There are so many terrific
things in Beyond Good and Evil that it’s difficult
to know where to begin. 

The Beauty Part

Firstly, this is a seriously
good-looking game.  From the opening cut scenes to the multiple
environments, the gorgeous palette of this game pours over you.  Full
of luxuriant greens and blues, it creates a world you want to spend
time in and just look around.  You spend a lot of time on the water,
and the water is technically stunning as well as beautiful.  The
lead character, Jade, is gorgeous, and not in an obvious, Lara
Croft way. 

Mongrelization of the
Game Species!

I have long been a fan
of hybrid games.  I think it’s risky and creative to throw elements
from different genres into the same game, and when brave designers
do it, the results can sometimes be wonderful.  The original System
Shock, Outcast, Thief, Anachronox and Deus
Ex are all hybrids that are among my favorite games. 

One of the dangerous things
about a hybrid is that it’s a bit hard to describe in a simple
sentence, something which is rarely true with pure genre games.  Here’s
a couple of examples of pure-genre games. 

Half-Life:  First
person shooter involving hostile aliens invading from another dimension.

Baldurs Gate: Isometric,
third-person  role-playing game based on the Dungeons and Dragons Forgotten
Realms campaign.

Okay, let’s try to describe
a hybrid as easily:

System Shock:  Well,
it’s sort of a first-person action game except that there’s a whole
lot of story like an adventure game and also fairly strong role-playing
elements because you get such freedom in how to equip your character,
and there’s even some jumping puzzles like a platform game, and
don’t forget the arcade-like cyberspace sequences.

That’s what’s cool about
a good hybrid.  If the combination is successful, you find your
self telling your gaming friends, “Uh, you just have to play it
to get it.”

Beyond Good and
Evil joins that august list of hybrids in which the
designers went out on a limb and the limb didn’t break.

The simplest way to describe
this game is that it’s a sort of Zelda-like action/adventure.  But
that wouldn’t tell the whole story.  The game also has a Pokemon-like
creature collection element (more on this later), object collection
reminiscent of classic platform games, very fun racing elements
(ditto), strong stealth elements, plus an overall feel that’s very
reminiscent of a pure adventure game.  I’ll talk about each of
these elements.

Adventure.  This
game has a very strong story, one that would be at home in an exciting
film or science fiction novel.  It takes place on a watery, cosmopolitan
planet that’s under siege from hostile aliens.  The rather repressive
world government claims it’s fighting these enemies.  Jade, the
main character, is a photojournalist and foster mother to several
orphans of these attacks.  She gets drawn into a group of undercover
revolutionaries who are exposing a horrifying web of lies and conspiracies
that lie behind the government’s party line.  What struck me about
the story, especially as I moved toward the end of the game, was
its urgency and immediacy.  The plot of many games simply serves
as a backdrop for the gameplay.  The story in Beyond Good
and Evil is so good that it feels like the game was created
in order to tell it.

Creature Collection.  Jade
is a photographer, and earns her money by taking photos of the
wildlife she spies around her home planet.  This is an ingenious
game device that works beautifully.  It also adds a strong degree
of exploration to the game.

Object Collection.  Just
like in a million platform games, Jade needs to collect a certain
kind of mystic, beautiful pearl.  She is able to get pearls in
several ways:  by taking enough wildlife photos, by winning races,
by defeating bosses, and by very thorough exploration of her environment.  These
pearls allow her to buy important upgrades to her equipment.

Racing.   Usually
my blood runs cold at the prospect of a racing component in a game.  I
don’t play racing games and I’m not good at it.  But, the many
racing levels in Beyond Good and Evil are entertaining,
exciting, and most importantly, not vexingly difficult.  Jade’s
hovercraft is a very cool vehicle and it’s fun using it to solve
the adventure.

Stealth.  In much
of the game Jade is sneaking into hostile and dangerous environments,
and staying undetected is key.  Jade can crouch to creep past enemies,
and learn various tricks to foil the various guards and robots
who block her path.  Stealth is an element that can be very risky
to add to a game, because a bad implementation of it makes for
a very lame game.  The designers have pulled it off beautifully
here.

Zelda/Not Zelda.  The
best Zelda element used in Beyond Good and
Evil is the idea of the Tricky Dungeon.  Jade has to approach
all of her physical environments as puzzles that must be solved.  Sometimes
she has a companion to help her, and sometimes she’s alone.  There’s
even an Ico-like dynamic of having to slip through
an area Jade’s companion can’t follow, then clear out another path
that he CAN follow.  These puzzle elements are quite entertaining,
and add to the game’s adventure feel.

Also adding to the adventure
feel is that fact that, even though Jade is forever jumping over
things, the game absolutely does not contain jumping puzzles.  It
uses a system more reminiscent of Broken Sword: The Sleeping
Dragon than the typical action/adventure.  If Jade can
make a jump, you just move her to the edge, and she jumps.  If
she can’t make it, she doesn’t move.  No frustrating, jump-to-your-death
situations here. 

And I haven’t even MENTIONED
the air hockey, or the fact that you can subscribe to not one but two different
electronic newspapers with opposing political points of view.

You might think that the
net result of all of these gaming elements would be chaos.  But
the designers manage to pull it all together.  What happens is
that you truly begin to feel like Jade.  You buy into her world
and her situation, and it just all begins to feel very very real.  Which
is one of the nicest things that can happen in gaming.

Turtle Wax

So far I’ve talked about
the aesthetics and the game mechanics.  Now I’m going to talk about
the third aspect of the game that pulls it all together and makes
it a must-have, must-play game.

I’m talking about polish.  This
is one of the most polished games I’ve played since the two Ratchet & Clank games,
and that’s high praise indeed.  Everything in the game feels well
thought-out.  The interface works like a charm, and the controls
are easy to master.  I played the XBox version, and even though
the game has many different types of activities:  exploring, fighting,
flying, speed boating, minigames – I always felt in control of
what was happening. 

The voiceover work and
dialog writing are also superb.  Jade’s two main companions through
the game are a human-like pig and a breathtakingly gung-ho soldier.  The
soldier’s resolute and square approach to his job is so strong
that he unabashedly responds with a crisp “Yes, sir!!” to his female
companion, Jade.  The music is also extremely well done.

None of the disparate
elements in this hybrid game feel out of place.  Everything works
to create a beautifully cohesive whole.  Even though the story
is fairly dark, the sense of fun that pervades the game reminded
me a bit of that unsung masterpiece (and fellow hybrid) Anachronox. 

The game has a slightly
curious structure, in that it’s pretty short (I finished it in
less than 20 hours), but the three major missions in it feel absolutely
huge.  The result is an epic feel without epic length.

Reviews should be balanced,
so let me think of something bad to say about the game.  Okay,
I don’t like the title very much.  It’s boring, generic, and tells
you absolutely nothing about the game.  So there.

The creative talent behind
this game is Marcel Ancel, the guy behind the Rayman games.  I
can’t wait to see what he and his team come up with next.  This
is one of those games that should be played by everyone.  And it’s
on every single platform out there, so there’s no excuse to miss
it.  PLUS, it’s dropped dramatically in price recently.  So what
are you waiting for?

Final Grade: A+

System Requirements:

PC

• Operating System: Windows® 98SE/ME/2000/XP
  (only)
• Processor: 700 MHz
  Pentium® III, Celeron®, or AMD Athlon™ (1
  GHz recommended)
• RAM: 64 MB minimum,
  128 MB recommended (256 MB recommended for XP)
• Video Card: DirectX® 9-compatible 32 MB video card; specific
  cards supported:
• ATI® Radeon™ 9700 and Pro
• ATI Radeon 9000 and
  Pro
• GeForce™ 4 Ti 4600/Ti 4400/MX 460/MX 440
• GeForce3 and Ti500
• GeForce2 GTS/MX400/MX
• Sound Card: DirectX
  9-compatible sound card
• DirectX Version: DirectX
  9 (included on disc)
• CD-ROM: 4x CD-ROM
  or faster (not recommended for use with CD-RWs)

This
review is copyright Ray Ivey and Just Adventure and
may not be republished elsewhere without the express written consent
of the author. Republication of said review must also contain a link
back to Just Adventure.