I've always heard of Beyond Good & Evil as something of a cult classic; critically acclaimed, but not the system seller or series seller that Ubisoft's later works Prince of Persia: Sands of Time or Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory would become, and as a result Beyond Good & Evil got swept to the side, never to really be heard from again while Assassin's Creed got a million sequels. And it's such a damn shame that happened, because Beyond Good & Evil is so fucking good.
I don't think it's the most polished game out there; there are occasional moments of jank where your AI companion might take a little bit longer to get to your position (and for me, got stuck in the doorway once) and how corner hit detection during races and the goddamn pellet game messed me up multiple times. And the combat is servicable, not amazing; you can get by just hack and slashing most of the time, and this could have used a bit more depth. And yet I will choose to overlook these minor moments, because this is one of the coolest games I've played, and also one of the most thoughtful games I've played. It's just long enough to hide many snug little secrets around the world and make you put in the effort, but short enough to where it doesn't outstay its welcome. The plot is somehow interesting without becoming super convoluted, and it's just dark enough to take itself seriously and stay earnest without sounding overly gloomy or edgy. There aren't a ton of main characters, but the main cast has a lot of personality spread out through the game's relatively short run length. And the puzzles are simple enough to where you can easily figure them out on your own, but still manage to give you a real sense of satisfaction and excitement over how you just managed to piece that on your own. And all the collectibles are spaced apart well enough to where you're naturally encouraged to explore the whole world, with the tools necessary if you need that extra helping hand. Speaking of which, this is probably the first game where I genuinely enjoyed the stealth segments, which I honestly cannot say of any other game I've played up to this point. It's just clean, stylized, stealth that isn't punishing if you mess up yet gives off the feeling that you're being a sneaky secret agent fighting against dirty corporate overlords and seeking justice for those who have been wronged.
In conclusion, while I don't think Beyond Good & Evil looks like or plays like an exceptional game necessarily (it is a product of its age, after all), it's such a damn well thought out cohesive experience and was the Goldilocks of the action-adventure genre that I never knew I needed. Who would have guessed that combining photography with the Legend of Zelda model and throwing in effective stealth sequences would have done it for me? I lament that the game has been mostly forgotten by Ubisoft due to how difficult it was to finagle a working copy (ex: the PC copy has screwy camera scroll speed, the GameCube copy is letterboxed, and the HD Remaster on PS3 can't be bought on the store anymore to be played on PS4/PS5), because it is such a fun and satisfying title to go through. I'm glad though, that audiences are finally giving it the credit it deserves, and I'll happily join the crowd of dozens that are praying for Beyond Good and Evil 2 outside of development hell.
I don't think it's the most polished game out there; there are occasional moments of jank where your AI companion might take a little bit longer to get to your position (and for me, got stuck in the doorway once) and how corner hit detection during races and the goddamn pellet game messed me up multiple times. And the combat is servicable, not amazing; you can get by just hack and slashing most of the time, and this could have used a bit more depth. And yet I will choose to overlook these minor moments, because this is one of the coolest games I've played, and also one of the most thoughtful games I've played. It's just long enough to hide many snug little secrets around the world and make you put in the effort, but short enough to where it doesn't outstay its welcome. The plot is somehow interesting without becoming super convoluted, and it's just dark enough to take itself seriously and stay earnest without sounding overly gloomy or edgy. There aren't a ton of main characters, but the main cast has a lot of personality spread out through the game's relatively short run length. And the puzzles are simple enough to where you can easily figure them out on your own, but still manage to give you a real sense of satisfaction and excitement over how you just managed to piece that on your own. And all the collectibles are spaced apart well enough to where you're naturally encouraged to explore the whole world, with the tools necessary if you need that extra helping hand. Speaking of which, this is probably the first game where I genuinely enjoyed the stealth segments, which I honestly cannot say of any other game I've played up to this point. It's just clean, stylized, stealth that isn't punishing if you mess up yet gives off the feeling that you're being a sneaky secret agent fighting against dirty corporate overlords and seeking justice for those who have been wronged.
In conclusion, while I don't think Beyond Good & Evil looks like or plays like an exceptional game necessarily (it is a product of its age, after all), it's such a damn well thought out cohesive experience and was the Goldilocks of the action-adventure genre that I never knew I needed. Who would have guessed that combining photography with the Legend of Zelda model and throwing in effective stealth sequences would have done it for me? I lament that the game has been mostly forgotten by Ubisoft due to how difficult it was to finagle a working copy (ex: the PC copy has screwy camera scroll speed, the GameCube copy is letterboxed, and the HD Remaster on PS3 can't be bought on the store anymore to be played on PS4/PS5), because it is such a fun and satisfying title to go through. I'm glad though, that audiences are finally giving it the credit it deserves, and I'll happily join the crowd of dozens that are praying for Beyond Good and Evil 2 outside of development hell.