Late to the Party: Beyond Good and Evil

The excitement over Beyond Good and Evil 2 gave me the motivation to finally track down and play the original game. The cult following it garnered over the years always intrigued me, being drawn to things of the sort. Unfortunately it also ratcheted up the resale value of the game. What was once $10 a month after release now goes for over $60 on eBay. I found a cheap copy (no manual or case) and jumped right into the adventure. So after finishing the game, does it hold up to the hype it received? Eh.

More than anything else, BG&E defies categorization. The combat, puzzle-solving, and dungeon-like levels are reminiscent of the Zelda series, yet a large amount of time is spent stealthily sneaking past guards and photographing evidence. There's also a healthy amount of minigames, races, vehicular travel, and exploration. On top of that, a CPU-controlled partner accompanies you on missions. The game accomplishes all of these things fairly well, but nothing really stands out.

The combat mostly consists of mashing A until the bad guys go boom. They do mix it up with partner cooperation, but the heart of the combat is pretty simplistic overall. Boss battles are rare and passably entertaining. Thankfully the developers made combat a very small portion of the game.

Stealth manages to be pretty engaging if you're willing to look past the glaring holes in the premise. Jade (our heroine) must sneak past guards in each facility, but most every room has a giant gap in the guards' patrol route that even the most rudimentary defense expert could spot. On top of that, should she be spotted, Jade only needs to retreat to a very obvious hiding spot and the guards and sentry drones will return to their posts in about 15 seconds as though nothing's wrong. Consequently sneaking through each room feels less like stealth and more like light puzzle-solving. It's interesting enough, but the discrepancies detract from the experience.

The story and characters are the key points that pushed BG&E from sleeper hit to cult classic, but I just wasn't feeling it. Pey'j, Double H, and the others are certainly colorful, but they're not very compelling. Maybe I'm just incapable of caring about a pig that makes bacon jokes every time he nearly bites it. Or Double H's bizarre recitation from some policeman's manual. I mean the guy's supposed to be this espionage expert, but talks like he's a meathead who reads military manuals. If you're a fan of government conspiracies, the plot will certainly hold your attention, but the twists won't every knock you on your back. Even the final battle's surprise revelation was underwhelming. It's also not explained very much, when there [i]definitely[/i] should've been some explanations forthcoming.



The visuals and audio hold up pretty well. It has a day/night cycle system, which seems to exist for the sake of having a day/night cycle system. The water reflections impress, particularly during sunrises. The entire game is letterboxed which you get used to but is kind of annoying at the beginning of the game. The voice acting is decent. The cinematic score hits all the right notes when the drama kicks up, it's just hard in cynical mind to feel for a girl's bond with the anthromorphic pig who raised her. Call it prejudice.



So overall I liked the game, but feel no desire to play it again.