Beyond Good & Evil

Beyond Good & Evil is well known in the gaming world as one of those games which received critical acclaim but was under-appreciated when it came to sales. I recently managed to get this game as part of the Ubisoft promotion on Steam recently where they sold four games (BG&E, Far Cry, Dark Messiah of Might & Magic and Il-2 Sturmovik) in one package for just USD10. A pretty good deal by any standard!

The game itself is an action adventure game where you take on the role of Jade, an intrepid reporter. Jade lives on the planet of Hyllis which is under attack by the DomZ. Hyllis is protected by the Alpha Sections, another alien race, although the battle is not going well as the people of Hyllis are slowly dwindling. However, there is a sinister secret behind the Alpha Sections which our intrepid reporter hero is determined to root out. I'm sure it'll come as no surprise for you to hear that the Alpha Sections are not what they seem (partly because of the foreshadowing in the paragraph and partly because this element of the story is widely publicised).

The game itself can only be described as an action adventure game. Although no particular element stands out as being exceptional, the game manages to mix together combat, stealth, hovercraft racing, fighter combat and platform elements into an extremely fun and engaging package. The disparate elements of the game, which differs so much from the 7 seconds of fun repeated ad infinitum model of shooter games, somehow come together really well in to a fun package. In this case, the whole really is greater than the sum of the parts. It also makes the gameplay hard to describe in a nutshell although I think the best description comes from the IGN review which says "It's Zelda for grown-ups, without the annoying fetch-quests."

What does stand out is the level of intelligence, humour and charm that permeates the game. During the course of the game, you will have one of two different companions with you to offer you assistance. The interactions between Jade and her companions are really quite funny and the developer must have had a great time poking fun at different action hero cliches.

My only real complaint against the game is that the controls and gameplay are really more suited to a gamepad than to a mouse and keyboard. Unfortunately, I don't think the developers put a lot of effort into the PC port as the game really shows its console roots.

Other than this minor gripe, this really is an excellent game and well worth checking out. A definite thumbs up from the Meister.