Beyond Good & Evil™

What starts off as a slow-moving Zelda-clone becomes much more in this cult classic from Michael Ancel, the creator of Rayman. The storyline centers on Jade, a photographer who is caught in an interstellar conspiracy. Without giving the story away and with the game being a strong Zelda-clone (the first boss is even a clone of the Fire Temple boss from Ocarina of Time!), one must understand that what sets this game apart is just how skillfully designed and artistically brilliant this game is. Beyond Good and Evil is simply a must-have for all gamers.

This has to be one of the best games I've ever played. Even playing it for the first time on GOG, it's fresh and new, and looks beautiful most of the time. It is basically a 3d Zelda game. It's ocarina of time with better graphics, great voice acting, better combat, stealth sections, some decent platforming, some fun boat races, and cool & useful teammates. I enjoyed the setting, the characters, the story, and most of all the world they created. The main character is a fresh one, and someone you can care about. the sidekicks are funny, not annoying, and can be used in creative teamwork ways (in puzzle solving and in combat). I also totally loved the camera, and had almost as much fun taking pictures of animals as playing the game. What other game has you taking beautiful pictures of breaching whales? If I was to say anything bad about it, it'd be that it's too short. The ending section passes very quickly, and doesn't have much of the exploration, collection and photo elements of the rest of the game. It also doesn't have quite the variation in environments that Ocarina has. And finally, on the PC, the camera can be annoying at times. (on foot is ok, but the boat is impossible to control in 3rd person. (press E). Great game in almost every way.

This game is one of those rare gems that didn't get the recognition it deserved. Glad to see it on GOG! 5 stars!

Whether you think BG&E is a masterpiece, utterly overrated or somewhere in the middle... I consider myself in the latter. The sneaky gameplay is meh, the combat is laughable, the story is bogus, glitches plague every port that isn't he original Gamecube version. On the other hand the soundtrack is amazing, style & world-bulding is solid... but the truly fun part is the photography side quest. At least to me, I wish the game had just been another Pokemon Snap. However, one irredeemable aspect is lack of gamepad support. Makes this version basically unplayable. This is a console game made to be played with a controller. How the hell can you mess this up, Ubisoft.

As soon as the game starts you are thrust into a story and it does not let you leave. Playing this game is like playing a movie. The game is a seamless blend of brief, impressively polished cutscenes that flow with the gameplay and drive the storytelling along, so that you are always immersed in the story. Of course, the gameplay itself is fun and the controls are very intuitive for a third person action game, which makes for a grinningly good experience as your magic stick thing whizzes around, satisfyingly thwacking into enemies. If you like a well made game and especially if you can appreciate good storytelling, Beyond Good and Evil should not be missed.