Beyond Good & Evil – 6 Years Later |

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Ubisoft Montpellier

Release Date: 11/19/2003

Available On

Beyond Good & Evil…yes, I remember that, but for some reason, a certain game called Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was plastered all over TV and stores, and BG&E was disappointingly overshadowed. BG&E is a lovely and wonderful action/adventure game that was released during the peak of the last generation in 2003. BG&E’s premise is something along these lines: You are Jade, who is the caretaker of an orphanage on a futuristic (has a Star Wars feel to it) planet called Hillys. The Alpha Section is fighting a so-called war against the alien invasion known as the Domz. Jade and her pig uncle Pey’j must find out the conspiracy behind the Alpha Section and the Domz in order to bring peace and freedom to the planet of Hillys. You take on a job as a reporter or spy for the IRIS Network, and along the way you take pictures of animals, take part in speedboat races, and play a familiar air hockey game to earn pearls and credits (the game’s two currencies) to find your way through the world.

A lot of the game is set up around two gameplay elements: stealth and combat. While the stealth is stronger than the combat, both are enjoyable and evenly balanced throughout the game. Sneaking around the two major parts of the game to take pictures of the Alpha Section’s activities is rewarding and easy to do. Crouching around corners and learning the guard’s patterns is a typical element of stealth, but the great part about the game is that there’s no jump button. Yes, this makes the gameplay a lot more smooth, and you actually know what to do. If you see a ledge Jade can hop up on, you know to go there instead of hopping around like an idiot trying to, hopefully, find some collision detection glitch and get up onto that ledge. Sneaking around the guards is also like a puzzle in itself since you have to figure out a way to open certain doors, hit certain switches, and even get items without anyone seeing you. The stealth isn’t brutal and is pretty forgiving since if you run out of the area, everything will calm down and go back to normal. Most guards have a weakness on their backs (a yellow jetpack), so this can blind them and make things a little easier. Sneaking around the place is pretty typical, and there’s not much to describe, but it is very fun squeezing between walls, ducking in vents, and whatnot. Thanks to the no-jumper button, dodging lasers is really fun since you have a run button and a dodge button, so you just run and jump over lasers and obstacles, and it can be really fun.

The combat, however, is a bit weak since it’s so simple. You just mash the mouse button, and Jade will beat the S out of everything with her magical staff; hold it down, and you get a supercharged spinning attack. While you can dodge and roll around while running, the camera is one of the major flaws of the game, and the combat can get so tedious and boring. Thankfully, there isn’t much fighting, and you mainly just sneak around and do a lot of traveling. The only thing that keeps the combat from being a snooze fest is the unique way of having to kill certain enemies. Double H or Pey’j may be with you, so you can order them to do their special attack, which will stun enemies or shoot them in the air. When they are in the air, Jade will spin around and knock them across the room, and this is good for taking out certain obstacles in your way.

Traveling around the world can be fun and frustrating since the map is useless and the game is very labyrinthine. Since you’re sneaking around everywhere, you don’t really remember where you’ve been, so if you forget to take a certain picture, you don’t know where it was since the map is just a bunch of white blobs that don’t tell you where to go. Finding things like animals, pearls, and other items is pointless since they are big dots on this useless white map, so hopefully you have enough pearls (used only at Mammago’s Garage to upgrade your speedboat) to finish the game. Finding all of the animals can be almost impossible since a lot of them are in spots you never knew you could even access, so earning a lot of money in the game is a bit hard and can make you go hunting for items you have to know are there. This being the game’s biggest flaw, it can easily be overlooked since you’ll usually get just what you need by just playing normally. You can partake in four separate races, but they are impossible to beat since there is no speed upgrade for your boat, and playing flawlessly and using speed boosts won’t get you first place.

The races are seriously impossible, even if you drive perfectly, so this is just retarded. You can play air hockey at the Akuda Bar or a cup game, which can be fun and challenging. There are items called MDiscs, which you put in save machines to help evolve the story. Increasing your health is done by finding PA1s, Kbup, and Starkos, which are foods that give you health. As you can see, the game tries a lot of original things and is just a fresh world that has been overlooked by many people. With the game’s unique story, great voice acting, and wonderful yet simple gameplay design, you’re sure to spend a great number of hours on this short, yet sweet, adventure.

Picking up the game for any system has its ups and downs. The PC version’s controls are kind of funky for this type of game; the PS2 has a slowdown; the GameCube’s controller requires a controller to play; and the Xbox version isn’t backward compatible on the 360, so take your pick. Either way, you’re going to have a blast with this wonderful yet overlooked game. Look forward to the anticipated game next year as well.