Beyond Good and Evil Review
Beyond Good & Evil came out for the last generation of consoles (Gamecube, PS2, and XBOX), but because of its underground success Ubisoft was willing to update the graphics a smidgen and throw it back to the public on at least the XBOX Live Arcade Marketplace. You will be playing the role of Jade, an innocent person who gets thrusted into the role of a secret agent.
Graphically you can see that the world and character models came from the XBOX, but at least it looks like there was a bit of polish applied to them before the released the game. All the animation is smooth, and the cut scenes are just as I remembered them, well made.
When the characters actually speak you'll find the voice acting top notch. Sure its an older game so a conversation won't always produce vocals, but when it does you can definitely feel that there's something to the characters.
The controls had to change slightly to accommodate the change in buttons and layout. Overall though the transition doesn't cripple the game, and after a couple minutes the controls feel good. There are some response issues when you're trying to get timing down, but overall the controls have made it, perhaps, slightly improved.
In this very unique world of several different species and a mysterious space agency battling an unknown enemy, you are simply Jade, a person who is trying to look after some kids, and who's best friend is a pig-man. Almost right off the bat your place gets attacked and you'll get to show off what you can do with a staff. Part of the game is having to fight through enemies and monsters alike, but the real meet of the game, to me is the picture taking. You'll be given a camera, and it is through the camera that you'll get to learn so much about the world that you'll be interacting with. Anytime you see some new or strange creature snap a picture of it and learn a bit about it. You'll also get rewarded for taking pictures. Sometimes the rewards come as upgrades to the camera, other times they come as Pearls. Pearls are basically the black market currency and will be used to enhance your ride. There will also be pearls aplenty hidden throughout the game. Personally the store and the way the game flows caught me and wouldn't let me go. I'd like to point out that it did this both on the XBOX and the 360, so this game still stands as something worth playing.
If you're looking for a good game that might not have had the best commercial success, but is still one of the best games out there, you need to pick up this game and give it a spin. Even with the time that has passed this game is a good buy, and perhaps with more people picking up this version the fabled sequel might start rolling again. This game gets a solid 8.9 out of 10.
