Few Words About Beyond Good & Evil

So, I’ve almost completed Playstation 2 classic Beyond Good & Evil. All I have left to do is the final part, but I’m too lazy to collect missing orbs to unlock last level so… To be honest, I don’t know if I’ll be up for that task for a while if ever. But that doesn’t mean that the game is bad in any way, quite the opposite: Beyond Good & Evil is probably one of my favourite games on PS2 and showed me what console game can offer on its best.

Beyond Good & Evil is a beautiful game for its time – it is hard to believe that it is released in 2003! Sure, there are some horrible frame rates and textures, but most of the time game is stunning, especially on outside areas. Character models are not as high detailed but art style helps with that. Art style works perfectly and captures this otherworldly yet familiar vibe of the game world. Locations are mostly interesting and surprisingly detailed and on so many occasions I'd just take a break from action and looked around, just enjoying the feeling of ''being there''. This game really takes you away from the real world at times.

Photo: The 100 Reviews

Gameplay is fine. There’s not too much fighting, and it’s pretty straight forward. Jade moves where you want most of the time, though there are moments when camera does its own things – which is kinda irritating. Using allies is fun and gives depth to the gameplay. Unfortunately age of the game shows in controls and action may get little bit clunky. Previously mentioned frame rates might drop during the most intense battles which might be also fault of the old hardware – I noticed that on PS2 slim game runs terrible compared to the ''fat'' version.

And that is what I think of Beyond Good & Evil. I don't really want to say too much about the story, even though it's two decades old game – some things are better to not be spoiled. That said, I really recommend that you try it if you haven't yet, especially if you are able to emulate it on more modern hardware with better frame rates. Such a great game.