fun with it, and it showed up in a way that you simply can't fake.

I use that as an example because it's the only way I can really describe the feeling that comes from Beyond Good and Evil: It's the exact same sense of warmth, and it makes you smile just watching this game unfold, even as you're at a loss for words to really describe it. Probably the closest you can come without resorting to obscure comparisons is to say "This game is really, really cool" while grinning ear to ear.

We just don't have a word for it in English, but maybe the French do. Just like the aforementioned filmmaker, the creator of BG&E (and also the first two "Rayman" games) is a Frenchie, Michael Ancel. Whatever cultural viewpoint his place of origin may have lent him, I wish they could bottle it and ship it to U.S. and Japanese game designers, because you just don't see this kind of stuff in other games.

This aspect comes through in almost every part of the game. The graphics are excellent and have such a vibrant use of color that it makes almost everything else on the market look bland. Amusingly, the entire game is also letterboxed. Not sure why, but it works.

The music is instantly affecting and suits the game perfectly, though the title score does sound an awful lot like the music to "Princess Mononoke". No matter, it fits like a glove.

Far and away the best aspect to this game, however, is the characters. The characters in BG&E are funny, memorable, and at just the right level of realism to allow you to get attached to them without thinking about it, and this goes from the lead character Jade all the way down the line to the smallest of bit characters. This is so rare in a videogame that I can't stress it enough. The characters don't resort to artificial means of forcing the player to care about them via troubled pasts or secret phobias or the tendency to slip into a blinding rage or anything like that. They just come across as likeably human...Which is sort of remarkable when you factor in that one of them is a talking pig.

Yep, in BG&E, there are as many animal people as human people, and you know what? It doesn't detract from the believability of the game in the slightest, in the same way that the fish in "Finding Nemo" were able to nab just as much, if not more, emotional attachment than if had they been human. When a created world takes itself seriously, the fact that it doesn't synch up to the real world becomes a benefit; you're even more able to immerse yourself in it, and it becomes that much more entertaining.

Here's an example: About 1/6 of the way into the game, the main character, Jade, and her porcine "uncle" Pey'j (pronounce it "page") come across a boss character and fight it. When Jade wins, the first thing she does is run over to Pey'j and give him a hug, and we're talking a running-leap-into-her-uncle's-arms-cheering hug. It might sound corny, but when you see it, it seems perfectly natural and honestly heartwarming. Most of the time, when something like this is tried in a videogame, it comes across as horribly forced. Not here.

However, with all this Good comes a little bit of Evil, and that happens when we address the game itself. Now, don't get me wrong: There's absolutely nothing wrong with the game mechanics. In fact, it plays exactly like a modern-day Zelda game. Where it stumbles is in that there's simply not enough of it to elevate the game from "excellent" to "truly great".

As superb as everything is, the entire game can be finished in under a week, and it's very easy to do everything your first time through. There are 56 animals to take pictures of and 88 pearls (read: item tokens) to get, and I got them all without too much effort my first time through the game. 88 sounds like a lot, and indeed, at first you're only getting one or two at a time, but near the end of the game they start to come in clumps of ten or more, and several of them are awarded as part of the main plot. Likewise with the animals, who have a few parts in the game where they're tricky to find, but nowhere near as involved as similar optional quests from the Zelda games, or even other similar entries in the game genre. Also, beyond the pearl gathering and animal photography, the only other thing to do besides the main plot is a fairly simple (and sort of boring) racing game, which gives you no real rewards beyond the pearls you get as a prize. It doesn't help that the reward you get for getting all the pearls and finding all the animals is pretty lame - a small, tricky mini-game and a very basic catalogue of all the animals you've taken photos of.

This, combined with the single, disappointingly vague ending hold the game back from a perfect score - there's next to no replay value, even though the game leaves you wanting so much more.

Still, the merits far, far outweigh the problems, which aren't even really problems so much as a lack of more merits that you wish were there. Grab this while you can.

Short steps from perfection

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: February 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

It is hard to add to the reviews below, but I do feel I have something worth saying about this offering from UBI Soft.

The gameplay is amazingly varied: racing, exploring, non-shooter action (think Starfox Adventures), stealth, and photography. The amazing part of the varying isn't how many different styles there are, but how unbelievably smoothly they are put together. It is all very natural, you never get the feeling that "Ok, now I'm in the racing part of the game," even though there are, in fact, racing parts of the game.

The story is deep for an adventure game, but not so incredibly complicated that you are really left wondering. Very early in the game the player should be roughly aware of the path the plot is going to take. The story actually suffers a little at the end, but not especially so; more foreshadowing would have helped.

In line with the foreshadowing would be extending actual game-play time. I completed the game in under ten hours recorded play, 14 hours total. For a gamer like me, that is one sitting. The story has so much room for development that it is really a shame the developers didn't use that room. The existence of pointless sidequests and a game is nice for perfectionists, but they fail to focus on the different aspects of gameplay. A battle arena would have been a fantastic addition to the game.

The final complaint is that the difficulty is downright easy with one exception, even casual gamers shouldn't have much problem with this. A difficulty setting would help a lot.

Given those complaints, the game is easily four star quality. It was, without a doubt, one of the funnest games I've played in a long time. The dialogue is so well-played that you actually care about other characters. The graphics are very smooth and colorful without seeming too cute. The controls are easy and comfortable. The battle system isn't overly simplistic, but not so deep as to discourage. The replayability is moderate.

At $20, it is worth the price without question.

Neglected Beauty

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: April 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Beyond Good & Evil is one of the best, yet most overlooked games available, however, those who have played it know exactly what everyone else is missing out on, a fantastic gaming experience.

Today's video game market is being flooded by the overflow of endless first person shooters and cookie cutter adventure games; Beyond Good & Evil is something fresh and unique. It combines elements from many different game genres. There is the stealth factor: Using Stealth to your advantage is essential to make any progress in the game and is very well executed - this is likely due to the fact that the game was created by Ubi, the developers of the ground breaking series of stealth action games - Splinter Cell. There is the action/fighting aspect in which you punish your enemies with Jade's Dai-Jo Staff techniques and tag team combo moves with the help of your friends Pey'j and Double H. This is somewhat reminiscent of Prince of Persia's fighting system, well done and very intuitive. Also on the list of features is the camera system; throughout the game Jade must use her trusty camera to capture intelligence for the Allied Resistance, this not only gives your allies info to work with in order to help you further, it also gets you paid so you can get supplies and upgrades. The graphics are not the very greatest you have ever seen but are well executed and work well with the style of the game.

Beyond Good & Evil is a truly fantastic game that you should certainly hunt down and play when there is a lapse in your list of must buy new releases. It's a bargain bin dweller so it may be a little difficult to get your hands on but it's worth the effort. Its unique style and easy learning curve make it accessible to children but its depth and ever-changing universe are enough to keep even the most jaded adult gamers engaged and thoroughly entertained.

A fun adventure game.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: April 25, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game has a beautiful world to offer. In my opinion, it bests the Final Fantasy series's last dozen installments in terms of sheer originality. The combat is enjoyable, if a little too simple (Ninja Gaiden this ain't), and the storyline is also very engaging. This is also one of the few games that succeeds at constantly divvying up the quest between action, puzzle, and exploration elements of gameplay. You could play this seriously as an adult or with younger kids.

It's a shame that a lot of people ignored it when it first came out, but now that the price dropped, maybe you will pick it up like I did. It may not be HALO or GTA, but it is definitely worth the $25. A neat little title to spend some quality time with.

My Favorite Game: Beyond Good & Evil

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: June 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Beyond Good & Evil is a great game. If you don't own it, do yourself a favor and buy it. It is without question one of the most cinematic experiences I've ever had playing a video game. The graphics are absolutely stunning: the whole game looks like a cutscene. This is made even cooler by the fact that the whole game is presented in widescreen format (black bars at top and bottom of the screen). Perhaps one of the best things about the game, though, is the music. I know this is an odd thing to say about a game, but the use of music in Beyond Good & Evil is just simply unsurpassed. At several points in the game, events that your character performs trigger beautiful musical pieces that are unlike anything in a game before it. If you enjoy games with side-quests you're going to love this game; they give this game a lot of replay value. If not, this is still a great game, but you're probably not going to enjoy it as much since you'll "finish" the game a lot faster. This game was not well recieved when it was released last November. Other games like Prince of Persia and Knights of the Old Republic overshadowed it's quiet release. Consequently it quickly dropped to $20. At twenty bucks this game is a ridiculous steal! I'll say it one last time, do yourself a favor and pick up this game. You won't regret it. I hope this helps out the other people looking for a Zelda-type game on the shooter-dominated Xbox.

Great game.. easy to learn!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Beyond Good & Evil puts you in the role of Jade, a young woman who, along with her humanoid pig uncle, Pey'j, runs a lighthouse on the planet Hillys. Hillys is at war with an alien force known as the DomZ and an elite squadron known as the Alpha Sections protects Hillys from the alien threat. An underground rebel organization known as the IRIS Network charges that the Alphas control both sides of the equation. You quickly hook up with IRIS and spend the bulk of the game infiltrating Alpha strongholds in search of the truth. The game gives you a companion most of the time and many puzzles will require you to get your associate to do things.
Most of the game's sections have you out and in search of photographic evidence. You're looking for specific pictures and the areas of interest are marked on your map. The game does have combat but it's a fairly straightforward system. The strength comes from the game's puzzle solving. Sometimes it's as easy as using your projectile attack to push a button on the other side of a force field. Sometimes you'll have to find fuses in other parts of an installation to power elevators or other equipment. Sometimes you'll have to learn a password to proceed into a locked area. And there's a whole lot of sneaking around. Beyond Good & Evil is a fantastic-looking game that tells its story well. It may be short enough to rent and complete in a day or two, but fans of action adventure games will find enough to love in the game's overall design to make it worth purchasing.

The good in gaming

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 21 / 22
Date: July 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

So often we look for computer games that simulate, we forget about those that actually stiumulate. I'm as much of a fan of the movie tie-in or the sports franchise as the next gamer. But every once in a while a singular title, made with no guarantee of financial success, but simply because a few people had a genuinely creative thought, reaches out and demands attention.

Beyond Good and Evil seems, at first, the least likely candidate in the world for this. Its cover shows a girl not with a gun or a superhero's outfit, but a camera. And the drawing, though obviously professional, is clearly...cartoonish. It seems more like an anime adventure than a real game.

And, indeed, when you first start playing there's a lot of very odd anthropomorphic animals running around a kind of kids' playhouse. You discover that you'll make money in the game by taking pictures of the wildlife. It's all very tame, and very unlike the traditional game.

At one point you walk into a room where a news broadcast is being received, and then you get an inkling, just a mere hint, that things in this cartoony, almost idyllic, world you're in are maybe--just possibly--a little more sinister than you first thought it was.

And then all hell breaks loose.

From there on those strange creatures you first encountered become allies, your camera becomes a key to unravelling the truth of what's going on in the propaganda war around you, and the game, well, grows up. Part puzzle, part adventure, part flat-out action, Beyond Good and Evil is one of those very rare games in which all expectations are trumped by the unfolding immersive story line, where parents and kids can play together and find different things to like, and where you're left feeling genuinely entertained.

I gather that this title perhaps didn't do as well as it should have on its initial release, but I've seen it for sale at major retailers for the past two years. It may not have the high profile of a Halo or a Madden, but it's got a very loyal following and a growing player base.

In the midst of discussion about gratuitous gaming violence, and uninspired title cloning, there are occasionally titles like this that give validation to the industry as a place where artists--real, honest-to-gosh artists--live and satisfy our collective hunger for something really good to play.

When I hear of state governments threatening to make it illegal for minors to buy games, I think of a title like this and just wonder how far out of touch lawmakers and some political activists are from understanding the diversity present in the games industry. But the triumph of individual creativity against government misinformation is precisely one of the political points this "kids" game is trying to make.

Jeunet + Miyazaki + Rayman = ?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: January 09, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Beyond Good & Evil, from Ubisoft, is an adventure game in the vein of Zelda: The Wind Waker. You play as Jade, an "action reporter" who becomes embroiled in a plot to expose a government conspiracy. The "Alpha Sections" are nominally your planet Hyllis' defense force, but you find that they seem to show up conveniently just after the invaders, the DomZ, attack. You're not the only one who finds this fishy, and in the process of trying to figure out what's going on.

The plot is relatively straightfoward - you find a secretive group who's working to uncover the government conspiracy, and you face some obstacles and hurdles along the way. There's some stealth, there's some puzzle solving, some item fetching, and some combat. All the standard adventure ingredients are there. But that's not all there is. You drive around in your hovercraft, which you can also enter in races, and you can take photos of the local flora and fauna. You'll also use your camera to photograph the evidence of the conspiracy at hand.

All that adventure-y goodness is wrapped up in a beautiful, and interesting package. Though the "Jade Engine" which BG&E is built upon isn't going to change the world, it is powerful enough to make BG&E a graphically stunning game. The environments are an interesting blend of Jeunet and Miyazaki, and the fact that Michel Ancel also created Rayman isn't lost on the design aesthetic. On top of the beautiful and imaginitive environments, the supporting cast is one of the most interesting aspects of the game.

Your uncle, an anthromorphic pig named Pey'j, is a cantankerous old mechanic, whose affection for Jade really shows through his cranky exterior. Jade has some really novel casual interactions with the patrons of the local bar, from a humanoid shark man who plays a variant of air hockey, to the bartender, who's an eight foot tall cow-man. The casual way she talks to these otherworldly creatures (the shark-man is named "Francis") gives the game a sort of supernatural familiarity that is unlike most games.

Beyond Good and Evil is really the game that's made me really consider Ubisoft both a powerhouse of game development, and a studio that's willing to take some pretty risky moves in order to move the medium forward. Just as Sega did, when they were publishing games for the Dreamcast, Ubisoft seems to be making a wide variety of really interesting, and unfortunately overlooked games. BG&E, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and XIII all tried new, and interesting things. Couple that with bestsellers like Rainbow Six 3, and the Ghost Recon series, and it's hard to argue that Ubisoft doesn't possess a stellar lineup for the discerning gamer. Though not all of their games are excellent (the multiplayer in R6-3 is broken, and XIII, though visually interesting, plays to its weaknesses by including far too much stealth), they're trying new things, and have been hitting quite a few completely out of the park. Prince of Persia is hands down my favorite game of last year, and BG&E looks to be of similar quality.

Another gem lost to time...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: February 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is fantastic. Go buy it.

I'm not going to waste your time by telling you things that you can read in the other excellent reviews here. It's a 5 star game, I think you can get that from all of the reviews here. I would just like to add to why you should buy this game...

In a world of sequels, games based from movies, games that have been rehashed and rehased comes some wonderful gems that get lost. Whether it's because they come out at bad times or because people would rather play Halo 2000 or similar game, actually creative and emotionally powerful games slip through the cracks. This is one such game.

I have been trying to get people to play this game for purely selfish reasons. I've seen too many games that actually warrant sequels get halted because no one buys them. This game has everything. It has characters you care about, a story that is interesting and socially relevent, action that is constantly changing so that you are doing many different things, actually humorous scenes and dialogue, and graphics that are stunning in both their fluidity and art direction. I remember loading this game, watching a beautiful cut scene that bled directly to the action and being surprised that I was actually playing. I just assumed it was a cutscene, it was so fluid.

I got this game at Christmas time a while back with a bunch of other games. When I started playing this one, I couldn't put it down. Normally, I'll switch between games if I have more than one. Not so with this game, I had to keep playing, had to figure out what would happen next.

It fills you with so much wonder and joy that you remember why it is you play games. And just like Ico before it, it gets ignored. If you want a game that is different from most, then please at least rent this game, give it a try. It's too good to keep going unnoticed.

A Game Full of Wonder and Beauty

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: March 09, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Wondering why this obscure game is so highly rated? It really is one of the most pleasurable experiences in gaming you can have. Every aspect is expertly done ( even the blips
+ bloops of minor sound effects are original and fun to listen to). The graphics, story, sound design, and gameplay leave almost nothing to be desired. The act of taking pictures of strange alien animals may sound lame, but even this a joy since the creatures are so breathtaking and well-designed. And there is much to do : fighting ( martial arts-style! ), reconnaissance, collecting, racing, vehicular combat, puzzle-solving, and even wagering on an air hockey-type (!) parlor game. Even the soundtrack will delight you when you hear the Latin, Eastern, or reggae music kick in at the appropriate time and place. To sum it all up, this is a game nearly every child or adult ( Eat your heart out Disney! ), male or female, can easily get the hang of and thoroughly enjoy.

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