|  From
the creator of the Rayman series, Michael Ancel, comes Beyond
God and Evil for PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, and PC. Ubisoft, makers
of many great games like Splinter Cell and The Prince of
Persia, have revived the action/adventure genre with this
game in hopes of a part Zelda fighting style, part Pokemon
Snap, and deep involving story is what the guys at Ubisoft
wish to bring to the table, but does this game live up to
it’s promises?
You play as Jade, a sassy brunette on the
planet Hillys. You are a action-reporter and using your
wits and skills, you are trying to uncover the conspiracy
between your government, The Alpha Sections, who seem to
be on your side, and the DomZ, the mysterious aliens that
have been attacking your planet with relentless meteor showers
and the abduction of your people for centuries. Semi early
in the game you join a underground resistance network called
the IRIS network, who you will work with to uncover the
sinister connection of the people you though would protected
you and your true enemy. If I talked anymore about the plot,
it would ruin the deep involving story, so lets head to
the graphics.
The graphics on the game are amazing. Detailed
landscapes, great lighting effects, and realistic water
graphics are littered in this game. The world itself is
huge in its own right. You can go almost anywhere, from
the Pedestrian District to the Slaughterhouse and there
are no “invisible walls” stopping you from going
certain places. It’s not as big as Grand theft Auto,
or Jak 2, but it definitely doesn’t feel claustrophobic
when traveling in the world.
Through the game you will meet a multitude
of characters, such as your Uncle Pey’j, a humanoid
pig with fart-powered boots. You see, in the future, most
of the animals (sharks, pigs, birds, etc) on earth would
have evolved into some form of humanoid animal. They even
have rhinos, Jamaican rhinos. Your friends will be able
to help you during battle and usually the time that you
need them, usually during puzzles which are usually fetching
for something or hitting a switch and running before a door
closes. There is some backtracking in the puzzles that are
quite annoying.
The combat system is very similar to the
Zelda combat system, in which each button is on the screen
that shows you which attack or action that you can do at
that time. Since half of the time you are with your partner,
they can sometimes perform a “Super Action”
depending on the enemy and can also be used for puzzles.
For example, one character will slam the ground, making
all the enemies bounce into the air. This allows you to
hit them like baseballs to walls, pitfalls, or anything
you aim the cursor to. The fighting is fun and would be
more enjoyable if they added more enemies to clobber.
There are many parts in the game that allow
you to use stealth to get past guards, usually forced to
use it than having the choice. Since having a manual camera
angle instead of a fixed camera, it becomes essential to
use the camera angles to proceed to each part. The camera
angles are an important part in the stealth parts and they
are very responsive.
With each good game, it has its problems.
The combat system is good, but not having the ability to
lock on to the opponent makes it harder to fight. When driving
the hovercraft, it is just not fun to drive at moments,
and it also has some slowdown when traveling and fighting.
Even with these problems, this game still has enough depth
and action to keep you satisfied for months. Who said adventure
games are dead?
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