Beyond Good & Evil plays as a mix of genres, seamlessly woven together in a surprisingly self-serious and endearing world. There are stealth sections, boss fights, races, collectables, escape sequences, environmental puzzles, mini-games and more, all accessible and good fun. The difficulty is low enough to avoid any frustration regardless of your preferences. The graphics are expressive and the sound all up to scratch. Unfortunately, the result of this design is that all of game elements lack depth. BG&E comes with nice packaging, but there's nothing in it that the average gamer won't have seen done before and done better elsewhere. The short length of the game (~12 hours for 100% completion) isn't especially satisfying. The PC port was particularly lazy - keyboard/mouse controls are awkwardly patched over the gamepad design yet a gamepad is not supported, and the partially-automatic camera tends to spaz out in the middle of combat or stealth. For new gamers, BG&E provides a wide range of 'tasters' in a well designed environment. For old gamers, it's a nice break from heavier gamers but the very definition of skippable.
