Video games are typically about moments. Moments where the player overcomes a challenge (rather like a competitive sport), reveals tantalising plot developments (rather like a book) or sees something wonderful (rather like a film).
Beyond Good & Evil was originally released way back in 2002, during the previous console generation. Perhaps the best reminder of this fact is that while this game is still about moments, they are often moments of intense frustration which require all of your patience and resolve to persevere through some rather frustrating sections. These are offset by other moments, where it all falls into place, raises a smile on your face and becomes a relaxing, whimsical voyage through a very creative mind - that of
Rayman creator Michel Ancel. And at these moments, the idea that you may have missed out on this because of the aforementioned
other moments is sobering. It's that kind of game - flawed but beautiful.
That the game transcends some truly horrible design decisions and immense frustration is testament to just how good the rest of it is, so we'll start with what it gets right. Set on the fantastical land of Hillys, the game features - amongst other things - a typically French, green lipstick toting photojournalist heroine named Jade, an alien invasion force known as The Domz, an inexplicable talking pig named Pey'j and a wide variety of crudely developed but oddly endearing racial stereotypes, such as the Rastafarian mechanics and eastern bloc freedom fighters.
The game sets out its stall from the very beginning, introducing cinematic elements which were unheard of at the time and still not common today - the game opens with time-slowing-down battle which seems to mix the cinematic stylings of Wes Anderson and Jean-Pierre Jeunet to great effect, and this cinematic language continues throughout the game without feeling forced.
It probably shouldn't work, but like many of the best idiosyncratic works of fiction, it does. It isn't like anything else you will experience, and that is a pretty big deal for gamers who have been following the medium since it's inception. Memorable and charming, the world created here is a marvel. It is a deceptively small sandbox, but this merely creates a tightly focused and less meandering experience than some other games of a similar ilk - there are no 5 minute sessions of holding "up" on the pad while watching the waves pass by, for example (Wind Waker, I'm looking at you).
Visually and aurally the game is also superb. Graphically dated it may be, but the animation and character design still looks great today and draw the player in nicely - this is a straight port of the PC version, and therefore looks quite a bit better than many ports of last-gen games. The soundtrack hasn't dated at all and is fantastic, featuring huge variety in both instrumentation and style while still staying true to the world it occupies.
A lot of work has also clearly gone into developing the characters, and a story the player can empathise with. It succeeds, largely; it isn't particularly original and falls back on conspiracy theory cliches many times, but only the hardest of hearts will fail to empathise with our heroine and the peril of her world.
So far, so good. And for the first few hours of play, it's a joy. BG&E is a third person arcade adventurer, somewhat like modern Zelda games. Combat is simple (mash X, repeat) yet fluid and satisfying, and you will spend quite a lot of time photographing the wildlife all around you for cash and rewards, which works well and helps to flesh out Jade as a real character too. The gentle story development keeps the player interested, and the characters have far more depth than the cartoon exterior might suggest.
However, the use of multiple game mechanics starts to come unstuck right about the time that you reach the first one which isn't well implemented, at all - stealth. Almost a game breaker, the game's hamfisted approach to stealth mechanics is painful, and forces you to employ them almost exclusively for the game's middle third. Thanks mainly to an awful (and at times, utterly bizzare) camera which restricts your ability to look around as you would expect, the game drops into a cycle of creep-die-reload which will be all to familiar to players of the more unfair modern FPS games, such as CoD or Killzone. Generous checkpointing helps, but serves as a reminder that this is not a remotely difficult game, just an unfair one. Demon's Souls it ain't.
Other atrocious mechanics include hovercraft racing and inverting (yes, INVERTING) the controls during a particular boss battle. These things aren't fun, aren't necessary and certainly won't have helped the game become a commercial success back in 2002, where it was something of a failure (sales-wise, at least).
When all's said and done though, the moments where it does all come together outshine those which sour the experience. You'll get a good 12 hours of entertainment out of this for your 800MSP (that's how long I spent finishing the game and collecting all of the
Achievements), and deserves to be played by anybody who missed it first time around.
7/10
Available now on
XBox Live Arcade, coming soon to Playstation Network.
