Beyond Good and Evil

I recently played a game called Beyond Good and Evil published by UbiSoft, in the game you play Jade a.k.a. Shauni a Hyllian freelance reporter who lives on a remote island with orphaned children.

When you are first introduced to this character you see her meditating near a cliff with a little goatboy who happens to be an orphan on the island when an alarm goes off. As Jade rushes to get the children inside the lighthouse and push a button to start a protective shield around the lighthouse she realizes they didn't have enough money to pay their electric bill and the shield drops. That's when you're introduced to the creepy monsters known as DomZ sent to kidnap the citizens of Hyllis to feed some sort of supreme leader. When the battle starts all you have in your possession is a Dia-Jo staff as you get your first taste of battle in the system.

The controls are a bit awkward at first but it doesn't take long to figure out her special moves, the only problem her special explosive moves take too long to charge up. So throughout the game I had to stick with her basic moves to do any damage and keep the story flowing. After you rescue the children from the DomZ creatures the Alpha Section soldiers finally show up to claim an empty victory.

After they leave you slowly discover you're a reporter in the game and have to wander around the lighthouse to find your camera and mope around til your hispanic sidekick (a computer image that likes to smooth-talk) tells you about a science lab who pays good money for animal pictures. So long story short you have to take photos of bugs, birds and the many cutesy species of people that live in Hyllis for enough money to power your shield grid and help fix your uncle's hoovercraft. Did I mention cutesy? Jade's uncle is a talking and walking pig. P. I. G. Pig, who is sort of the handy man around the island.

Now, I'd play the game just to kill time waiting for the game I really want and even the next generation Playstation 3 without being mugged, shot at or killed for it. But it was an interseting title so I picked up a copy. After playing it, I wish I had left it at the store. It was just too cute, aside for the mild violence and creepy looking bad guys and bosses I'd say file it in the kids section.

To even get this game moving you have to find a job just to get off the stupid island when your latino and sauve computer suggests a photography job. So you get your camera and start photographing anything, even one of the pesky flies that lingers around the kitchen. Ewwww. I take it Jade isn't a good cook, just look at these underfed and scrawny kids lingering around the house half dazed.

I felt like I wasted a total of 30 hours playing this game, the only challenge was the speed boat races and the final boss, what an ingenious twist... make the controls you spent 10 hours getting used to backwards for the final boss.

The game itself was just that ... a time killer, it wasn't very challenging and the puzzles weren't too hard to figure out. I think my cat can play this with her eyes blindfolded.

I think the game would be more enjoyable if it was a little more challenging to complete and alot less cutesy wootsey with the strange animal characters with bizzare accents. I mean, come on. A rhino with a Jamacian accent? Are there even real rhinos in jamaica? I felt like I was playing a seasme street meets alien game.

I can't say I would recommend this game as a keeper. Renting for a few days ... maybe ... but to purchase this game for keeps you'd be better off playing tiddly winks.

Pros: n/a

Cons: Cutesy wootsey animals with bad foreign accents, puzzles were too easy to solve, bad camera angles, bad guys were so stupid you can walk past them and they don't bother you much, game is way too easy even for my cat.