Beyond Good & Evil - Retrospective Review

Remove all ads!

PC Gamer looks back at the action adventure Beyond Good & Evil:

Revisiting Beyond Good and Evil, Michel Ancel's original Zeldalike
There's a reason fans clamour for a sequel years after release.

Sight is a recurring mechanism in Ubisoft's open worlds. Assassin's Creed has its synchronisation towers, from which you gaze out to unlock more of the map. Far Cry has its magic tactical binoculars. And cult favourite Beyond Good & Evil has its reporter's camera, a chunky old Kodak-style affair.

It may seem a minor part of the whole, compared to hover racing or thwacking aliens with a jo-staff-but it's both a key plot element and emblematic of how Ubi's open-world games have gone on to sacrifice sympathy for scope and density.
[...]
And then there's the game's most obvious triumph, Jade herself. She's notable in part as an early practitioner of Ubisoft's now-proven 360 degree, context-sensitive combat, switching gracefully between targets to the front and rear. But more than that, she's a female protagonist whose right to the starring role is never questioned, the odd avuncular remark from Pey'j aside. A leading lady who is simply allowed to get on with things. For this and for the feelings the act of photography kindles, that much-promised, borderline mythical sequel can't get here soon enough.​