Beyond Good & Evil Preview

Under the publishing label of Ubi Soft Entertainment, Rayman creator Michael Ancel and his development have assembled to create the latest multiplatform action-adventure, entitled Beyond Good & Evil. As we all know, Ancel and his crew achieved great reputation with Rayman. Striding through the competitive gaming scene, the limbless platform champion, Rayman, reached a high point with the recent incarnation in the series - Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc. This time, Ancel leads a completely new project, which, sorry to disappoint all of you who are into philosophy, has absolutely no relation to Friedrich Nietzsche's work Beyond Good And Evil (who'd want to create a video game about that one anyway?). Anyhow, with such an experienced gaming mind within its creative team, Ubi Soft looks to deliver another exciting and original PC/console title.

Is that a one-star motel? Forget it!

Go for it Jade! You can take 'em!

Our story follows the riveting and dangerous life of an investigative reporter named Jade. You live on a remote island on a peaceful planet called Hyllis. Everything is okay until ill fortune befalls you and your people. Out of the blue, a rather powerful and ruthless alien race decides to invade Hyllis and attempts to take over its inhabitants. (I'm pretty sure this has happened before in one or two games - Ed) Our heroine Jade bravely fought the aliens to defend her island, but in the end she gave in. During this chaos the government kept reassuring the dwellers of Hyllis that there was no danger whatsoever and that the planet is completely secure from the alien forces. Unconvinced that everything was hunky-dory, Jade couldn't hold back her unwavering journalist spirit, so she set out to get to the bottom of what was obviously a massive conspiracy. Throughout her quest Jade will have the aid of her trusty camera, aikido staff, and, of course, her steadfast investigative skills. Jade's job is to seek out deep government secrets and help people realize the truth. Okay, so we're not exactly talking about a major breakthrough in storytelling, but if we add a slight touch of Rayman-esque witticism and characterization, it should provide sufficient background for a decent action-adventure.

Beyond Good & Evil is not a mere arcade platformer you know. In fact it's quite the opposite. Steering away from traditional platform and arcade elements, the developers have incorporated vehicles, which will indeed be a welcomed boost to the addictiveness of gameplay. By the way, we've already seen Beyond Good & Evil at Ubi's E3 booth this year, and it showed a number of promising features. The most important point here is that the game offers considerably huge outdoor environments. In order to move faster across these vast surroundings, Jade uses a speedy little hovercraft, which can also change into a jet craft - just attach the hovercraft to the jet and presto, you can fly! It looks and feels pretty neat when you ride on it.

Many dangers lurk throughout the regions of Hyllis. To keep away swarms of aliens and indigenous bizarre-looking creatures, Jade gets to use her melee combat skills, as well as a wide variety of magic abilities. Her aikido staff also takes a particularly significant role in the game. With her staff and melee combat abilities, Jade will be able to hurl back enemies and shake off their tight grip. Interestingly, hurling back enemies sometimes causes walls to collapse, which might create a new path and offer an easier way for Jade to complete her missions. In most cases, she can also rely on spells and use them efficiently in battle. For instance, smaller enemies can be taken out by simple spells, while tougher creatures can be eliminated with highly potent spells that spread across the entire screen and cast deadly blows to all nearby foes. All of these features create an intense atmosphere of constant action, puzzles, and other various challenging gameplay aspects.

I shall smite thee down with my mighty aikido staff!

Where to now?

Luckily, others residents of Hyllis also decided to join Jade in her desperate struggle for the truth. In other words, players get to experience a well-incorporated sidekick system that broadens the gameplay depth even further. One of the available sidekicks that comes along, is a funny-looking pig that walks on two legs. In the beginning, your job will be to make sure this huge hunk of meat stays safe from flocks of enemies. Of course, there's a purpose to that. Protecting the pig is your key to overcome certain obstacles, so it is in your best interest to look after its greasy skin (mmmm... greasy skin). There are areas, for example, that are confined by wires and your only hope is to allow the pig to cut through. (Why would this be a pig's job? - Ed) Many sections involve more complicated tasks, at which time Jade can take control of her sidekicks to ease her way through various obstructions. So, it's all a rather appealing mix of platform, adventure, and action gameplay elements. Nice.

Through it all, you'll always have an ultimate goal in your mind. Instead of roaming senselessly through the land, Jade must concentrate on her main task, which is photographing rare species and creatures. This will most definitely be a challenge, because most of these creatures are well-hidden and very hard to pinpoint. Cash should be one of your main motivations for succeeding in happy-snapping these creatures, for it can be used to purchase health and hire sidekicks.

As mentioned earlier, the game is being created for all next-generation consoles and the PC as well. The E3 demonstration was done on the PS2, so we cannot be specific as to any visual improvements on the PC version. From what was shown at the show, the graphics are pretty decent, featuring huge and well-designed levels, nicely animated character models (especially Jade herself), colorful spells, vivid water surfaces, various background details, and so on. Magical attacks performed by Jade have displayed impressive particle effects, therefore it's more than just your average dose of ugly console graphics. Well-directed and high-quality real-time cut-scenes add a cool cinematic spark to the whole experience. Additionally, we were rather pleased with in-game sounds, voiceovers, and the music score. It all fits neatly into place.

All gamers, particularly Rayman fans, should be on the lookout for this one. Judging from the stuff we've seen at the E3, Beyond Good & Evil has all the necessary ingredients for a gratifying gaming experience - excellently balanced gameplay, mixed with action, adventure, and puzzle elements, plus a variety of visual and sound treats. The game will be out later this year. Naturally, you can expect more updates until then.