Earlier this year, my family took a trip from our home in Watertown, WI (midway between Madison and Milwaukee, FYI) to Cooperstown, New York and a bunch of other places around the northeast. At the end, I had a load of cash left, so in Milwaukee on the way home, I picked up Beyond Good and Evil for $20.
Best thing I bought all trip. Ubisoft should be proud of itself and pay little heed to the bad sales figures. It does so many things so well that I can call it pretty much the SAT's of gaming- a comprehensive test of most of your gaming skills: Stealth, racing, shooting, fighting, puzzle, observation, and exploration. (Also there's a fun air hockey-ish minigame.) And all wrapped in a stellar storyline.
We'll start with that. You're Jade, a freelance reporter/photographer living in a lighthouse on the planet Hillys. For quite a while now, Hillys has been consistently attacked by the Domz, the latest in a long line of video-game alien bad guys. Their MO is to kidnap all the living things on Hillys they can for some undisclosed purpose. Protecting the public is the military presence of the Alpha Section. Actually, let's go back and put 'protecting' in quotation marks, seeing as they almost always show up after the damage is done and then claim credit for it not being even worse.
Naturally, there's some dissent, and Jade of course gets wrapped up in it or else we wouldn't have much of a game, now, would we? The dissent in question is the Iris Network, which produces one of those 'government conspiracy exposed' newsletters. Except here they have some actual merit to their stories or else we, again, wouldn't have much of a game. And you have to go do the exposing while basically everyone else at Iris sits back and waits for you to send the pictures. Gee. Thanks, guys. I'm less than halfway through the game, but I'm far enough to know that's as much as I can say without spoiling.
Now, in doing this expose you'll need to both take care of the Domz and find out what the Alpha Section's hiding. This requires some stealth or, lacking that, whacking the crap out of enemies with a stick. A martial-arts stick, but a stick. So you're best off being stealthy. This is the bulk of your gaming SAT. Figure out the way to get past your enemies, then be stealthy or run-and-stick depending on the situation. I failed stealth, which is why I'm less than halfway through. But I know there's a certain way to do it, and it's my fault that I keep dying. So BG&E doesn't get docked.
The other elements I mentioned also come up at crucial moments in the game, and if you suck at any of them, you'll have as hard a time making it through as I am. (As an aside, I'm passing the racing portion with flying colors.) Although I hear that for the people passing, the game is a tad short. But I'm obviously not having that problem.
Graphics and sound are among the best of this round of consoles. I've found myself pausing just to get a listen without cutting in with sound effects. The voiceacting was expertly done. And the story is so compelling that some of you will actually be legitimately caring for the health and well-being of video game characters. At $20, and available for all three consoles and the PC, there is absolutely no reason you shouldn't get this game. Beyond Good and Evil aces its own Gaming SAT with a 5... out of 5.
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