Beyond Good & Evil™

BGE is one of the best games I've ever played: fresh, cute, fun with a great gameplay and scenario. It's definitely worth 10$. You only can fall in love with Jade! The second game has been announced some months ago!

If you have never played this game before, pick it up NOW!!! I bought the Playstation 2 version shortly after it came out, and I was blown away. The story is deep and involving, the dialogue is well-written...everything about this game is top-notch. Jade is one of the most "real" video game heroines I have played as in a long time, and I still have yet to meet another like her. Hyllis is a beautiful place to explore, and the gameplay offers great variety: stealth, combat, racing, and more will keep you on your toes. I can't speak for the PC control scheme, but if it is anything like the PS2 version, it should be very easy to learn and utilize to the fullest. I love this game; through the characters and the story, I was emotionally invested from the opening cutscene to the final credits. And now that this game is available here, you have no excuse not to get it.

Beyond Good and Evil startled the critiques by being something new. Yes, there might be others where you have to push the bad end of the stick to the enemy, and there are some where you can actually sneak around. There are tons where you are against the system. Oh, and yeah, others may contain cute and lovable characters that are lovable to a 5-year-old boy as well as a 20-year-old woman. But there is no other that actually mixes these with photography as if to create a work of art. You actually have to actively use the camera for objectives (no pun intended) and achievements as well. In some games, doing achievements can be a chore. Here, it's like taking a hike to the most wonderful countryside you ever hoped to visit. The only thing I want more of is worthy sequels. :)

This game story, gameplay and art is all top notch.

This game does not deserve its cult fame. The story line makes no sense; the characters can't even decide on the protagonist's name (Jade, Shawnee, etc.). She's also a photographer who lives in a tree with her mechanic uncle who's a pig.... I don't get it. That leaves game play. It seems like they never really settled on a genre for this game; the result is a mishmash of mechanics, none of which feels particularly compelling. You take photos of creatures, fight enemies, play gambling minigames, race hovercraft and stealth around enemies. It sounds cool, but the game is heavily modal and you are only doing one of these things at a time. If you're in a stealth section, you can't choose to fight, race, etc. You fail the level if you get seen. So you are forced to in essence play a bunch of poorly thought out and disjointed sequences where the controls are completely different from what you have played so far. Gross. There is nothing to recommend this game - the music is bad, the tone of the game is cartoonish nonsense (eventhough the plot of the game is ostensibly serious, the controls are awkward, the walking isn't polished. It's an extremely linear game, there are shops and mini games you can play in the cities which are meant to give the illusion of choice, but it turns out that they are all required in order to complete the mission. The last boss fight is a ridiculous homage to metal gear solid - ooo! backwards controls! And the ending of the story is equally unsatisfying.