Beyond Good & Evil: Playstation 2 review by LV
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Beyond Good & Evil: Playstation 2 review by LV
hey all
First of all, a note to the mods: This thread does not belong in the sports and online games forum because it is a) not a sport and b) not an online game
Last Thursday my preorder of BG&E came in for the PS2, and since then I have been studying for a test and writing a term paper. Since BOTH of those are done, I popped BG&E in my PS2 last night and got sucked down into one HELL of a game.
After about 6 hours total game time, I'm in the second "dungeon," aka "The Factory," and have become totally engrossed in the game. It's taken 6 hours to get to this point simply from the fact that there is SO MUCH TO DO in the game.
Now, the official review (I use a 5 point scale, 1 being horrid, 5 being blastingly excellent)
Graphics: 4.9
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!!
Talk about a game replete with colors and polygons! The graphics in this game are pretty much the best of any action-adventure game currently available for the PS2. Cross-consolewise, it takes Zelda: The Windwaker and beats it over the head with a very large tunafish. 30 FPS avg, 60 fps in some parts. The water effects are absolutely STUNNING... and coming from me, that's saying a lot. The reason that it isn't a perfect 5 is because, unfortunately, there are still some very small jaggies to annoy you.
Sound:
Game sound: 4
Music: 6 O_O!!
The voices in the game, first of all, are perfect for the characters. A silky but hard voice for Jade, gruff and fat for Pey'j, and so on. Jade, btw, is the main character, I'll post a pic when I have one suitable for posting, but I digress... The game has lovely background sounds, but at time they do sound a little cheap and chintzy, but never enough to ruin the gameplay experience. I especially love Jade's "powerup" sound when you power up her Dai-Jo combat staff.... a bansheelike "hwaaaaaaaaaAAAA!!" Very cool.
As for the music... I gave it a 6. 'Nuff said. This stuff belongs in a $300 million movie, not an action-adventure game. It captures the moods and settings PERFECTLY, plus is never intrusively blaring at you for attention. It's enough of a cool thing that you notice it's there, but it blends so seamlessly into the gameplay that at times you find yourself humming the BG&E theme along with the music as you clear a dungeon of baddies.
Gameplay:
Control: 4.5
Fun factor: 5
Replay: 4
The controls in BG&E are spot on. There is no lag between a button press or joystick movement and on-screen action. Things happen at the speed of electricity when you push a button. Controls are tight and intuitive, and very natural for the hand position on the DualShock 2. My only grip is the frickin camera. Ubisoft decided to let the player have control over in-level camera moves.... which is lovely for me, since I like tactical shooters where you can peak around corners, but it does get a little annoying during an attack and you can't see what's attacking until you rotate the camera. A small gripe, but still enough to take away from the perfect 5 I would have given.
The game is FUN. I mean addiction forming fun. There is the main plotline, yes, but there are also minigames all over the place, from the HoverCraft Races (which could be an entire game on their own, sold seperately) to the coconut shell game with Peepers (a character) to a shuffleboard like game you play against a walking dolphin O_o. I love this game. And the main plotline advances very nicely when you decide to return to it. It's a lovely lovely game.
Replay value suffers a little because there is only one storyline. It survives on the fact that there are hidden secrets galore in the game and an internet ranking service where you take your game code and submit it to the website for ranking, much like Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.
OVERALL:
This game gets my (not so) coveted LordVagabond's Recommended Buy. Fun, addictive, great presentation, easy controls in a somewhat complex game, puzzles and prizes, and enough mini-games to take up hours of your time.
Another thing I like is the dual character system throughout the game. You never travel alone, be it your pig uncle Pey'j is along with you to do his super jet boot smash to lauch enemies in the air for you to smack baseball-style into orbit (in slow mo too!
) or Double H's super headbut, which breaks open certain passageways and items for you. It's a smoothly integrated and very useful system that WORKS.
My score: 4.8 out of 5
Next week: SSX 3 long term report ^__^
First of all, a note to the mods: This thread does not belong in the sports and online games forum because it is a) not a sport and b) not an online game
Last Thursday my preorder of BG&E came in for the PS2, and since then I have been studying for a test and writing a term paper. Since BOTH of those are done, I popped BG&E in my PS2 last night and got sucked down into one HELL of a game.
After about 6 hours total game time, I'm in the second "dungeon," aka "The Factory," and have become totally engrossed in the game. It's taken 6 hours to get to this point simply from the fact that there is SO MUCH TO DO in the game.
Now, the official review (I use a 5 point scale, 1 being horrid, 5 being blastingly excellent)
Graphics: 4.9
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!!
Talk about a game replete with colors and polygons! The graphics in this game are pretty much the best of any action-adventure game currently available for the PS2. Cross-consolewise, it takes Zelda: The Windwaker and beats it over the head with a very large tunafish. 30 FPS avg, 60 fps in some parts. The water effects are absolutely STUNNING... and coming from me, that's saying a lot. The reason that it isn't a perfect 5 is because, unfortunately, there are still some very small jaggies to annoy you.Sound:
Game sound: 4
Music: 6 O_O!!
The voices in the game, first of all, are perfect for the characters. A silky but hard voice for Jade, gruff and fat for Pey'j, and so on. Jade, btw, is the main character, I'll post a pic when I have one suitable for posting, but I digress... The game has lovely background sounds, but at time they do sound a little cheap and chintzy, but never enough to ruin the gameplay experience. I especially love Jade's "powerup" sound when you power up her Dai-Jo combat staff.... a bansheelike "hwaaaaaaaaaAAAA!!" Very cool.
As for the music... I gave it a 6. 'Nuff said. This stuff belongs in a $300 million movie, not an action-adventure game. It captures the moods and settings PERFECTLY, plus is never intrusively blaring at you for attention. It's enough of a cool thing that you notice it's there, but it blends so seamlessly into the gameplay that at times you find yourself humming the BG&E theme along with the music as you clear a dungeon of baddies.
Gameplay:
Control: 4.5
Fun factor: 5
Replay: 4
The controls in BG&E are spot on. There is no lag between a button press or joystick movement and on-screen action. Things happen at the speed of electricity when you push a button. Controls are tight and intuitive, and very natural for the hand position on the DualShock 2. My only grip is the frickin camera. Ubisoft decided to let the player have control over in-level camera moves.... which is lovely for me, since I like tactical shooters where you can peak around corners, but it does get a little annoying during an attack and you can't see what's attacking until you rotate the camera. A small gripe, but still enough to take away from the perfect 5 I would have given.
The game is FUN. I mean addiction forming fun. There is the main plotline, yes, but there are also minigames all over the place, from the HoverCraft Races (which could be an entire game on their own, sold seperately) to the coconut shell game with Peepers (a character) to a shuffleboard like game you play against a walking dolphin O_o. I love this game. And the main plotline advances very nicely when you decide to return to it. It's a lovely lovely game.
Replay value suffers a little because there is only one storyline. It survives on the fact that there are hidden secrets galore in the game and an internet ranking service where you take your game code and submit it to the website for ranking, much like Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.
OVERALL:
This game gets my (not so) coveted LordVagabond's Recommended Buy. Fun, addictive, great presentation, easy controls in a somewhat complex game, puzzles and prizes, and enough mini-games to take up hours of your time.
Another thing I like is the dual character system throughout the game. You never travel alone, be it your pig uncle Pey'j is along with you to do his super jet boot smash to lauch enemies in the air for you to smack baseball-style into orbit (in slow mo too!
) or Double H's super headbut, which breaks open certain passageways and items for you. It's a smoothly integrated and very useful system that WORKS.My score: 4.8 out of 5
Next week: SSX 3 long term report ^__^
Thread Starter
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Joined: Oct 2001
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From: Calgary
Action-adventure.... Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and :Windwaker style...
there is the "overworld" which is the city, the "dungeons" which are the missions, and a hovercraft to get between all of it
there is the "overworld" which is the city, the "dungeons" which are the missions, and a hovercraft to get between all of it
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