Gaming Target - Xbox: Beyond Good & Evil

Written by Ryan Genno on March 17, 2004

Full Review: Sometimes it's good to be evil.

Ubisoft was developing the interesting title Beyond Good and Evil for around four years, and now we finally get to see the end result. Unfortunately, beyond GaE is one of those highly acclaimed video games that just got lost in the holiday rush of 2003. Since the game didn't sell as well as some of the other big profile titles like True Crime or Final Fantasy X-2, Beyond Good and Evil is already selling at a discount price. Now that this title is cheaper, should you finally buy a copy to see what all the fuss is about, or should the game still continue to be ignored by the most of the public?

In the fictional fantasy world of Hillys, the story revolves around a young woman named Jade and her fight to protect her home and family from an alien race called the DomZ. Things go from bad to worse for poor Jade when she finds herself flat broke and unable to even power her shields Ц in case these mysterious aliens ever attack again. Since your government isn't much help, you need to make some much-needed extra cash right away and that's where your camera skills come in. As you talk to more and more people, it doesn't take long to find that there is more going on here then meets the eye. It's up to you to discover and expose the truth about your government's reasons behind this war with the DomZ. Fighting the government over their reasons for going to war kind of sounds like something ripped out of today's headlines, but it's still a great narrative for a game nonetheless. Beyond Good & Evil certainly has more story then most video games currently available.

If you are familiar with the famous 3D Legend of Zelda series then you should feel right at home here, because this game features many dungeon-like levels that remind me of those cool games. The game play actually mixes a little bit of everything since there are a lot of puzzles, driving and shooting scenes that go with the important photo information you need to gather. If taking pictures doesn't sound very exciting (anyone remember Pokemon Snap?), Jade can also throw a mean stick around as well if someone decides to get in her face. You don't have to worry about Beyond GaE controls either, because the game will always tell you what to do. This way you don't have to keep flipping through the manual just to find out what button you have to press. This makes the game very accessible.

Another great thing about this game is the absolutely spectacular visuals and sound. Each area I visited had an enormous amount of detail and colour, plus you can actually see the emotions on the character's faces when they speak. In places where there is music, most of the tracks are very well composed. You can tell Ubisoft really did their homework when it came to creating their own fantasy world.