Beyond Good and Evil
is often considered to be one of the most overlooked games of the
sixth(Gamecube, Xbox, PS2) generation of gaming. This can be attributed
to many factors, namely how crowded the 2003 holiday season was, and
the fact that the game’s publisher, Ubisoft, released Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time,
a game that was built upon the same engine, a mere week after the
launch of the new IP by Rayman creator, Michel Ancel. Thankfully,
Ubisoft released an HD remastering of the game in early 2011, I just got
around to beating it, and am here to tell you weather or not it is
worth the asking price of $10. Yes, yes it is. But if you want more
information, click the jump below.
Beyond Good and Evil HD
Platforms: Xbox Live Arcade(Reviewed), Playstation Network
Release Date: 2/3/2011 (XBLA), 28/6/2011 (PSN)
The
opening scene of the game features a calm looking cluster of islands,
known as Hillys, being attacked by a group of space insects that are
referred to as the Domz. They end up attacking the lighthouse home of
the two main characters, Jade, an acrobatic journalist who I think may
be the first main playable character in gaming to be a young woman with
Carmel skin. And Pey’j, a pig-human hybrid who is Jade’s adopted parent
and your surprisingly well programed partner in combat. After a brief
combat sequence, you meet the protectors of your islands, or planet,
it’s not really clear, The Alpha Sections. Their debut is delayed and
the numerous human-animal children that Jade is the guardian of are
nearly captured, and would have been if not for the fact that giant bugs
are apparently made of money, and money powers shields.
After
the section you are given a mission to go to a nearby island and go
through a series of contracts and discover a conspiracy. The plot of
the game does continue to be solid, but I was expecting something a bit
more. Perhaps it is the fact that the title infers that the
protagonists and antagonists are beyond two dimensional morality, and
the heroes and villains are as different as night and day. It is well
executed, with good characters and voice acting that feels like it comes
from a good, accent filled, Saturday morning cartoon. The music also
works very well, with there being anything from ambient sneaking music,
to upbeat foreign melodies, to fairly epic confrontation, but it’s not
really worth listening to outside of the game, and mostly just enhances
the atmosphere, which is not bad by any means.
On
the visual side of things, the game has wonderful character design,
with 56 unique biological creatures that are found and taken pictures of
as part of a side quest. On the other hand, the world is fairly small,
and the two of the four dungeons blur together, with the only
difference being the fact that one of those two areas have you driving
around your tugboat, which is your means of transportation across the
fairly small world map. The primary problem with it is the fact that
the camera for the boat only works if you are in an open area, not and
enclosed corridor, where you can only look behind the boat, or from an
overhead perspective. Other than that, it controls fine, except that
the targeting system for shooting is kind of wonky. This issue also
affects the main combat of the game, which is basically just running
around and hitting things with a stick. It remains fun, unless the game
forces you to use and overhead perspective, where the Jade occupies a
ninth of the screen.
It
is incredibly awkward, especially if you are fighting enemies that leap
over jade’s head whenever they are hit. Combat itself is not bad
though, utilizing Jade and her partner to preform combo attacks that are
mostly just knocking enemies into each other can feel very rewarding,
but it’s not very deep, and only serves as half of the on foot gameplay,
the other half being stealth. As someone who only played Deus Ex: Human Revolution, I’m not the best to critique on stealth, but Beyond Good and Evil’s
stealth is rudimentary at best. Every stealth section can be summed up
in this, you are in a room with guys, get caught and you may die,
observe the guy’s looking patterns, maneuver the chest high walls, and
make it out to the next room. There is also platforming, but it is very
simple and feels like a waste when you look at Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. All I ever did was press X to jump climb, or run on and over obstacles to find a switch.
Pretty
much all of the gameplay variants feel underdeveloped except for the
boat, which has two four-part side quests that give you this game’s
collectables, Pearls. Pearls are used for upgrading your vehicles and
repairing a space ship, which is not a spoiler, since I knew that would
happen 30 minutes in. My problem with them is the pacing, you can try
to get a 8 pearls after playing for about 80 minutes, or you could get
12 in 10 minutes. I understand this is a way to make things easier for
players who only want to get the 71 necessary pearls, as apposed to all
88, but maybe you could just have the player wait to unlock the jumping
upgrade for the boat, and make it a fifth of the price, and remove the
bonus area that gave me about a dozen pearls for fighting some giant
dragonflies who never managed to lay a hair on me. Which is surprising,
since I died at least 50 times in this 15 hour game, maybe I just too
reckless, or maybe rats should not take off an entire heart, and instead
take off a half heart.
Beyond
Good and Evil ends up feeling more like an experiment, or test for a
much bigger game that was planned, everything feels compromised, the
world is small, and the cutscenes and story are brief and
underdeveloped. The gameplay, while varied, is underdeveloped and feels
like it was holding back for a sequel that has been in development hell
for several years now. But maybe I’m judging this too much as a retail
game, and not enough like the XBLA title that I bought. The game did
manage to keep me entertained, often poor camera controls aside, and it
does have a lot of creativity in just about everything but it’s dungeon
sections. I recommend that anyone buys it, you could do a lot worse for
$10, and it will increase the chances of Beyond Good and Evil 2 being completed. It’s overrated, but it still remains a create and fun little romp.
29/40
Good
There are evident flaws, but the game still manages to remain fun and is competent in it’s execution.
In case anyone is wondering, I’d say that this is my fourth least favorite Zelda game of all time.
