Beyond Good & Evil Review (Xbox)

Beyond Good & Evil is one of the most fun, interesting, and fresh titles to have come out in a long time. Its only real flaw is that it is over far too quickly.

Beyond Good & Evil is the surprise critical smash that, sadly, everyone seemed to ignore. It is a shame it didn't do well during the 2003 holiday season, but price drops in the first half of 2004 led to a lot more people getting a chance to play it, which is a good thing. BG&E is a fantastic game that you can find for cheap these days, and it is absolutely a must play.

The story follws Jade, an "action journalist" as she tries to discover the secret behind attacking aliens and the army that is supposed to be protecting the planet. Beyond Good & Evil steps above and beyond many other games because the story is not only fantastic, but the world is populated by amazing, interesting characters that you really care about. They are allowed to actually seem real rather than just acting as placeholders for item X or bit of information Y.

Gameplay is really where its at in BG&E, though. For the most part, it plays as a typical third-person hack and slash game. You also gain the ability to shoot as well, but it doesn't play a large role. You can pilot a hovercraft to get between areas and there are quite a few tricky stealth sections thrown in. While you are trying to save the world, you can also take photographs and one of your objectives is to take a picture of every animal on the planet. That all adds up to fun fun fun. It only takes about 12 hours to beat it, though, which is disappointing.

BG&E is a fantastic game that deserves a spot in any Xbox collection.