Customer Reviews

Beyond Good & Evil

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I had never heard of this game until I was thumbing through here one day and read some of the reviews the game was receiving. I was intriqued. I was looking for a good sci-fi sort of game. The Star Wars games are always such a letdown... so, I thought I'd buy this one... COME ON... for the PRICE you can't go wrong... and I DIDN'T!

There is only one downside.

The game is fantastic. The graphics are great. The game is fun and unique. It has a wide open environment in which you can race, explore, recover PEARLS, take pictures of various species of ANIMALS in order to make money, interact with everyone, rescue your friends and try to uncover the truth beyond unexplained events like a real investigative journalist.

The game is challenging and hard at times, and always interesting. Not to mention, funny... side characters are lighthearted and entertaining. There is a level of puzzle solving that is at times hard, sometimes completely impossible and sometimes relatively easy.

Overall, the game takes you to this cool unique world that sometimes reminds me of Don Bluth's DRAGON'S LAIR (in its animation).

The game is very fun and a nice change of pace. The only setback I can make note of is that the game is pretty short. Otherwise... This game is worth playing. For the low low price it is being sold, buy it. If you don't want to buy it, at least rent it.

I finished this game over a year ago, and I am still recommending it to everyone I meet. Unfortunately I'm starting to understand why I'm having trouble convincing people - this game just has too much going on. Most people aren't willing to step out of their favorite genre box to try anything this amazing. I get comments like, "I just want to kill stuff and be totally violent" or "I hate stealthing, cause I have no patience", etc.

I can't stress enough to you how this game just does everything right. Nothing is too difficult to figure out. You don't get stuck forever hating a boss. You never curse at the controls. To this day, I still love the way you enter letters using a dial instead of the usual "keyboard on screen". The story is very compelling, and it actually drives the game. I especially love taking inventory of the bioresources of each new place with a camera. The characters and environment are interesting in every way - physical appearance, background, psychology, abilities, etc. Music and sound effects are what you need and fit the mood. The gameplay isn't artificially padded with difficult/frustrating things to do to drag out the length of the game. Kills are not superviolent, but totally satisfying. The game is always fun, never work. Stealth is way more optional and shorter wait to return to normal than in "Metal Gear" and other stealth games, therefore actually fun (and even funny - those guys are hilarious). The graphics are beautiful, no errors or overly-contrived things to take away from your immersion in this environment.

Whatever your excuse is, (I can hear it now, "I just like cute Mario type games", "I don't like platformers, I like to shoot stuff", "I don't have time for adventure games") just give this a try. All the things that annoy you in other games simply don't exist in this one. As so many others have said here, you won't regret it. I hope the game makers have more chances to make gems like this, games with soul, instead of more mass-marketed junk.

I'll admit, I'm not the biggest gamer. I don't spend hours playing every game just to reach the end. I'll play and if it starts to become too frustrating or repetitive, I'll give up.

Reading all the positive reviews for BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL, and seeing the price, I decided to pick it up.

It quickly became the greatest PS2 game I have played.

First of all, the look of the game is just gorgeous. The graphics are as good as in an animated feature. The whole world it creates is believable and incredibly detailed. It's fun to just wander around.

The missions are fun and varied. From collecting pearls to upgrade your vehicle, to driving your vehicle, to fighting missions, to picture taking, to racing, it is all there. It never gets boring. Plus, it is never TOO difficult. Only on a couple of occasions did I have to consult a walkthrough. Not to say it is an easy game. The final battle is quite difficult. But just that you don't want to throw down the controller in frustration.

The game is quite short though. And it isn't as open ended as the GTA games, but in some ways, that makes it more focused and more entertaining.

For this price, there is no reason not to buy it. It is a must buy.

I don't know what it was about the packaging of Beyond Good And Evil that made me decide I wanted to play it, but I'm really glad my intuition proved right. BG&E is a really superb game, probably the best of 2003 and one of the top games I've played on PS2.

First of all, BG&E is *original* - and it's really not often you can say that about a game these days. Sure, it's not original in every respect - many of the gameplay mechanics are familiar, but it does have some very original aspects - most noticably the use of the camera, which is a simple mechanic that is very well developed and utilised throughout the game. The second aspect in which it shows originality is the presence of other "NPCs" that you must co-operate with. Nothing like Halo's "here's some extra guns to die for you", these are real characters with special abilities that complement Jade's own, and must be properly utilised (and protected) to get through the game. The use of email communications is another novel aspect.

Most of all though, BG&E is just incredibly well designed and implemented. Varied, dynamic and inventive levels are put together beautifully - never too challenging, but never let you just switch your brain off.

I guess the low price suggests the game isn't selling well, which is really tragic. There just aren't many other games out there of this calibre, so what are people buying instead? I really hope it proves to be a sleeper hit as word of mouth gets out about just what a refreshingly good game it is!

I was dismayed when I first played this game. Not because the game was bad, not because it was too short, but rather...because not ONE SINGLE PERSON knew about it.

Beyond Good and Evil is masterpeice of gaming and creativty, blended into one 10-12 hour experience, you will never forget. The creator of Rayman has offically outdone himself, by creating a game, I can easily call my favorite PS2 game...and beyond that?

An adventure game that beat off Legend of Zelda in any shape or form.

I could go into serious detail as to why this is one of the best games ever made, but many other people have already done so. What I will do, is tell you right now, while some games are great, they will often lose you at points...due to a storyline that looped one too many times or a very difficult part.

Beyond Good and Evil does not have this problem. The moment you start it, you will be sitting there, playing it till you beat it. You'll have no choice, as the game plays better then 90% of the games available on any console or the PC. You won't run into problems that kill the "zone" the game will pull you into, and belive me when I say...you are not coming out until the credits roll.

In fact, there are only two minor problems with this game. First off, due to horrible sales(average gamers are morons..more on this later), and the fact that it can be beat in about 10-12 hours on the first go.

Still, most games barely last longer, with the exception of RPGs...but RPG's are drawn out on purpose, with a random battle every minute or so. Zelda has the same issues, where if you weren't lost or fighting so much...or backtracking so often, you would be done much faster. Beyond Good and Evil eliminates problems like this, with intelligent puzzles, that are easy to solve(if you have a working brain), and the combat is easy on the hands, but fierce enough to keep you paying attention.

However, there is one other rough spot. A good chunk of this game, is spent doing the Solid Snake/Sam Fischer routine...hence, stealth based gameplay. In some ways, this could kill a game, but not Beyond Good and Evil, since it pulls that element off as flawlessly as it does everything else. It's not easy, but it's not insanely hard either.

Now, back to the average gamer thing I mentioned. When this game came out, they advertised it on TV, magazines and pro reviewers gave it outstanding, and remarkably high scores...and yet, not ONE PERSON really bought it. Why?

They were busy buying crap like Halo and Tomb Raider. I've said it a billion times, but I'll say it again. Not playing this game, is like never seeing a classic movie. It's like eating a sandwitch with no meat. Missing Beyond Good and Evil, is litterally a sin.

The production values, voice acting, characters, gameplay...it all adds up to be one of the best games you could ever own, and yet why do I feel like people are going to avoid it for no reason, other then it has no "sex and violence" appeal. Yeah, GTA was cool..but did it tell a story worth listening to? Nope. The reason I still see this game on store shelves for a mere 10 dollars used or new, is the same as I listed above. People buy crap.

Do yourselves and your console/PC a huge favor, and buy this game. If you buy it, and don't like it for a good reason, E-mail me, and I'll let you kick me in the nuts for recommending it. Yes, I'm willing to make that wager, because of all the people who have played it, only 5 I know didn't like it...and why?

They were Zelda fans. Zelda is, and has been dead people. This was set to be the new "Zelda", and it never got there(there were going to be two more BG&E games...not now though).

Final time I'm going to say it. You deserve to play this. It does not matter what kind of a gamer you are, if you like to play well crafted games, you'll enjoy this. If you like to play crap...then yeah, go play Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness or Halo 2...or whatever "pointless sex and violence" game you can find. Not saying I don't enjoy those kinda games, but Beyond Good and Evil is another league altogether.

The leauge of "Best games of all time"

I've played quite a lot of games over the years, and I came upon this one. I found it as a PC Demo, and played it... My PC of course, at the time, would not play it because my PC wasn't good enough. So I managed to squeeze like 3 minutes of fighting in (The first part of the game) And I instantly knew I HAD to have it. Within the week I bought it for PS2, and enjoyed it-- But I got distracted with other things and put it down. I'm just now getting back to it, and find it amazing, and I can't understand why I had ignored it for so long.... Which also makes me wonder how others could.

People ate up Kingdom Hearts, so no one can tell me this game is too "cartoony." I think what turned most gamers off was the main character. Tomb Raider was a sell-out because of Lara Croft, I would have to assume. That's all you heard about, not the mind-twisting puzzles ^^; Maybe if they slapped Jade in booty shorts and a half shirt the majority of the gamer population (you know who I mean) would have noticed this game, and it would have gotten the official ratings it deserved. Then again maybe it was the fact it wasn't advertised and franchised 1/5000 as much. Maybe its because Utada Hikaru didn't make the main theme. I don't know, but not playing this is a mistake.

It's a "Teen" game. That means it's directed at us. And in the end it puts out. This game isnt about sex appeal, and it isnt for small children (Not intended, but like any game could easily work out for them). Cartoony yes, but in a humorous sense. If you're checking this game out for the reasons I did -- Looking for a mix of fun, logic and cool fighting (I loved Oni...) -- then this should be it. This is Tomb Raider with great graphics, less idiotic hardship and a much better main role you can enjoy to play as.

I don't mean by my title that this game is hard to find. More that a game as well done as this only comes around once and a while. I spent about 20 hours exploring the world of Hylis. 20 hours which seemed to be only 10-15 hours. Time passes much faster outside the little bubble of blissful ignorance that will form around you while playing this game because, frankly, the outside world will seem to fade as you almost become Jade, becoming increasingly immersed in the beautiful yet dark world of Beyond Good and Evil.

The game opens with an alien attack by creatures known as the Domz. After a simple battle, you recieve your camera and can begin exploring your small island home, which also happens to be a lighthouse. When you first get the camera, you'll recieve one of the game's main side quests: photographing all the world's animals. This quest continues throught the game and takes a bit of work to complete, although you won't regret it. It is one of the most entertaining mini-games I have ever seen, keeping you entertained durring and between misions. After you've finished photographing the animals and exploring the environment, you begin you're adventure by recieving a speedboat from your best friend and companion, Pay'j.

Before I go on to mention anything else, I should probably go into detail about the environment. Although the game's graphics are often very cartoony, the cartoon world of Hylis comes alive in the form of the teeming life you see everywhere around you. There are the small things, such as the detailed rock walls of caverns, to the way the water moves, to all the people walking out on the streets. Everything just seems so alive that it will seem almost magical. The game also has a wonderful distance engine, which allows the player to see things from a very large distance, such as a whale leaping from the water, or other boats, or even the larger details of the game's several islands.

While running around taking pictures and fighting evil is fun, it is just as much fun to cruise around on the speed boat and the rocket ship, once you get it. While there is some fighting and picture taking to be had aboard the ship, it was not quite frequent enough for me, and I had to just make due with the 3 boat race courses and the four smugglers caverns, with the occasional Domz attack.

The main collectible in this game is the pearl, and pearls are required to progress through the game, with some additional pearls added in to give you more choice as to what quests to perform to progress in the game. The games quests vary. While you will get pearls automatically for progression in the game's rich plot, you will also have to take pictures of animals, fight some hidden Domz, win boat races, defeat smugglers, infiltrate government buildings in which pearls are held, and other little quests, many involving the perchase of pearls. Also, to avoid all the annoying serching that most games have to get the last collectibles, you can buy an item that will label pearl and animal locations on your map so that you have an idea of where to look, although it won't tell you how to get them.

The puzzles in the game are very well done, and, for the most part, simple. There is one puzzle later on that is quite well done because it is hard without being contrived or ridiculously pointless or anything else that can be complained about. Other puzzles involve finding clever ways of sneaking past guards or getting over a wall. It's one of those games where solving puzzles isn't extremely difficult as long as you look for the game's hints, yet still give a very rewarding feeling after their completion.

Almost done... This game isn't exactly an action game. Like in most RPGs, you can't fall of edges into bottomless pits, although enemies can kill you. Jade will do most jumping and action oriented moves by herself, leaving you to fight monsters and solve puzzles. The controls are very responsive and should never frustrate the player, especially with the fantastic camera, which places itself in basically the best position almost automatically, although there are sometimes when it would be nice to be able to move it. This makes doing battle simple, although it's not to hard to begin with. Most enemies are slow to attack and give you plenty of time to prepare a good strategy to dealing with them.

To wrap up, I need to mention the two most surprising things about this game. First off, it had almost no bugs that I could find. I found one spot where I fell through a floor, but I can only blame myself for that one, and it was easy to avoid the spot once I knew what I did to get into it. Did I mention that there are save points EVERYWHERE, so you never have to worry about getting really far and then getting stuck having to turn it off and losing 30 minutes of playing. Also, being killed only places you back at the entrance of a room, making some of the more frustrating sneaking bits much less so. The other bug was simply a quest desription bug on Salene which described the Pay'j quest as the "escaping the Slaughterhouse" quest. Other than that, I had no problems with the game's mechanics. Another surprise in this game was the increadible music, which had a great Latin feel and really got your feet moving and sometimes your head moving from side to side.

This game's story line never lets up and keeps you on the edge of your seat right up till the fantastic final battle. There were even several spots (especially the lighthouse bit near the end), when I almost cried because of the game's extremely emotional presentation. The only irritating thing is that the game seems to have one of those 'prepare for a sequal' endings, with some little loose ends to tie up, yet I have heard no plans for one as of yet. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled, I guess.

Anyway, if you're still reading this (I didn't realize I had this much to say about BG&E, sorry), this game goes beyond good and bad and reaches a level which few games attain of utter perfection. Every little thing in this game is thrown at you in just the right amount to entertain you, yet keep you begging for more. If you can find this game used, it makes a great addition to anyone's collection, but even new it's still a great deal for a great game.

Too bad this game isn't selling millions, because it's a great game. Oh well, UBI Soft's loss is our gain. Just check out that price!

Made by the creators of Rayman, Beyond Good & Evil features the same quirky style but aimed at old audiences. You play Jade, a photographer living on a planet under attack from aliens. She suspects the military is conspiring with the aliens instead of protecting everyone, and joins an underground newspaper to find out the truth. I liked the above-average maturity of this games themes of family, love, and loss during a war.

Gameplay is fun, if not a little generic, but the overall package is wonderful. Jade's main purpose is to sneak through military bases and take pictures to expose the conspiracy. As a side-quest, she also collects pictures of animals throughout the world. Jade fights with a staff and plastic disks, fun but utterly forgetable. The hovercraft, however, is insane fun, a racing engine where you feel out of control even when you aren't, and the developers wisely made the hovercraft about 50% of the whole game.

It has a very parent-friendly shine that tones down the violence, which is probably the reason it didn't sell well - the gloss robs the game of some personality. The main character fights will a staff and plastic disks instead of guns and bombs. Funny thing is, the end result is the same, the bad guys are killed violently, so what have we really gained from this approach? It's mostly not important, but this game has a slight "preaching" tone, so you will probably think about it at some point while playing.

There is a ton of personality in this game, little details, mini-games, story moments, but the game is very short, about 10 hours long. Yet overall, you can ignore that, and the game is well worth it's current price.

Not many products I buy get me off the couch to write a review, but this is one of them. Of course I do have my own interests in mind. This is an absolutely amazing adventure game. The world the developers have created is truly immersive and stimulating. The gameplay is strong and varied, from racing, to shooting, to sneaking and hand-to-hand combat, it has it all. The world and characters look straight out of a children's fairytale, yet are still impressive. Everything drips with attitude. Not only are the graphics beautiful and the gameplay strong, but also the story really holds your attention. Don't let the cartoon graphics fool you though; the games conspiracy plot gets increasingly more sinister as you play along. Previous reviewers have complained about the length of this game, but I found it to be a comfortable 14 hours. But then again, I don't take length into consideration when playing an adventure game. I was happy with the 7 hours of gameplay I got with Silent Hill 3. So what are my deeper motives for writing this review you ask? I want to get the word out that this is a good game. I'm hoping that maybe if this game sells strong with the 20$ price tag, they will make a sequel. And believe me, the games ending definitely sets up for a sequel, one that will probably never be made due to the unjustified poor sales. So buy this game so I can play BG&E 2!

A mix of the gameplay of Zelda, the dreamy and nightmarish atmospheres of Rayman, touched off with science-fiction and fantasy.

Plot:

You are Jade, a woman who makes a living as a photo-journalist. Your home is the wondrous world of Hyllis, and you just happen to live at a harbor town surrounded by military facilties. If it wasn't for the Alpha Sections, the invading Domz would certainly have wiped out the city already and captured all of its inhabitants...however, a chance job offer gives Jade an opportunity to discover the truth behind the Alpha Sections and the Domz, and a story of military conspiracy unfolds.

Graphics:

Everything natural is depicted with a sense of fantasy and wonder...the sight of glowing foliage is simply enchanting. Everything mechanical is depicted in all of its rusting, polluting, oil-dripping horror. The harbor town gives both a feeling of a southern, tropical, coastal town, but also of a cold, northern shanty.

You can't help convincing yourself of the smell of salt water and fish. In many instances, you feel like you are in the game; in a chase scene, nearby objects explode as you run by them, since you are being shot at by your pursuers.

Sound:

The music is excellently composed...too bad you do not hear it more often, as it often doesn't cue where and when it's supposed to. The musical style is ambient, that is, what you would hear in that kind of environment, composed mostly of sound effects working together to sound like music. The compositions that are indeed supposed to be musical range in a variety of different styles, from Reggae, Latin, and Asian in some locales, to rock and techno for battle and chase scenes.

The movie-like plot of the game is told through cinematic scenes accompanied by voice-overs of cinematic quality. Each character has their own passionate personality, colloquialisms, and catch phrases.

Gameplay:

Said above, the gameplay is a lot like Zelda. The functions of certain buttons are clearly defined, and are identified when you can interact with an object. Near a person, the display across the "X" button says "Talk." Near a mine cart that you can push, it says "Push." Near an enemy, it says "Attack." Gameplay focuses more around puzzles than fighting though, as there are no levels or experience points to be gained, Jade's strength only changes with a few power-ups. When you do have to fight your way out, you often have to use a specific strategy to take care of even simple enemies. Having to throw your enemy in the air, and then hit them while they're airborne and immobile certainly adds a good deal of strategy. There are still enemies that you can brutally put down, however.

Lastly, as a photo-journalist, you can make a photo archive of the Hyllian animal species for a scientific institution to earn money.

Overall:

Everything in the game is executed rather well...the only problem is, it's too short! The main quest will probably only take you from ten to fourteen hours to complete. It took me about thirty hours to complete, but I did about every side mission possible, and took my time to enjoy the game. Of course, if you don't have much time to play a long game through entirely, this is a game not too long or two short simply for one or two hours of enjoyment every night or every other night.