Beyond Good and Evil

So I was talking to my friend about Ubisoft, then about this, remembered the steam sale, saw it was £3.50 and purchased it there and then.  To be honest so should everyone else.

Beyond Good and Evil follows the story of photographer and owner of the lighthouse, Jade. With her green jacket and lipstick and short hair to boot, she isn't overly sexy but seems pretty normal. She looks after orphaned children at the lighthouse, keeping them safe from attacks by the Domz (Galactic menaces) along with her uncle Peyj, a pig, or Sus Sapien. Probably uncle through lots of care and living together.

The story opens with a Domz attack and meteors falling across Hyllis. One of the meteors crashes in front of the lighthouse and the Domz inside take control of the children. Jade has no choice but to fend them off and this begins the start of the game.

The game is pretty short numbering in only 4 main areas and clocking in fully at maybe 9-10 hours however the game is pretty unique by most standards. Its an action/adventure/stealth game. You can explore a decently large part of the world, fight domz and other monsters and sneak around Alpha section facilities in order to expose the truth to the world. That is only after Jade is recruited by the rebellion to show the people of Hyllis who the Alpha section (their protectors) really are.

For a game of its time BG&E looked quite amazing. Everything was nicely drawn, textures were believeable and the landscape was pretty serene, if mostly flooded by water. The stylised parts of the game include most things being rounded or off centre. Not much in the game is parallel to something else, giving a really smooth look overall. The characters are also pretty different by the standards 7 years ago. There are goat, pig, shark, walrus, cat and Rhino sapiens. Special props to the Rhinos for owning Mammgos garage and also being jamaican rhinos too.

Overall likeable characters and great character development through Jade, especially after you return from the Slaughterhouse. The lighthouse destroyed and the children taken, there is nothing left for Jade anymore, considering Peyj was taken earlier. So you get a Space engine off the Rhinos and jet into space to save the world :D Then it took them these 7 years to tell us there would be a sequel. Bout time considering the ending they left us with.

Anyway, another factor of the game is the camera. The initial mission is to get money and this is issued by the science people to take photos of every animal in the world. Its pretty good when you take into account there are about 50 or so different animals to take pictures of, this includes the people, the enemies and general world animals. Its always great dodging a bosses attacks just so you can get a photo of them. Then the bigger meat of sneaking into Alpha Section bases of operations so that you can get proof that they are not as great as they say. Taking photos of certain crates and Alpha Section members with their helmets off really draws you in. Seeing the boxes for the first time you realise its worse than you thought, then seeing them in the slaughterhouse being packed for the moon is even worse. They mustve taken half the population. Its quite an emotional journey and spurs you on to rescue them and Peyj. By the end of the game, you've made a big enough difference to the people of Hyllis that no one believes in the Alpha sections and an uprising has started. 

And to think, this was just one planet out of hundreds that the Domz and Alpha Sections are at