I finally completed the stealth/photography action/adventure game Beyond Good and Evil. My roomate got this 6 year old game a few months ago and we even had to setup the original Xbox to run it (doesn’t work on the 360).
I now see why it makes people sad that the game did not get enough attention because it didn’t sell too many copies, though I understand why it may not appeal for the typical audience big game studios are still trying to sell to (unnecessarily angsty teenage boys who want something more “bad ass” with lots of graphical effects). Still, the game was clearly aimed at that audience because it follows your typical hero’s journey/save the world power fantasy, it has a sci-fi setting, a cute tomboyish girl as the main character, and quite a bit of combat.
All in all, aside from some rudimentary combat design, the game has aged pretty well. I enjoyed quite a lot and besides having the typical story formula, the setting and the characters had a lot of personality and it was really easy to get into the world that was created to keep playing the game until the very end. There’s also a lot of quirky stuff in there that just makes it fun, from the music, environments, dialogue, etc. Everything for the most part comes together pretty well. One of the possible downsides is that is one of those games that you play once and may never play again because it’s very story-driven and very linear, so the replay value is quite low.
If you haven’t tried it, it’s worth checking out if you have a gamecube/xbox/ps2 lying around and don’t mind spending time looking for it on eBay or something.
