Beyond Good And Evil Ign
Kathleen Denson
Beyond Good & Evil is a 2003 action-adventure game developed and published by Ubisoft for PlayStation 2, Windows, Xbox, and GameCube.[2] The story follows the adventures of Jade, an investigative reporter, martial artist, and spy hitwoman working with a resistance movement to reveal a sinister alien conspiracy. Players control Jade and other allies, solving puzzles, fighting enemies, obtaining photographic evidence and, later in the game, travelling to space.
Michel Ancel, creator of the Rayman series, envisioned the game as the first part of a trilogy. The game was developed under the codename "Project BG&E" by 30 employees of Ubisoft's studio divisions in Montpellier and Milan, with production lasting more than three years. One of the main goals of the game is to create a meaningful story while giving players much freedom, though the game adopts a relatively linear structure. The game was received poorly when it was shown at E3 2002, and it prompted the developers to change some of the game's elements, including Jade's design. Ancel also attempted to streamline the game in order to make it more commercially appealing.
Beyond Good & Evil received generally favorable reviews upon release, with critics praising the game's animation, setting, story and design, but criticizing its combat and technical issues. The game received a nomination for "Game of the Year" at the 2004 Game Developers Choice Awards. While the game was considered a commercial failure at launch, it has since developed a cult following and is even considered by some to be one of the greatest video games ever made.
A full HD remastered version of the game was released on Xbox Live Arcade in March 2011 and on PlayStation Network in June 2011. A prequel, Beyond Good and Evil 2, is in development and was announced at E3 2017.[3] A hybrid live-action/animated film adaptation is currently in the works at Netflix. Another remaster, titled the 20th Anniversary Edition, was released on June 25, 2024.
Beyond Good & Evil is an action-adventure game with elements of puzzle-solving and stealth-based games.[4] The player controls the protagonist, Jade, from a third-person perspective. Jade can run, move stealthily, jump over obstacles and pits, climb ladders, push or bash doors and objects, and flatten herself against walls.[5] As Jade, the player investigates a number of installations in search of the truth about a war with an alien threat.[4]
In the game's interior spaces, the player solves puzzles and makes their way past enemies in order to reach areas containing photographic evidence.[4] Jade's main tools are her Da-jo combat staff (a melee weapon), discs for attacking at range, and a camera.[6] Jade's health, represented by hearts, decreases when hit by enemy attacks. It can be restored using fictional food items and can be increased beyond the maximum with "PA-1s" that, when held by Jade or her companions, increases their life gauge by one heart.[7] If Jade's health is depleted, the game will restart at the last checkpoint. Certain stealth segments later in the game can automatically kill Jade if she is detected. Most stealth elements allow Jade to fight for her life if she is detected, but it's more difficult to survive this way.
At times, it is only possible to advance in the game with the help of other characters. These characters are computer-controlled, and players direct them via contextual commands.[4] For example, the player can order them to perform a "super attack", either pounding the ground to bounce enemies into the air, allowing the player to hit them from long distances, or knocking them off balance, making them vulnerable to attack.[8] These allies possess a health bar and are incapacitated if it is depleted. Jade can share some of her items, such as PA-1s, with these characters.
In addition to obtaining evidence and completing assignments, Jade's camera can take pictures of animal species in exchange for currency, and scan objects to reveal more information about the environment.[6] When the "Gyrodisk Glove" is obtained, Jade can attack enemies or activate devices from a distance by using the camera interface.[9] There are also various minigames and sub-missions offered by NPCs scattered throughout the world.[10]
A hovercraft is used to travel around the world, and also used for racing and in other minigames.[11] Later, the spaceship Beluga is acquired. The hovercraft can dock with the spaceship. Both vehicles require upgrades in order to reach new areas and progress through the game. Upgrades are purchased using pearls that are collected throughout the game, by completing missions, exploring areas, filling in the animal directory or by trading credits for them. The vehicles have a boost ability, and can be repaired using a "Repair Pod" if damaged by enemies.[12]
Beyond Good & Evil takes place in the year 2435 on the mining planet of Hillys, located in a remote section of the galaxy.[13] The architecture of the city around which the game takes place is rustic European in style. The world itself combines modern elements, such as email and credit cards, with those of science fiction and fantasy, such as spacecraft and anthropomorphic animals coexisting with people.[14] As the game begins, Hillys is under siege by aliens called the "DomZ", who abduct beings and either drain their life force for power or implant them with spores to convert them into slaves.[13] Prior to the opening of the game, a military dictatorship called the "Alpha Sections" has come to power on Hillys, promising to defend the populace.[6] However, the Alpha Sections seem unable to stop the DomZ despite its public assurances. An underground resistance movement, the IRIS Network, fights the Alpha Sections, believing it to be in league with the DomZ.[15]
Beyond Good & Evil's main protagonist, Jade (voiced by Jodi Forrest), is a young photojournalist. Uncle Pey'j (voiced by David Gasman), a boar-like creature, is Jade's best friend, with whom Jade resides in an island lighthouse that doubles as a home for children orphaned by DomZ attacks, whom they care for.[6] Double H, a heavily built human IRIS operative, assists Jade during missions. He wears a military-issue suit of armor at all times. Secundo, an artificial intelligence built into Jade's storage unit, the "Synthetic-Atomic-Compressor" (SAC), offers advice and "digitizes" items. The main antagonists are the DomZ High Priest, who is the chief architect of the invasion, and Alpha Sections leader General Kehck, who uses propaganda to gain the Hillyans' trust, even as he abducts citizens to sustain the DomZ.
Jade and Pey'j are taking care of the children of Hillys orphaned by the DomZ. When meditating with one of the orphans outside, a DomZ siren sounds. Jade rushes to turn the power on for the shield, but discovers that it has been deactivated due to a lack of funds. The lighthouse is left vulnerable to the meteor shower, and several DomZ creatures manage to abduct a number of the orphans. Jade is forced to fight these creatures to free the children. With Pey'j's help, she then defeats a DomZ monster that emerges from a meteor crater. The Alpha Sections arrive just after Jade defeats the monster, leaving Pey'j to grumble that they were late as usual.
Secundo finds a photography job for Jade, so she can pay to turn the power back on for the shield. The job involves cataloging all the species on Hillys for a science museum. Jade is then contacted by a "man in black" to investigate and take pictures of a creature presumed to be DomZ twins in an abandoned mine on a nearby island. The DomZ twins turns out to be the antennae of a huge DomZ monster. Once defeated, the "man in black" takes off his suit and a taxi car flies out of the limousine he was driving. The man reveals he actually works for the IRIS Network, and that the job was a test of Jade's skills.
Jade is then recruited as an agent of the network, which suspects that the Alpha Sections are behind planet-wide disappearances. Jade's first target of investigation is an Alpha Sections-run ration factory. She discovers evidence of human trafficking orchestrated by the DomZ under the Alpha Sections' authority. Along the way she rescues Double H, who was kidnapped and tortured by the DomZ. Pey'j is then abducted by the DomZ and taken to an abandoned slaughterhouse where he and the other kidnapped victims are to be transported to a base on Hillys' moon, Selene. After failing to extract Pey'j from the slaughterhouse in time, Jade learns that he was, in fact, the secret chief of the IRIS Network.
Jade learns that the Alpha Sections are being possessed and manipulated by the DomZ. Using Beluga, the ship Pey'j used to travel to Hillys, Jade and Double H go to the DomZ lunar base. There, Jade finds Pey'j dead after weeks of torture, but a strange power inside her brings back his soul, reviving him. After rescuing Pey'j, destroying Kehck's command ship, transmitting her final report, and sparking a revolution against the Alpha Sections, Jade confronts the DomZ High Priest. She learns that her human form is the latest container to hide a power stolen from the DomZ centuries ago in the hope that the High Priest, who must have spirit energy to survive, would starve to death. The High Priest managed to find a substitute energy in the souls of all those kidnapped from Hillys, and captures Pey'j and Double H to force Jade to submit to him. Using the stolen power within her, Jade is able to destroy the High Priest, though nearly losing control of her soul in the process, and then revives and rescues those that have been abducted. In a post-credits scene back on Hillys, a DomZ spore grows on Pey'j's hand as the screen fades to black.
A second goal behind Beyond Good & Evil's design was to create a meaningful story amid player freedom. Ancel said that the linear nature of the gameplay was necessary to convey the story; player freedom was an experience between parts of the plot.[19] He also strove to create a rhythm similar to a movie to engage and delight players.[20] The game drew on many influences and inspirations, including the Miyazaki universe, politics and the media, and the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.[21] In creating the lead character, Ancel's wife reportedly inspired the designer, who wanted to portray a persona with whom players could identify.[22]
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