Beyond Good & Evil
Next up is Beyond Good & Evil. This game, by Michael Ancel of Ubisoft, was sorely overlooked. It featured a good sci-fi setting and some groovy music to start. Players take on the role of Jade whose home world is constantly under attack by aliens call the DomZ. In order to keep her home’s force field working and protecting the orphans she cares for, Jade takes a job photographing different species throughout her home world for money. The gig turns out to be a front for the IRIS Network, a renegade group working against the DomZ and a corrupt government agency (Alpha Section). During the adventure you will experience a variety of gameplay elements, memorable characters and sprawling scenery of the main world, Hillys, and its moon in a more open-world environment.
The gameplay is a mixture of action-adventure and stealth, as you fight martial arts style with a bo and sneak into government facilities for the IRIS Network. The action portions of the game can get repetitive without a more in-depth fighting system like God of War, but the stealth sections more than make up for this. These stages require patience and good planning to survive as you sneak behind enemies through all kinds of tunnels and laser securities.
There are more gameplay styles than just stealth and combat, though. There are also boat races and eventually air travel. At times the DomZ will attack while you’re in your boat traveling to other locations, all ports will shut down and you will be forced to fight off the attack from your ship. Also, at certain points in the game, you will have a partner to fight along side you. These are never controllable characters, but you can assign them an attack and a target. This system is used both in combat and in solving puzzles.
Beyond Good & Evil was a great game and well deserving of the upcoming sequel. Though sales were never strong, critics still gave high marks, with a Metacritic score of 87. This game was so good that after playing it, Peter Jackson approached Michael Ancel about making a game for King Kong to go alongside his remake. So yeah, the game is impressive and can be found online for just $14.99.
