The Price : £1.28 (on sale)
The Total Play Time : 9.5 hr (all pearls, all animal photographs, finished the game)
The Technical - to give a faithful review I should preface some of the (admittedly simple) hoops I had to jump through to get it working properly.
I played on the Steam port and while I had immediate issues with framerates, by downloading an ENB and dropping the files in the same directory as the .exe file all those issues were fixed and I had a smooth 144 fps. I then promptly discovered that the physics is tied to the frame rate and saw Jade, the main character, zoom across the screen, so I recommend dialling it back to 60fps. Below is the steam discussion guide I used to fix these issues, it was very straight forward. I have heard that some or all of these issues do not exist on the GOG version of this title, though I am not able to verify that myself it may be something to look into when securing a version of the game. Additionally, my biggest gripe with the game was dodgy camera controls during sensitive gameplay sequences (for example stealth segments, some fights, or more than a few vehicle sequences) but I’m not sure if this is to be attributed to the game itself or the (Steam) port of it so I’m mentioning it first here.
steam guideThe Review:
An old friend I highly recommend spending some time with, either again or for the first time.
BG&E shows a world, kind and soft, made hard and sharp by war and unending propaganda. The DomZ, alien parasites living on the moon that have an ugly, insect inspired H.R. Giger aesthetic to them, have been attacking the planet regularly for over 20 years. The planet’s miraculous saviours are the Alpha Section, an interplanetary military force that showed up at the same time but are seemingly unable to outright stop the DomZ. Following a heavy and heavy-handed media presence by Alpha Section, an underground resistance force called IRIS figures out holes in their stories and reports. The most recent damning incident: an attack by the DomZs that resulted in many casualties but in the ensuing Alpha Section cleanup, not a single person was transported and admitted to any local hospitals. Their whereabouts are unknown. The seeds of distrust are sown and a restlessness exists among the honest people of Hillys (pronounced Hill-iss).
You play as Jade, a photographer and reporter who quickly joins IRIS in order to infiltrate and expose the military body which has wormed its way into this humble planet. Jade is just as honest and humble as the world she resides on, a motif which is repeated and reinforced throughout every facet of her character: her main outfit, while iconic, is simple and approachable, her main weapon is a wooden staff, she lives and helps out at an orphanage, her job is to photograph and document unique wildlife, at the start of the game she is even behind on her energy bill just like the rest of us. To rattle off all the qualities that make her so humble may have diminishing returns but the strength of the game is that throughout, from start to finish, it sticks to them.
Taking pictures of the world around you is an excellent mechanic, perhaps the strongest in the game, that allows you to stop and smell the roses. Whether its whales breaching the surface of the ocean, rats scurrying in the dank of a slaughter factory, or the unique animal-humanoid hybrids that are Hillys’ citizens, it felt good at all points to make particular and tactile note of the interesting and often beautiful fauna that inhabit the planet. The mechanic weaves itself perfectly into the story too, having Jade take pictures of the illicit and evil activities of Alpha Section, pictures which poignantly juxtapose your initial introduction to the mechanic. This made Jade feel like a real reporter, a fact which never waivered, and while there were some zelda style upgrades, new keycards, a small disk gun that lets you activate switches from far away, or even jump boosters on her hovercraft to name some, they never made you feel more powerful, only that you were now able to reach deeper into the heart of the story. Combat is simple but satisfying and while you first use it against aggressive wildlife, when it comes to fighting armed soldiers later in the game you find yourself sneaking around them either to avoid them or to get in a dirty hit to the weak points on their backs. While you may feel more emboldened as you learn their tactics and moves, you are still no stronger, and should be careful about which fights you engage in.
The world being small lends itself perfectly to the sprinkling of creative and quirky characters, many of whom are very endearing. Pey’j, a companion from the beginning of the game who is a pig humanoid, mechanic, and father figure to Jade and the others at the orphanage, is kind and warm. Many of his comments and voice lines reflect his worry and care for Jade and her well being. Double H, an excellent second companion, is a play on the no nonsense soldier, who speaks mainly in training manual quotes :
His dogmatic belief in the training manual is matched only by his faith in the IRIS cause and all the people who work for it. He trusts Jade and encourages her in her pursuit of the truth. The smaller characters, while you may not interact with them nearly as much as the companions, still have a wonderful zest. The Reggae Rhinos at the auto shop who care both about you and their bottom line, Mr de Castellac who remains mysterious until his mini reveal, Secundo who is the sassy and optimistic A.I. in charge of Jade’s inventory, the shady patrons at the bar you frequent, even the voice of the lady you send the pictures to feel fleshed out and real.
Much of what you do in the world feels real, and carries a nice weight to it. While taking pictures is a great way to make you take proper notice of what's around you, it's all the little details that make you feel like a part of it. Picking up items and having them digitised in your backpack and their effects read out by Secundo is quick and doesn’t break up the pace of the game. Pey’j turns and waves at you when you look at him with the camera. There are unique voice lines for some of the rarer animal photos, both from the lady you send them to and sometimes the companions. In fact there are loads of voice lines from companions that helpfully and welcomingly comment on the world around you. There was even a point where I ordered Pey’j to use his bolt cutters to open a door I knew it wouldn’t work on, to my surprise he actually attempted it and commented on how it was a shame it didn't work. I felt as if I was right there next to him, shaking my head and thinking about what to do next. All of the characters support you in a very wholesome way. As more of the plot is unravelled and IRIS gains more support, there are more people in the streets protesting. Soon after, there are more soldiers in the streets too. You caused that change. In the time I played, I felt like I had a real effect on the world, that I did a good job in rooting out evil, and that I saved people I genuinely felt were worth protecting.
The game, while short, had great pacing, especially for one released in 2003. Each major section was a well laid out linear backtracking platformer as you unlock different doors, reveal new routes, and open shortcuts. The overworld is a reflection of this design paradigm as new areas are accessible as you find and buy different tools, but, unlike others in this genre, there was little to no backtracking once you completed a section. If you could access a major area, you could get everything there was to get from it straight away. As mentioned in the technical section, I did have some issues with camera controls which really pulled me out of the zone, sometimes the camera angle would change to be funny and obscure the view. The game plays mostly as a 3rd person game with the ability to freely look around yet sometimes there are fixed Resident Evil style Camera sections. It felt janky having controls suddenly ripped from you. It was not clear which areas of the game would do this, or even if they benefited from this change in camera angle (which admittedly a handful of areas did) but regardless, the transition was less than smooth and it was hard to re-orientate myself. Though this was by far my biggest issue, it's hard to directly attribute this to the game, as I can't help but feel that some fault lies in the PC port and using a mouse and keyboard in lieu of the original Play Station 2 system and controllers.
One problem I can attribute to the game though is clarity, or lack of. It didn't happen often, and the worst offender was late at night after a 5 hour play session so I am happy to take some of the blame for it, but there were sections of the game where I just had no clue where I had to go. Midway through I had to look up something regarding some shoes I had picked up but I was not familiar enough with the inventory system to thoroughly inspect and rotate the model of them. Maybe in 2003 there would be a novelty to it that would naturally incentivise you to do so, but in 2023 I am largely content to pick up items and move on with my life. Reflecting on this, I felt like the precedent was not set for me to do so. The second time I had to look something up was roughly 2/3 of the way through the game because it was not clear which areas of a section were climbable or not and I spent a lot of time running around. Funnily enough this was the same reason for the third and final time I had to look something up, right at the very end of the game there is a slim crack in a door that lets Jade shimmy through. I failed to see it and ran back and forth many times trying to figure out what to do before giving in. I can see why the trope of paint or tape or noticeable juts in geometry has since been adopted to more readily highlight climbable areas in platforming games. While this was an undercurrent issue throughout, it was only dire in those particular moments, moments I’m willing to attribute to earlier days in game design. Moments that were easily outshined by the quality of the rest of the game.
The rest of the game. It’s hard to talk about the next part of this review without sounding bitter, and in truth, it has little to do with this game, rather its supposed successor. Without spoiling anything there are some major twists and incredibly cool concepts dropped at the very end, a setup for what would be a compelling sequel. A sequel that would have a strong sense of identity, established good and evil, fantastic characters, and a solid story to expand on. A sequel that was started in 2007 and announced in 2008. A sequel that still isn't here even in 2023. Instead of repeating what many others have said about this, I just want to say I feel a weird sense of loss whenever I think too hard about it. People played this in their childhood, they've gone on to live their lives, I’m sure in that time some have even died, whether a sequel is released or not, they’ll never know. I’m sure many, if not all, original devs have left to do other things. Maybe they don’t even work in the industry anymore. Even if the game releases, it won’t be BG&E2. The console it was going to be on is dead. The one after it is now being phased out. It could even be brilliant in its own way, learning from decades of other games, it’s just that we never got to be a part of that journey. I think because the video game industry is so young, and some of its best titles so old, what makes them so compelling is that we got to grow up with them. But with Beyond Good and Evil we could only watch it grow old.
content to come:
January 3rd 2023
The Price : £1.28 (on sale)
The Total Play Time : 9.5 hr (all pearls, all animal photographs, finished the game)
The Technical - to give a faithful review I should preface some of the (admittedly simple) hoops I had to jump through to get it working properly.
I played on the Steam port and while I had immediate issues with framerates, by downloading an ENB and dropping the files in the same directory as the .exe file all those issues were fixed and I had a smooth 144 fps. I then promptly discovered that the physics is tied to the frame rate and saw Jade, the main character, zoom across the screen, so I recommend dialling it back to 60fps. Below is the steam discussion guide I used to fix these issues, it was very straight forward. I have heard that some or all of these issues do not exist on the GOG version of this title, though I am not able to verify that myself it may be something to look into when securing a version of the game. Additionally, my biggest gripe with the game was dodgy camera controls during sensitive gameplay sequences (for example stealth segments, some fights, or more than a few vehicle sequences) but I’m not sure if this is to be attributed to the game itself or the (Steam) port of it so I’m mentioning it first here.
steam guideThe Review:
An old friend I highly recommend spending some time with, either again or for the first time.
BG&E shows a world, kind and soft, made hard and sharp by war and unending propaganda. The DomZ, alien parasites living on the moon that have an ugly, insect inspired H.R. Giger aesthetic to them, have been attacking the planet regularly for over 20 years. The planet’s miraculous saviours are the Alpha Section, an interplanetary military force that showed up at the same time but are seemingly unable to outright stop the DomZ. Following a heavy and heavy-handed media presence by Alpha Section, an underground resistance force called IRIS figures out holes in their stories and reports. The most recent damning incident: an attack by the DomZs that resulted in many casualties but in the ensuing Alpha Section cleanup, not a single person was transported and admitted to any local hospitals. Their whereabouts are unknown. The seeds of distrust are sown and a restlessness exists among the honest people of Hillys (pronounced Hill-iss).
You play as Jade, a photographer and reporter who quickly joins IRIS in order to infiltrate and expose the military body which has wormed its way into this humble planet. Jade is just as honest and humble as the world she resides on, a motif which is repeated and reinforced throughout every facet of her character: her main outfit, while iconic, is simple and approachable, her main weapon is a wooden staff, she lives and helps out at an orphanage, her job is to photograph and document unique wildlife, at the start of the game she is even behind on her energy bill just like the rest of us. To rattle off all the qualities that make her so humble may have diminishing returns but the strength of the game is that throughout, from start to finish, it sticks to them.
Taking pictures of the world around you is an excellent mechanic, perhaps the strongest in the game, that allows you to stop and smell the roses. Whether its whales breaching the surface of the ocean, rats scurrying in the dank of a slaughter factory, or the unique animal-humanoid hybrids that are Hillys’ citizens, it felt good at all points to make particular and tactile note of the interesting and often beautiful fauna that inhabit the planet. The mechanic weaves itself perfectly into the story too, having Jade take pictures of the illicit and evil activities of Alpha Section, pictures which poignantly juxtapose your initial introduction to the mechanic. This made Jade feel like a real reporter, a fact which never waivered, and while there were some zelda style upgrades, new keycards, a small disk gun that lets you activate switches from far away, or even jump boosters on her hovercraft to name some, they never made you feel more powerful, only that you were now able to reach deeper into the heart of the story. Combat is simple but satisfying and while you first use it against aggressive wildlife, when it comes to fighting armed soldiers later in the game you find yourself sneaking around them either to avoid them or to get in a dirty hit to the weak points on their backs. While you may feel more emboldened as you learn their tactics and moves, you are still no stronger, and should be careful about which fights you engage in.
The world being small lends itself perfectly to the sprinkling of creative and quirky characters, many of whom are very endearing. Pey’j, a companion from the beginning of the game who is a pig humanoid, mechanic, and father figure to Jade and the others at the orphanage, is kind and warm. Many of his comments and voice lines reflect his worry and care for Jade and her well being. Double H, an excellent second companion, is a play on the no nonsense soldier, who speaks mainly in training manual quotes :
His dogmatic belief in the training manual is matched only by his faith in the IRIS cause and all the people who work for it. He trusts Jade and encourages her in her pursuit of the truth. The smaller characters, while you may not interact with them nearly as much as the companions, still have a wonderful zest. The Reggae Rhinos at the auto shop who care both about you and their bottom line, Mr de Castellac who remains mysterious until his mini reveal, Secundo who is the sassy and optimistic A.I. in charge of Jade’s inventory, the shady patrons at the bar you frequent, even the voice of the lady you send the pictures to feel fleshed out and real.
Much of what you do in the world feels real, and carries a nice weight to it. While taking pictures is a great way to make you take proper notice of what's around you, it's all the little details that make you feel like a part of it. Picking up items and having them digitised in your backpack and their effects read out by Secundo is quick and doesn’t break up the pace of the game. Pey’j turns and waves at you when you look at him with the camera. There are unique voice lines for some of the rarer animal photos, both from the lady you send them to and sometimes the companions. In fact there are loads of voice lines from companions that helpfully and welcomingly comment on the world around you. There was even a point where I ordered Pey’j to use his bolt cutters to open a door I knew it wouldn’t work on, to my surprise he actually attempted it and commented on how it was a shame it didn't work. I felt as if I was right there next to him, shaking my head and thinking about what to do next. All of the characters support you in a very wholesome way. As more of the plot is unravelled and IRIS gains more support, there are more people in the streets protesting. Soon after, there are more soldiers in the streets too. You caused that change. In the time I played, I felt like I had a real effect on the world, that I did a good job in rooting out evil, and that I saved people I genuinely felt were worth protecting.
The game, while short, had great pacing, especially for one released in 2003. Each major section was a well laid out linear backtracking platformer as you unlock different doors, reveal new routes, and open shortcuts. The overworld is a reflection of this design paradigm as new areas are accessible as you find and buy different tools, but, unlike others in this genre, there was little to no backtracking once you completed a section. If you could access a major area, you could get everything there was to get from it straight away. As mentioned in the technical section, I did have some issues with camera controls which really pulled me out of the zone, sometimes the camera angle would change to be funny and obscure the view. The game plays mostly as a 3rd person game with the ability to freely look around yet sometimes there are fixed Resident Evil style Camera sections. It felt janky having controls suddenly ripped from you. It was not clear which areas of the game would do this, or even if they benefited from this change in camera angle (which admittedly a handful of areas did) but regardless, the transition was less than smooth and it was hard to re-orientate myself. Though this was by far my biggest issue, it's hard to directly attribute this to the game, as I can't help but feel that some fault lies in the PC port and using a mouse and keyboard in lieu of the original Play Station 2 system and controllers.
One problem I can attribute to the game though is clarity, or lack of. It didn't happen often, and the worst offender was late at night after a 5 hour play session so I am happy to take some of the blame for it, but there were sections of the game where I just had no clue where I had to go. Midway through I had to look up something regarding some shoes I had picked up but I was not familiar enough with the inventory system to thoroughly inspect and rotate the model of them. Maybe in 2003 there would be a novelty to it that would naturally incentivise you to do so, but in 2023 I am largely content to pick up items and move on with my life. Reflecting on this, I felt like the precedent was not set for me to do so. The second time I had to look something up was roughly 2/3 of the way through the game because it was not clear which areas of a section were climbable or not and I spent a lot of time running around. Funnily enough this was the same reason for the third and final time I had to look something up, right at the very end of the game there is a slim crack in a door that lets Jade shimmy through. I failed to see it and ran back and forth many times trying to figure out what to do before giving in. I can see why the trope of paint or tape or noticeable juts in geometry has since been adopted to more readily highlight climbable areas in platforming games. While this was an undercurrent issue throughout, it was only dire in those particular moments, moments I’m willing to attribute to earlier days in game design. Moments that were easily outshined by the quality of the rest of the game.
The rest of the game. It’s hard to talk about the next part of this review without sounding bitter, and in truth, it has little to do with this game, rather its supposed successor. Without spoiling anything there are some major twists and incredibly cool concepts dropped at the very end, a setup for what would be a compelling sequel. A sequel that would have a strong sense of identity, established good and evil, fantastic characters, and a solid story to expand on. A sequel that was started in 2007 and announced in 2008. A sequel that still isn't here even in 2023. Instead of repeating what many others have said about this, I just want to say I feel a weird sense of loss whenever I think too hard about it. People played this in their childhood, they've gone on to live their lives, I’m sure in that time some have even died, whether a sequel is released or not, they’ll never know. I’m sure many, if not all, original devs have left to do other things. Maybe they don’t even work in the industry anymore. Even if the game releases, it won’t be BG&E2. The console it was going to be on is dead. The one after it is now being phased out. It could even be brilliant in its own way, learning from decades of other games, it’s just that we never got to be a part of that journey. I think because the video game industry is so young, and some of its best titles so old, what makes them so compelling is that we got to grow up with them. But with Beyond Good and Evil we could only watch it grow old.