All of this is surrounded in a pretty decent plot on a world where human-animal hybrids arepart of the natural order on the planet, and an invasion force of aliens called the DomZ havebeen trying to take over. The big plot mechanic here involves the planet’s own military andpolice force, the Alpha Section, and how they’re actually conspiring with the DomZ tokidnap people and rule the planet. Your character, Jade, will get caught up in figuring outthe conspiracy, and presumably destroying whatever evil is really out there. Her sidekick isa grizzled old half-pig called Pey’J who has a knack for fixing things. Jade will alsosometimes team up with a bumbling hero called Double H. Most of the characters are prettyunique, and the animation along with the voice acting really make them come alive.

You’ll spend your time in BG&E; split between doing some on-foot adventuring and drivingaround in your hovercraft (as well as another vehicle later in the game), and honestly, thisis so much more fun and interesting to me than The Wind Waker‘s boats. The game worldisn’t quite as big, as the adventure is kind of short – about nine to twelve hours – but it hasplenty of hidden and bonus stuff for you to enjoy.

As is the style nowadays with the genre, BG&E; includes a few mini-games. The hovercraft races are very well done and quite fun to try, and the tabletop game you can play is also pretty well done. These feel a bit weird with the mouse-and-keyboard controls,seeing as they are really better done on a gamepad, but it only takes a couple minutes’ adjustment to do fine.

Jade will fight monsters with a staff-type weapon and gets plenty of cool-looking attacks,but most of these are just triggered by button mashing. As is the standard with games like this, the difficulty is in timing your hits while dodging the enemy’s attacks. You won’t just be fighting on foot, though; some of the game’s most hectic action sequences come while you’re in the hovercraft. And while I found The Wind Waker‘sboat system to be a hassle, the hovercraft is much more fun to drive around in. The factthat I can also participate in races or fight in some action sequences with the hovercraftrounds out the game that much more.

There are a few stealth levels in the game, but these are mainly used to break up the game’s usual light puzzles & melee action during the dungeon sequences. They’re notparticularly hard or frustrating, although I still have to question the reasoning behindnot giving people the additional option to fight their way through the situation everytime.

The pearls the player collects will go towards major upgrades for your hovercraft, whilethe cash you earn (which can be won in many, many ways) will buy health-restoring food,minor vehicle upgrades, items to detect pearls, and even upgrades for your staff specialattacks. One of the best ways to make money is to explore and take pictures of the game’smany species of life – while the camera becomes an important part of gameplay pretty earlyon, you should always be on the lookout for new creatures to take pictures of.

This mayremind you of the need to scan items in Metroid Prime, but it’s the cash rewards that make this different enough to feel new. The camera can actually also be used totruly “scan” things, which will give up bits of info on all sorts of items in the gameworld. Finally, you will also get an upgrade that allows you to aim and shoot discs fromyour first-person camera view. This becomes a pretty integral part of gameplay as youmove along.

It’s the smoothness of gameplay that really shines through in Beyond Good & Evil,as well as the atmosphere that you’ll see in just about every corner of every level.Combine this withsolid voice acting and tight controls, and you’ll wonder why people didn’t snap this gameup before it was reduced in price. Now consider the price, and this game becomes a must-have for anyone who enjoys platform action games. The story is engaging but notwhat I’d call an instant classic – still, I think it’s good enough to keep most peopleplaying.

Sound & Music – 92%

With BG&E;, Ubisoft has paid far more attention to detail in sound than most gamedevelopers do. Not only is the voice acting pretty solid, but the sound effects are excellent. There are quite a few jokes in the game, and while only a few got more thana chuckle out of me, that’s more than I can say for most games’ attempts at humor.

The music in the game is highly varied and it’s all pretty interesting stuff. Theambience in the adventure areas, as well as the strange “Propaganda” song in the bar(which also plays during the game’sinstall) were the highlights for me. These tunes are a bit strange at first, but theyreally grew on me after a while.

Overall – 88%

Ubisoft has delivered a great sleeper title with Beyond Good & Evil despite acouple of control and technical issues. It avoids many of the problems in theaction/adventure genre while creating a unique atmosphere. It borrows plenty fromother similar games, but the new presentation (as well as the interesting charactersand environments) are what make this game a winner.

Technology: 83% Interface: 78% Graphics: 91%

Gameplay: 89% Sound and Music: 92%

Overall: 88%

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