Beyond Good & Evil

Released in 2003, Beyond Good & Evil is one of those hidden gems that flew under the radar for many gamers back in the day but has since developed a cult following. And rightfully so.

The gameplay strikes a nice balance between exploration, puzzle-solving, and combat. You get to snap photos of wildlife for your journal (way before it became a common thing in gaming), which is surprisingly fun and adds a cool twist to the typical adventure formula. The story is engaging, with solid character development and plenty of twists to keep you hooked.

One of the standout features is the music-it's atmospheric and perfectly complements the game's various settings. The humor and dialogue are also on point, making you feel right at home with the characters.

That being said, some mechanics can feel a bit clunky, and the graphics, while distinct, show their age in 2024. But honestly, these are minor quibbles in the grand scheme of things.

It's always the good ones that get overlooked.

This is arguably the most sublime, awe-inspiring, playable adventure of this generation of consoles. It plays like a sci-fi version of Zelda, only much more cinematic and less mention of elves. The graphics are quite simply jaw dropping, with a whole world - including the animals, the environments, the people, and space (!!!) - rendered in an utterly believable way.

The characters are the most likable bunch you could hope for. From Jade, the main character trying to uncover a vast conspiracy, to Pey'J, your friendly talking pig sidekick, through to even the most minor of characters, you build a connection with many of the different characters.

The music is absolutely stunning, with cinematic themes acting as a powerful backdrop to the game play. And some game play it is. With a wide amount of game types - platformer, action, racing, photography, puzzler, and at the end space battle - it's a game bursting with variety.

The only problem is it's length - at around 10 hours you want more. But while it lasts it's complete perfection. A game like none other awaits you. That it didn't sell enough to warrant the planned trilogy is one of the greatest shames in video game history.

In an alternate world and time period. There was a planet called Hillys where humans, anthropomorphic animals, aliens, and robotic species co-exist with each other in one community. The whole planet is under a war against an alien race race called the DomZ. They invade the atmosphere of the planet and abduct countless civilians to drain their life forces for their own or implant spores into the victims which turns them into obedient creatures for the DomZ. A military force called the Alpha Sections has for sometime help defend the planet the planet from these extratrestials. They are praise by the public as national heroes.

The story revolves on Jade, a tomboy photographer who lost her own parents when she was young. She lives on a lighthouse island with her legal guardian Pey'j, a pig mechanic who looks after several other orphans whose parents got taken away by the DomZ. One day Jade was doing yoga right until a group a DomZ was heading for the lighthouse. She heads for the home security switch which activates the "Anti DomZ" shield. But it immediately lost power due to the electrical bill not being paid off. The group of DomZ attack the Lighthouse, and soon after the attack the Alpha Sections came in time to rescue Jade and Pey'j who were trap inside the newly made pit that was cause by the impact of the DomZ that landed there.

After the incident, Jade got a message from a magazine company that will pay her if she is able to take pictures of all the existing animals on Hillys. This was perfect for her to repay the electrical bill for the lighthouse's electricity. Eventually Jade will end up questioning on whether the Alpha Sections is truly the saviors they claim to be or not. As according to Pey'j they don't always comes in the nic of time whenever the DomZ attack. What kind of secrets is the Alpha Sections holding? This game came out in 2003, and it was one of my Christmas presents too. I got the game cause it really looked cool with the heroine being the main protagonist and containing a stealth action plot to the game. With a lot of fighting sequences, aliens, and sneaking around military territories. The game also had a rich environment to it as well.

The down side is this game didn't get the best sales as predicted. Probably because it was release in stores during the wrong time when Ubisoft release two other games that out sold more copies than it did. However the game receive a lot of good reviews on the internet from those who played it. I completely agree that this was one of the best games of 2003.

I admit that the game wasn't too long, but the story, characters, and environment is what saved the game from being bad. For years I've been defending my own opinion on how awesome this game is. If people at least give it a chance they would know what the whole big deal is about. Just cause a game had poor sales doesn't always mean the game itself is bad to play.

Also look out for the upcoming sequel that's been said to have better advertisement and long game play.

The year is 2435. Not Earth. The planet Hillys. The peaceful population is under sustained attack by the alien Domz. Forcefields help, although only if you can pay your bill on time. The Alpha Section troops are always showing up too late. The media claim otherwise, asking the pertinent question: what do you do when faced with authorities who let awful things happen, when reporters refuse to spread that fact, and physical harm coming to you and your loved ones? There is a conspiracy going on, and you have to uncover it. As a photographer, you will document it. You're not Rambo, setting explosives and destroying entire bases. You're Jade(Forrest, determined). And you'll be sneaking in, snapping shots, and let the people know what's going on. Admittedly, the more you understand what's going on, the less sense it makes, and the ending is a clichéd, twist-laden mess. Still, there is some good drama there. This does realize that kids can handle that, and scary material, as well. Some will find it too child-friendly. It helps that there's so much substance here.

You almost always work with a companion. Cooperation and friendship are among the values this promotes. You can go places they can't and vice versa. The reasonable puzzles require you to work together – you won't get far without utilizing each others considerable talents. I do wish that there wasn't a pause between you telling them to help and them doing so. It can mess up the timing, when, really, this is something that could have easily been avoided. In addition, you gain the ability to throw discs great distances, and this can be used as an attack whether your presence is known or not, and activate those of the countless switches that are far off. You'll take pictures of all animal life. Including, if you have nerves of steel, those about to smack you with something. Every species once, and you'll be paid well. The rarer, the better. As long as they're of high quality: not too far away, etc. And it does aid you in ensuring that, telling you exactly what failed, and giving an indicator of when it's right, and when it's not, what's wrong about it. This includes the humanoid ones that you live among. You're encouraged to recognize that they look, sound and sometimes behave different from you, yet also that they're helpful, competent and, like you, they belong.

This mixes different types of addictive action-adventure gameplay well, each is fun, well-done, gradually increases in challenge and appropriate in amount. Don't get me wrong, the difficulty can be uneven, and spikes at bosses. The climax will seem impossible until you get the hang of it. While the accessible nature of this, and its easy-to-learn controls, do sometimes lead it to feel too simple, they make great use of all of these elements to keep throwing different situations at you that you can maneuver via your skills and tools. The minigames and racing can be annoying, yes. They can also be ignored, provided you do well enough elsewhere. The latter especially feels right out of a licensed title, much like the terrible third person camera. Ironically, when it locks your view and forces you to adapt the directional keys since they change with it, it's at its best. When you have to turn it yourself, it will try your patience. The platforming has you climbing and jumping ledges.

The stealth is line-of-sight based. You're waiting for soldiers to turn and/or move away, so you can pass unseen, behind them, blocking their view with crates on conveyor belts and the like. Them spotting you first due to poor design choices are the only real problem with this aspect. It's tremendously satisfying to clear an area, to finally be able to defeat the guards by breaking their air supply sending this previously very real threat pathetically floating off, etc. The only settings being factories and caves, particularly the former, do end up a tad boring. Some of these culminate in you running away, avoiding the dangers behind you, very thrilling.

Combat has been called the weakest element, pointing to how light it is. Hardly. I find the unreliable dodge function to be its biggest fault... not sending you in the right distance, direction, sometimes not launching you at all. It's a minimal version of that of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, based on the same engine. You'll be somersaulting between foes that are a bit apart from each other and you, can easily switch which one you're facing and hitting, and you have a radial charge. This is also where you not being alone, in this singleplayer piece, comes in very handy. With help, you can instakill, even using evil robots to disable electrical barriers in your path.

Your hovercraft will take you almost anywhere you can go in this, and when you've earned it, your interstellar spaceship will close that last gap. Fire at anything in front of you, either rapidly at the center of the screen, or hold down to automatically target. It does allow friendly fire, for some reason. And it tends to go for things that aren't close before the ones that are, which makes regenerating mine fields, further worsened by the seafaring vessels bouncy nature, an irritant. This can seem too open, given that the map does not list major areas of interest. You have to online for that, which shouldn't be necessary. Unfortunately you can't play on after completion, which would have fit the otherwise partial similarity to Grand Theft Auto, and given it replay value. Honestly, I do think I'll return to this. It took me 11 and a half hours, and I did not go for every collectible.

There is mild violence in this. I recommend it to any fan of the genres it covers, young and old alike. It will make you think, care, and it did not deserve to bomb. 6/10

This is my second review on IMDb and its about this game that i have wanted to play for ages and finally have thanks to the wonders of psn that just recently gave out an HD version of Beyond good and evil.

In Beyond good and evil you play as a reporter named Jade who is investigating The alpha section. You see Jade lives on an planet called Hilleys which is under attack by aliens called the DomZ that abducted countless citizens and the Alpha section is in charge of putting a stop to all that. But they are always late to the scene of the crime and in short don't do much good. So Jade whose working for the resistance is investigating what the alpha section really is up to.

Gameplay: Beyond good and evil plays like a third person platformer more or less. Hilleys is mostly made up by small islands and a lot of water. So you use a boat to drive around to different islands where you are to complete different kinds of objectives. On foot Beyond good and evil pretty much plays like a third-person platformer. Jade jumps, uses a Caine and kung fu like moves to take out aliens, soldiers and other aggressive animals inhabiting Hilleys, the unique ingredient is the camera, which Jades uses to collect evidence on the suspicious activities surrounding the alpha section and also to photograph the animal life on Hilleys. there are also a few minigames like air hockey and so on. It all works very solid if a little stiff.

Graphic: HD version looks great and I'm guessing so did the original. with great character animations, environments, lighting and shadow effects. What I missed was the lack of facial expressions and the stiff lips. The voice actors did great job with the characters but the faces are just blank and dull to look at, this sort of ruined some key scenes for me.

Overall the game is pretty solid with good gameplay and nice characters that you follow on a nice adventure, why I am troubled as the headline says is because when I had finished the game I didn't feel anything. Many people have criticized this game for being to short but this is not the problem I believe. The problem is that when things are starting to become interesting and you're allowed to explore this planet it ends pretty fast and also the adventure that Jade goes on never seems that important and dangerous basically because it never gets hard to advance and the bosses, well you pretty much beat them on the first go. Its all very sad.

So I'm not like everyone else say that this game is underrated, I think its overrated. It had the making of greatness but alas didn't make it there, but perhaps the sequel will.