Some video games rework tried-and-true ideas in an effort to innovate. Some people are innovators, laying the groundwork for future experiences that will need to be developed. Then, other games, like Beyond Good & Evil, do not try to innovate or reinvent themselves.
It does not try to pretend to be something it isn’t. In 2003, Ubisoft developed and published Beyond Good & Evil for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, Microsoft Windows, and GameCube. The story centers on Jade’s experiences, a journalist and martial artist who joins up with a rebel movement to reveal a sinister extraterrestrial agenda.
The player must solve puzzles, defeat foes, and gather photographic evidence while controlling Jade and her companions. Let us watch the video to learn more about this game without further ado.
RISE OF BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL
On the mining planet of Hillys, which is situated in a far-off region of the galaxy, Beyond Good & Evil is set in the year 2435. European-style rustic buildings characterize the game’s setting’s urban landscape. The universe blends aspects from science fiction and fantasy with more contemporary ones, such as credit cards and email, and features from science, such as space travel and the coexistence of anthropomorphic animals and humans.
The “DomZ,” extraterrestrial invaders that kidnap people and either use their life energy to generate power or implant them with spores to enslave them, are the “DomZ,” and they are waging war on Hillys at the start of the game. A military dictatorship known as the “Alpha Sections” has assumed control of Hillys prior to the beginning of the game and has vowed to protect the inhabitants.
Despite the DomZ’s public declarations to the contrary, the Alpha Sections are unable to stop it. The Alpha Sections are opposed by the IRIS Network, an underground resistance group that thinks the DomZ is working with it. Jade, the primary character of Beyond Good & Evil, is a teenage photographer. She lives in a lighthouse on an island that also serves as a shelter for kids left orphaned by DomZ assaults.
Jade’s uncle and guardian is a monster that resembles a hog named Pey’j. Double H, an IRIS agent that is physically powerful, helps Jade on missions. He always keeps on a military-issued suit of armor. The “Synthetic-Atomic-Compressor” (SAC), Jade’s storage device, is equipped with an artificial intelligence named Secundo that provides advice and “digitizes” objects. The DomZ High Priest, who is primarily responsible for the invasion, and Alpha Sections leader General Kehck, who utilizes propaganda to win the Hillyans’ faith while kidnapping people to keep the DomZ alive, are the primary villains.
At the beginning of the game, we come across the children of Hillys, who were left orphaned by the DomZ, and are being cared for by Jade and Pey’j. As a result of the lighthouse being exposed to the meteor shower, numerous DomZ monsters can kidnap some of the orphans. A DomZ siren can be heard when outside in meditation with one of the orphans. Jade rushes to activate the shield’s power but finds that it has been turned off since there isn’t enough money.
To release the kids, Jade is compelled to battle these monsters. She then battles a DomZ monster that appears from a meteor crater with Pey’j’s assistance. Just after Jade finishes down the monster, the Alpha Sections show up, and Pey’j complains that they were late as usual. Secundo gives Jade a photography job so she may earn the money necessary to turn the shield’s electricity back on.
For a scientific museum, the work entails cataloging every species on Hillys. A “man in black” then asks Jade to look at and capture images of what is thought to be a pair of DomZ twins in an old mine on a neighboring island. The DomZ twins turn out to be a massive DomZ monster’s antennae. After being overpowered, the “man in black” removes his outfit, and a cab emerges from the limo he was operating. The man confesses that the IRIS Network employs him and that Jade’s abilities were being tested on the job.
The network then chooses Jade to be one of its agents since it believes the Alpha Sections are responsible for the planet-wide disappearances. The first place Jade looks into is a ration plant managed by the Alpha Sections. She finds proof of human trafficking carried out by the DomZ with the help of the Alpha Sections. She saves Double H along the road after the DomZ abducted and tortured him.
The DomZ then kidnaps Pey’j and takes him to an abandoned slaughterhouse where he and the other abducted people would be brought to a base on Hillys’ moon Selene. Jade finds out that Pey’j was the IRIS Network’s covert head after failing to save him from the butcher in time. Jade discovers that the DomZ is controlling and possessing the Alpha Sections. Jade and Double H proceed to the DomZ lunar base via Beluga, the ship Pey’j used to go to Hillys. After being tortured for weeks, Jade discovers Pey’j dead there.
However, a weird power she possesses sends his spirit back, restoring him. Jade faces the DomZ High Priest after saving Pey’j, destroying Kehck’s command vessel, sending her last report, and inciting a revolt against the Alpha Sections. She discovers that the power was stolen from the DomZ decades ago in the hopes that the High Priest, who depends on spirit energy to function, would starve to death.
The power is now being concealed in her human form. The High Priest catches Pey’j and Double H to have Jade submit to him after discovering a substitute energy in the souls of everyone who had been taken from Hillys. Despite almost losing control of her soul in the process, Jade can kill the High Priest using the stolen power she has. She then revives and saves others who have been kidnapped. In a post-credits sequence set on Hillys, Pey’j’s hand develops a DomZ spore as the picture fades to darkness.
Jade, the main character, is commanded by the player from a third-person viewpoint. Jade is capable of running, sneaking around, jumping over barriers and pits, climbing ladders, and pushing, bashing, and flattening herself against walls. As Jade, the player explores several installations to learn more about a conflict involving an extraterrestrial danger. The player must solve puzzles and navigate through foes to get to spots with photographic proof in the game’s interior sections. Her Da-jo battle stick, discs for long-range attacks, and a camera are Jade’s major weapons. When enemy strikes strike Jade, her health, which is represented by hearts, drops.
The maximum amount of it may be boosted further using “PA-1s,” which, when carried by Jade or her friends, raises their life monitor by one heart. It can be repaired utilizing fictitious food items. If Jade runs out of health, the game will start over at the previous checkpoint. Later in the game, if Jade is discovered during certain stealth sections, she will be instantly killed. The majority of stealth aspects let you fight for your life if you’re discovered, although doing so makes it more challenging to live.
Beyond Good and Evil as a game is neither innovative nor inventive. It doesn’t try to be something it isn’t. It merely has a tale to narrate, and it conveys it pretty effectively. The game became iconic back in the day because fundamental ideas that guided the creation of the universe of Beyond Good & Evil, such as the harmony between breadth and detail, dynamism, and response to player curiosity, are still valuable. The same is true of its character development, which leverages the interactions between characters to create a feeling of each one’s personality and your connection to them as a player.
FALL OF BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL
Unlike other games that failed to produce a worthy sequel and were lost in obscurity, Beyond Good and Evil didn’t see any further development after the first game came out in 2003. Although a sequel to the game was announced in 2016, nothing much is known about the game apart from a couple of cinematic trailers that came out in 2017 and 2019.
Apart from that, the games creator Michel Ansel also announced his retirement from the world of gaming in pursuit of wildlife animal welfare in September 2020. Although he had revealed that he hadn’t been involved with the game’s development for a few months before he left. His style of management rather, than mismanagement, had also been stated as a cause for the delay in the game’s development.
FUTURE OF THE BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL FRANCHISE
The sequel Beyond Good and Evil 2 has been in development since 2016, but nothing much is known about the game apart from the fact that it is still considered a work in progress. According to Ubisoft’s official website, the game is a prequel to the original game. At this point in time, it is hard to tell whether the game will release or not. Still, Ubisoft hasn’t discontinued the development process simply because they have already allocated a substantial amount of funds towards the project.
MARVELOUS VERDICT
The fans of the game have been waiting six years since the sequel was announced in 2016, but at this point, the only beacon of hope seems to be Ubisoft’s official statement that the project is still under development. For the time being, gamers have to make do with the original iteration of the game and relish their nostalgia. Till then, please subscribe to our channel for more updates on Beyond Good and Evil and many other games.