11-Nov-2003 Forget Good and Evil. forget morality, This
genre-blending journey is bloomin' BRILLIANT!
There's an ancient law buried deep within the tomes of British history that states, without quibble, that every street, housing estate and high-rise in the land must have at least one set of prying nosey parker eyeballs. Across the country, desiccated old ladies and yellow-toothed old geezers uphold this law, twitching curtains and taking incriminating pictures with their brittle, busybody fingers.
You probably don't aspire to be one of these snooping old duffers. In fact, it's safe to say you're more likely to want to pelt their houses with dog eggs. Hold back though, because as Beyond Good & Evil demonstrates, snooping can pay handsomely.
Life Through A Lens You play as Jade, a foxy photojournalist called upon by a resistance force called IRIS to pry into a suspected conspiracy. Your task is to investigate the rumours that place the government in allegiance with an invading alien force. Initially armed with just a camera and a really big stick, it's up to you to guide Jade through a plot as labyrinthine as the game world you inhabit.
Aided by a menagerie of co-stars with a dazzling array of abilities, Jade's adventure merges almost every game genre into a slick and glitzy whole. The different regions of Hyllis are connected by waterways and canals and you can expect to explore on foot, in your hovercraft and later on, by air in your spacecraft, called the Beluga. The transitions between each mode of transport are seamless and with only the smallest of load times between different areas, this feels about as free-roaming as games can get.
Never A Dull Moment Different areas in the game of course provide a range of challenges. On foot you can expect to take photographs, battle the DomZ menace and solve puzzles. What's interesting is there are very few traditional platform-style levels, making the on-foot adventuring less like a platform game and more like an action RPG. The hovercraft can be entered into races, or upgraded with awesome firepower to disable the Alpha security droids to further open the game up. And screaming through the sky in the Beluga to investigate the mysteries of space turns the game into something else again.
It all adds up to a thoroughly entertaining adventure that borrows ideas from other titles and stamps its own hoof on 'em. The production values are sky high, though some players might balk at the widescreen aspect ratio. The puzzles are challenging but logical, and the character upgrades and vehicle bolt-ons give this as much depth as some RPGs.
Beyond Good & Evil isn't licensed from a television show or a movie, nor does it have the most initially appealing game characters ever created. What it does have is cracking gameplay in spades and the kind of variety that most games can only dream of. Take the plunge and you're in for a treat.
Top-notch production and the beautiful visual style combined with seamless gameplay makes this a winner. And for bonus points it's not a sequel or licensed from anything!
There's a new skill to be learnt or a weapon just waiting to be upgraded in just about every area of the game. Putting your characters' skills to the test is the only way to progress, but what's annoying is that they sometimes hold back on moves and abilities until the game is ready to let you have 'em. We don't think that's fair...
Call your companion over if you need help pushing heavy objects. Hey, mate!
Pey’J can cut open the fences Jade can’t smash through. Well he’s got the tools…
A few hours into the game and you get Jade’s projectile attack
Rescue Agent Double H and he’ll open new routes with his headbutt. That’s clever
// Picture Perfect
If you're to help topple the Alpha Sections/DomZ alliance you're going to need proof. The IRIS Network will tell you the snaps they need to chip away at the corruption and once taken they will advance the story on. There are many sub-missions with the camera too, the biggest of which is snapping an encyclopaedia of Hyllis' fauna in exchange for pearls and camera upgrades. How many games make you do botany?
Money shots like this please the IRIS bigwigs and drive the story forward
Snap friends as well as foes – there are many different races on Hyllis, as you’ll discover…
Check your progress to the next reward as you make with the snappy
// What do i do now?
The object-based puzzles in BGE are fairly tricky. The key is to scan each area with your camera for possible interactive items, and then work out what to do with them. The solutions aren't always obvious but, as ever, solving them will tickle your pleasure nodes to extremes. You'll be amazed at what you find you can do.
Defeat the guardian inside and collect the key to access the fuse in the room beyond. Now you’re getting somewhere
Jade needs to find a way to route electricity to the lift controls. She also needs a fuse to place in the lift’s board
Back in the main lift room you spot this sneaky cable holding the sparking cable aloft. Is that something you can use?
Use your newly acquired shooting discs to spin the fan overhead and provide power to this locked door
The lift is broken so Pey’J tries to fix it with his porcine mechanic abilities. Hmm… it turns out there’s no power
Fire a disc at the connector to complete
the circuit and then shove the fuse in the hole to progress. Phew!
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, UK BA1 2BW England and Wales company registration number 2008885
