Your opinion on Beyond Good and Evil?

[mirror's edgy]

I downloaded the "HD" rerelease of Beyond Good and Evil on PSN last night and... I'm underwhelmed. I hadn't heard much about it, but from what I could tell, it was a modest but very imaginative and clever stealth- adventure- action hybrid with a fantasy aesthetic that reminded me of Jak and Daxter. I've played around five hours, but I can't really get into it in spite of myself. The gameplay has a lot of variety, and I don't really dislike any of the core mechanics, but I feel that it has no strong points. The puzzles are mildly interesting, but not frequent. The stealth sections are enjoyable, (coming from an MGS fan, at least) but the combat that ensues when you screw up, or during the scripted action sequences, is punishingly difficult and dirt simple.

The story, characters, writing, etc. are also just... a bit of a letdown. The plot is a fairly simple one without a very compelling central conflict or unique developments that seems focused on the characters, none of whom are very interesting, either. I don't dislike any of them, but no one in the cast has a very unique personality, wit, or development to seem very likable to me. I've even heard Jade brought up as one of the few positive examples of good female protagonists in gaming, but I can't bring myself to care about her either. She's competent, but hardly has any dialogue or arc to speak of, so I don't really care what happens to her.

I don't want this to come off as a rant, I just have difficulty pointing out what I dislike about this game. I feel like I should appreciate it more, but every feature that seems remotely interesting to me just seems lackluster.

Any fans or haters of the game are welcome to share their thoughts on Beyond Good and Evil in general. Maybe it gets better later, maybe it's overrated.

 

[Cursed Frogurt]

I honestly think that BG&E is overrated by its cult following. Sure, it's a solid game with excellent elements of exploration (wow, I'm an amazing alliteration... alchemist), adventure, and puzzle-solving, but the stealth sections are a little lacking and the combat is downright mediocre. The soundtrack and art style are beautiful though. I still listen to the OST on occasion.

Oh, and the characters are pretty lovabale, but I felt the story/plot was a major letdown; you'd think it would be deep with a title like Beyond Good & Evil, but no, the bad guys and very bad and the good guys are very good. That X-Men saga called Beyong Good & Evil used the term better because the story-arc was about the selfish and the selfless coming together to stop the end of the universe.

And to better understand my perspective, I played the game on GCN right when it came out in 2003. I haven't played it since. Again, it was enjoyable and it's rare when I see a game with such creative and rewarding exploration and "puzzles", but the combat is very easy and repetitive.

 

[Cheery Lunatic]

Combat was lacking to say the least, but I really liked the game. I just felt that I had fun playing it. Maybe it's just because I gobble up anything remotely sci-fi.

I understand where you're coming from though. Cult followings always tend to oversell their favorite games. I had a similar slightly underwhelming feeling playing Psychonauts (though I did like it).

 

[Catchy Slogan]

It's a decent game, but it's not without it's faults.

 

[Prince Regent]

I bought Beyond good and evil years ago, I think it was even one of the first games for my xbox. I havent played the game for ages, but I loved it for it's humor and the story, but mostly for how fantasticly rich the world was and how every creature and every NPC brilliantly fitted into it.

Then again the game is from 2003, so it's likely not as mind bloing as it was back then.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

It's a GREAT game IMO, but no legend. Still, I'd buy a sequel. Hands down.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

I downloaded and played the demo and was completely underwhelmed. Just seemed like Zelda-esque hack and slash combat with photography and mediocre vehicle sections. True, I haven't played the actual game, but the demo was supposed to sell it to me and it failed miserably.

 

[mirror's edgy]

Combat was lacking to say the least, but I really liked the game. I just felt that I had fun playing it. Maybe it's just because I gobble up anything remotely sci-fi.

I understand where you're coming from though. Cult followings always tend to oversell their favorite games. I had a similar slightly underwhelming feeling playing Psychonauts (though I did like it).

I felt the same way about Psychonauts. I appreciate inventive art design and varied gameplay, but these two games both fall short in terms of basic design. If only big budget AAA games had this kind of creativity around their solid mechanics.

 

[Aidinthel]

I played it for the first (and last) time last year, and well, I hated it. I just hated it. The parts that weren't actively terrible were just boring. The most fun part of the entire game was the minigame against the shark guy.

 

[Gralian]

Fun game, likable characters, could do with having a bigger hub to explore and more dialogue. Stealth sections were somewhat underplayed and were too simple, though given the game as a whole is a bit of a mixed bag of platforming combat and stealth it's a small wonder that each of those areas should be lacking in some way. Beyond Good and Evil is truly a game that defines the phrase 'more than the sum of its parts'. Yes; you can say the characters are underdeveloped, the combat and stealth is too simplistic, and the hub world is shallow and without exploration - but it all comes together to form a fun little game that is at once engrossing with a protagonist who is visually and personably endearing, whether it's her few lines of dialogue with P'eyj or the somber expression on her face.

 

[Littaly]

I rarely use this word to describe a game or a movie, mostly because I freaking hate it, but Beyond Good and Evil is one of the few cases where I found a game to be overrated. Not bad, mind you, there's nothing really wrong with it, it's a solid, fun adventure game, but it isn't much more than that.

Particularly the characters and the story didn't strike me as being as amazing as I had heard. Sure, there was an effort made, but the result isn't above the level of most other games that also make an effort with their story and characters. I kept getting the impression that just because the story was about reporting and freedom of press, people think it is deeper than it actually is, but honestly, what do I know. If I'm missing or fail to understand anything about it, I welcome anyone who can fill me in ^^

 

[dimensional]

well go into any game believing the hype and you are almost certain to be disappointed my experience of playing beyond good and evil was a strange one while I was playing I was feeling constantly underwhelmed but having fun then when I turned it off for the night I didnt feel like carrying on, inevitably I did however and ended up finishing in 3 gaming sessions so I guess I enjoyed it on some level even if I hated it on another.

 

[StriderShinryu]

The concept was great, and it's always nice to see a game attempt a variety of intermeshed play styles without any of them being particularly poorly done, but the actual execution of the title as an overall package is definitely lacking. It really felt more like the first 10 hours of a 40 or 50 hour game instead of a full game by itself. While not a bad game by any means, I totally agree that it nearly defines the term "overrated."

 

[Mordwyl]

Fun game with an unusual-yet-appealing soundtrack, if very short.

 

[gorfias]

One of the first games to really make me curse a lack of ability to save when and where I wanted. I cannot tell you how many times I had to restart the dang thing because I couldn't play for more than a few minutes at a time.
What I did play was very high quality for back in the day. But, games really have gotten much more playable for guys like me. I've played Fallout 3 for about 200 hours... 10 min. at a time.

 

[Simeon Ivanov]

I have the same problem here. Maybe it's because all of the hype I've heard about the game, I was expecting it to blown away ... and I wasn't ... Nowhere close ... but I would definitely try the sequel.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

I can't really say I enjoy it very much.

Bought it's HD remake. Played for 2 hours.

Then...stopped.

It didn't hook me. Mind you, not a lot of games actually do HOOK me as I generally play 5-6 games at a time. But this quickly fell out of rotation entirely.

I might finish it next month, since nothing I want is out until Gears 3.

 

[Smertnik]

It's a decent game but nothing for me - neither the story, nor the art style, nor the setting, nor the gameplay appealed to me. At some point I got too bored, stopped playing and never returned to the game.

 

[messy]

Nietzsche best work in my opinion. One of the best philosophical works of all time, Kant who?