b g & e

I just finished Beyond Good and Evil (I played the PS2 version, though it's available on everything except WonderSwan). I still don't know what the title's reference to Nietzsche's treatise is all about. Maybe the French got confused when they were in their Marketing sessions? Apparently it didn't sell well in the otherwise swamped Christmas game market. I've read that it's marked down to US$29 for all platforms. If you haven't bagged it yet, I recommend picking it up before it's swept off the shelves.

It's the most fun I've had playing a game since GTA, and I don't even have to feel weird about the kind of thrills it provides. There are several types of gameplay represented, and each of them feels well represented. The primary style is stealth gameplay, with some exploration relating to puzzle solution, and taking pictures. None of the puzzles was so difficult as to require checking an online FAQ, but some were a close call. The primary goal of all levels is to stealthily get Jade, the main character, into an otherwise well-guarded spot, and take a picture as evidence for Jade's underground newspaper report. This involves R1-triggering the camera-mode, moving both analog sticks for framing and zooming in-or-out, and even leaning to get proper composition, then taking the shot. This gets complex when Jade's intended target is moving. Because the game's developers realized a good thing when they had it, they included additional photgraphic missions in the game. There are all manner of fauna throughout the world of Hillys, and the first mission you get, which runs throughout the game, is to take pictures of them. The more you find, the more pearls you can score. And since pearls are the only way to upgrade your ship, it's a pretty good gig.

Along the way, there is some meleé fighting and some shooter-like driving action in a hovercraft, and later a spaceship. Both of these were handled so simply and intuitively, it's difficult to label it as separate gameplay. Fighting is a single-button mashing affair with accompanying direction pushes, and the shooty stuff is more like a minigame on the way from one scene to the next. It's more fun than I've made it sound here because it's handled so smoothly, and while it makes the whole game world seem more complete, it's not central to the game.

It does a great job of teaching the player what to do to succeed, and then combining elements to create interest and suspense. The control layout is elegant on the PS2 controller, and the results of button presses appear onscreen as part of the UI. The UI disappears and reappears when needed; if the the player-character (PC) is in a place where nothing can be used or acted-upon, the "use" portion of the UI is not displayed. Jade's stance is always appropriate to the upcoming task. If there is a room requiring stealth coming up, she drops into a crouch; if the room is clear, she stands up straight. If she is discovered, and needs to fight, she pulls out her staff and drops into a fighting stance. Jade's body language is key to immersing the player in her situation, and the "jig is up" move of pulling out the fighting stick only when it's needed is a great alarm to the player, even if they just (wisely) use it as a signal to high-tail it back the way they came; fighting one guard is a rough proposition; fighting two remains unsuccessfully attempted. If there are more than two guards, there is usually an autotargeting laser-cannon visible as well, stressing that the situation is a puzzle, not a brawl. The boss battles are fun, not overly difficult to find the patterns, and reasonably satisfying to beat.

It has the least annoying camera to-date. It's not perfect, but with all the issues I've faced as a developer of 3D games, I'd say it acquits itself handily. There are two kinds of camera that I noticed for the 3rd-person, on-foot sequences. One for stealth, and one for normal movement. Normal camera is probably as players expect; a typical over-the-shoulder propostion, where the player can use the Left Analog Stick side-to-side to rotate around Jade, and up and down will pitch it overhead or low to the ground, respectively. In stealth situations, when Jade is crouched, up-and-down changes to keeping the camera parallel to the ground, but raising or lowering it to give the player a view of the surrounding situation. There is another camera that is occasionally used, which is a fixed-position one, when a good deal of complicated stuff is happening in a room. This is only trotted out three or four times during the game, which isn't too bad since it tends to make Jade's interactions with the environment a little tricky to parse.

Gripes: (1) The last boss was controller-throwingly difficult, since there was one bit of the pattern of one stage that they should have made more clear. (2) I encountered one bug where my partner disappeared during the Slaughterhouse mission, and could not progress. It took me a hour+ of fiddling in-game, then finally breaking down to check a FAQ before figuring out I'd encountered a game-stopping bug.

Bliss: This game rocked my socks. I will preorder the sequel if they choose to make one. The art style is fluid, sumptuous, and inspiring. The game design is solid, consistent, and immersive.