A little over a week ago I was grocery shopping at Wally World and for the hell of it, I looked into the videogame bargain bin they had in electronics. To my delight, they had a brand new copy of Ubisoft’s Beyond Good & Evil for the Playstation 2. Despite the fact that I have a bunch of unfinished games at home, I felt it was important to get this game and play it immediately. It is a critically acclaimed game that many felt didn’t get its chance in the spotlight. I was curious as to what it was all about and I gave it a shot.
Beyond Good & Evil is a solid coming of age hero’s tale that delves into government conspiracy. You play as Jade, a female reporter with excellent skill in martial arts and after saving some kids from being snatched by aliens called DomZ, you are sent on an assignment to find proof that DomZ are mating on their planet. From there, you join the resistance group IRIS and unravel a conspiracy that will prove Alpha Sections’ partnership with the DomZ to the general public.
The story’s tone is very serious and thoughtful. This is one of the more believable and intelligent takes on government conspiracies in videogames. In the back story, the DomZ invaded Hillys and Alpha Sections conveniently shows up to save the day each time. This earns them a nice reputation with the people and to keep the DomZ involved, they abduct citizens of Hillys that are used as an energy source for the DomZ. If you see things from their perspective, it’s a nice way to do business.
So Jade becomes involved and you spend much of her time sneaking around Alpha Section’s bases and hideouts gathering evidence to prove the conspiracy to be true, so that the people of Hilly will revolt. You have the ability to crawl, run, and roll; in addition, you are also armed with a staff, camera, and then disc projectiles.
There are parts of the game where you have to carefully move around without making a sound or being seen, because the guards are more powerful than you are when they gang up on you. You can also set up distractions to help you get through areas easier, which I enjoyed. If I saw a chance to sneak by shooting a disc at a guard’s air tank and therefore causing a scene, I took it.
One of the other critical elements of the game was your sidekicks. You have two of them working with you at various parts of the game – Double H and Pey’j. They not only help you out in battle and follow your commands to press switches and perform special attacks, but they provide companionship to Jade and mentor her through her journey. I think this aspect of the game was critical as the story developed and Jade started to grow as a heroine. The sidekicks are kind of like Navi from Legend of Zelda, but useful and never annoying.
Speaking of Zelda, it was clear that those games were a big inspiration for Beyond Good & Evil. While BGE doesn’t focus on getting a lot of equipment and upgrades like Zelda games do, it does have similar aspects. For example, you travel an expansive overworld in a vehicle(a hovercraft, instead of a horse), you visit “dungeons” were puzzles are solved and boss battles require you to follow patterns and take what you’ve learned from your dungeon experiences to attack.
Hell, Jade even has the ability to charge her staff for a spinning area of effect attack like Link does with the Master Sword! You even have hearts to represent energy and the people of Hillys are called Hillyans!
BGE was definitely great at borrowing important elements from a top notch action-adventure franchise and either improving upon them, or trying something different. I really feel the pacing of story, stealth, photography, action scenes, and other aspects of the game I haven’t mentioned blend well together and are mixed in a way that always provided an entertaining experience as I played through the entire game. The game never feels repetitive and something exciting is always happening!
I really ended up digging Beyond Good & Evil. It was a really fun week I spent on the game and it was a nice breath of fresh air for the action-adventure genre. While it did borrow standard elements from the Zelda franchise, it did go into new areas that the franchise has yet to go into. Playing BGE reminded me of being fourteen again when I would obsessively try to play though Ocarina of Time and I am truly glad that it was able to rekindle that spirit again.