The Biggest Game Project on this Planet

#9: Beyond Good and Evil

I love Ubisoft. They're about the only Western company that makes decent games, now that Rare seems to have gone to complete waste. Plus, they've made a bunch of very decent and affordable games for Gamecube (or for every platform actually) one of which is Beyond Good and Evil.

In this game, you play Jade, who's entirely clad in green, hence the name.
How Original.




But don't confuse the black woman with the bad dress-sense from that awful game series with the slightly colored girl with the headband from that pretty cool game, cos Beyond Good and Evil is actually a very entertaining game.
Jade is a reporter who gets recruited by a small rebel organization to....um.....rebel against the Government, which has secretly joined hands with an Invading Alien Race called the Domz.

Taking pictures is therefore an intrinsic part of the gameplay. You have to take pictures to provide proof of the Governments Hidden Agenda, which will be published in the Rebel's little pamphlet to let the Good People of Hylia know what's going on.
Also you have to take pictures of rare species of animals to earn money and and pearls and stuff. Pretty cool.

Other than that, the game seems to be a cross between Zelda-like combat and Metal Gear Solid-type Stealth Dungeon Crawling, whilst, unfortunately, never reaching the same heights of either of those series.
Hylia, Jade's home planet, is very pretty to look at, especially the outside scenes, there's a whole shitload of pearls to collect, I wouldn't know what happens if you get all of them, cos I never bothered, but it's enough to keep you busy for awhile.

The version I played was entirely dubbed in Dutch, which is something that doesn't happen very often in Console Games, and as far as I'm concerned, shouldn't become regular practice. There is some amusing dialogue though, even in Dutch, and voice acting is not that bad, but the fact that the entire cast is the same as the very cheaply dubbed anime we get on TV over here just causes a lot of involuntary negative cross-referencing. Which is an expensive way of saying that I've come to LOATHE those voices and they make me want to vomit convulsively.

Fortunately, it is also possible to opt for a French Dub! Yay!
Oh, wait, that sucks too. D'oh!
Actually, I've been told that if you send your copy to your friendly local Ubisoft Department you can exchange it for the English version, free of charge, I just didn't bother to.

All complaining aside, the game is really very enjoyable, although, as mentioned, never quite as good as all the games it seems to be stealing from. Just a good game and a good waste of time whilst you're waiting for the next big hit to come along.
An 8.3!

posted by Ingen! @ 2:08 PM