Beyond Good & Evil (PlayStation 2)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 4.0 stars Excellent
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 8.3 (4.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Jeff Gerstmann
• Reviewed on: 11/13/2003
• Released on: 11/11/2003
• Originally published on GameSpot: Beyond Good & Evil (PlayStation 2) Review

Beyond Good & Evil is an action adventure game from Michel Ancel, the man credited with the creation of the highly acclaimed Rayman series. This time out, Ancel is shelving his platform-genre roots in favor of a Legend of Zelda-like game with a heavy focus on puzzle-solving and stealth. While Beyond Good & Evil feels pretty short, its interesting premise and impressive presentation pick up the slack and make it a game well worth playing.

Beyond Good & Evil puts you in the role of Jade, a young woman who, along with her humanoid pig uncle, Pey'j, runs a lighthouse on the planet Hillys. Hillys is at war with an alien force known as the DomZ, and an elite squadron known as the Alpha Sections protects Hillys from the alien threat. Or does it? An underground rebel organization known as the IRIS Network charges that the Alphas control both sides of the equation. IRIS is essentially a rogue news network, informing the people via a newsletter that strives to expose the link between Hillys' protectors and the alien menace. That's where Jade, a photographer-for-hire when not tending to the lighthouse, comes in. You quickly hook up with IRIS and spend the bulk of the game infiltrating Alpha strongholds, camera at your side, in search of the truth.

But you won't go at it alone. The game gives you a companion most of the time, and many puzzles will require you to get your associate to do things. Only one contextual button is used to command your companion, so it's usually pretty easy to get him to act. The AI of your partner is usually pretty good, but we occasionally had to backtrack to get him unstuck from walls or railings.

Most of the game's interior sections have you out, on foot, and in search of photographic evidence. You're looking for specific pictures, and the areas of interest are marked on your map. The game does have combat, but it's a fairly straightforward system that suffices without excelling. The real meat of the gameplay comes from its puzzle-solving, though there's a little too much repetition in the puzzles, which can make some sections of the game feel pretty tedious. Almost every room will require you to do a little thinking. Sometimes it's as easy as using your projectile attack to push a button on the other side of a force field. Sometimes you'll have to find fuses in other parts of an installation to power elevators or other equipment. Sometimes you'll have to learn a password to proceed into a locked area. And there's a whole lot of sneaking around.

In Beyond Good & Evil, stealth is treated much like the rest of the game's puzzles. You simply want to get to the next room, but patrolling guards are in the way. So you'll either have to avoid detection by staying out of sight or incapacitate the guards by blinding them with a well-placed shot to the tank on their backs. A guard can repair another guard's faulty tank, so in rooms with multiple guards, you'll have to either be a fast shot or find a quieter way through. Nonlethal stealth is quickly becoming one of those "love it or hate it" gameplay elements, and while the stealth in BG&E is handled well, there's enough of it to turn off people who don't care for it.

Running around dark corridors isn't the only thing you'll do in Beyond Good & Evil. The game's 10- to 15-hour quest also has you piloting a hovercraft, which is your primary mode of transport on Hillys. The craft can shoot, and you'll upgrade it over time to fire more powerful blasts, as well as give it the ability to jump.

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Beyond Good & Evil (PlayStation 2): $9.50 - $14.99

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