Beyond Good & Evil (video game)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses of "Beyond Good and Evil", see Beyond Good and Evil (disambiguation).

Beyond Good & Evil

Developer(s)	Ubisoft Montpellier
Publisher(s)	Ubisoft
Designer(s)	Michel Ancel
Engine	JADE engine
Release date(s)	November 11, 2003 November 14, 2003
Genre(s)	Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Teen (13+) OFLC: G8+ PEGI: 7+ PEGI: 6+ USK: 12
Platform(s)	GameCube, PS2, Xbox, Windows

Beyond Good & Evil is a video game for the GameCube, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, and Xbox platforms. It was designed by Rayman creator Michel Ancel, developed by Ubisoft in-house (with Ancel on the team) and released in late 2003. It focuses around the exploits of Jade, a female reporter and the game's protagonist. Tyrone Miller, a developer on the game, said the title comes from "need to investigate beyond the superficial facts of what is good and what is evil."^[1] The game has developed a cult following since its release.

1 Gameplay
- 1.1 Development history
- 1.2 Languages and Localisation
2 Plot
3 Social commentary
4 Trivia
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Gameplay

Beyond Good & Evil combines elements of an action-adventure game with those of a stealth-based game, among other genres. While Jade has the ability to attack enemies with her Daï-jo combat staff, she can also crawl and sneak around when necessary to avoid confrontation with enemies that outnumber her or are too powerful to engage in combat. At times, it is only possible to advance or defeat a certain enemy with the help of her friends Pey'j and Double H, creating an additional element of teamwork. Pey'j and Double H are mostly AI-controlled in that the player does not ever directly control them; however, the player can tell them to execute specific actions when those actions become available.

Being a reporter, Jade has access to a camera. This camera is mostly used to take pictures of animals (often to exchange for pearls) and to get evidence of certain actions or objects that may help to expose a military conspiracy.

Traveling around the world of Hillys is accomplished via an upgradeable hovercraft, which is also used for races and other mini-games. The main city in which the player begins serves as a hub world allowing you access to the various areas you must explore in order to expose the conspiracy.

The game also has an on-line component called "The Darkroom" where registered players may enter scores. The score depends on a number of variables, such as the number of "pearls" you have found, the number of pictures you have taken, the mini-games you have won, and the time taken to get there. The score works the same no matter what platform the game is played on. After entering your code, there is an online mini-game that, upon winning, gives you an in-game code unique to your save file. This code unlocks a customizable mini-game.

[edit] Development history

The game was developed by Michel Ancel, the creator of Rayman at Ubisoft's Montpellier studios in France. The game was reviewed highly, and was considered noteworthy for its immersiveness, voice acting, and musical score. However, unfortunate timing of the release against other titles led to disappointing sales. The game was intended to be the first part of a trilogy of games, but the game's poor sales placed those plans on indefinite hold. Michel Ancel has stated his desire to produce a sequel to the game but it is said that Ubisoft are unsure, financially, if they are prepared to publish a sequel to the franchise due to the sales of the first title.^[2]

[edit] Languages and Localisation

Example of Polish localisation

The North American version of the game features English, French, and Spanish versions. The European version, reflecting the continent's linguistic diversity, had versions in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Dutch, each fully dubbed in the target language. There is also Polish version, but without dubbing.

It is unclear what the "original" language of the game is, although it is most likely that it would be French, given that the game was written and designed by French designers in France. This is one of the few games available on the market that gives practically no clues as to the native language, as everything is localised, including signs.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The planet of Hillys is plagued by the frequent attacks of the alien DomZ army. The Alpha Section is a part of the Hillys military which claims to have come to stop the DomZ attacks. While they carefully culture the appearance of a crack military troop defending the innocent and stopping the invaders, they are actually accomplices of the DomZ forces and have become DomZ themselves. The IRIS network, a group of journalists creating an underground paper to stop the Alpha Section's propaganda, has come to Hillys to stop the lies. Hillys is populated by a wide variety of peoples, including anthropomorphic goats, pigs, birds, walrues, and rhinos, among others. (Non-sentient animal life runs the reptile/insect/fish/jellyfish gamut.)

Jade, main protagonist

Jade and Pey'j

Meanwhile, Jade has been looking after the children whose parents have been captured by the DomZ, together with her uncle Pey'j, a pig (and thus, presumably an adoptive uncle.) Jade, like most of the citizens of Hillys, initially believes that the Alpha Sections are doing all they can to defend the planet. When money runs low, Jade is forced to take a mission to photograph a rare animal in the depths of Black Isle, an extinct volcano. She finds that the reporting mission is merely a cover for a recruitment to the IRIS Network. Seeking the truth behind the DomZ war, Jade joins them, under her chosen pseudonym Shauni. From here, Jade goes on various assignments to publish reports to bring down the DomZ and the Alpha Sections. Her mission encompasses going to and retrieving information (primarily via photograph) from three key areas of DomZ and Alpha Section activity: An abandoned Factory, an old Slaughterhouse, and finally, Hillys' moon. She travels to the factory first where she finds signs of green goo on the floor. Later, Jade finds Double H whom she rescues from a DomZ torture device in the Factory and from being taken over by a DomZ spore. When she first releases him he acts hyperactive. She tells Double H to break through the sealed grate. Double H crashes through the grate with his head and falls down unhurt. When Jade returns back to the inner factory. She is encountered by The Reaper, A one eyed green monster. Jade proceeds to kill the Reaper. After restoring power to the elevator Jade goes to the upper floor with Pey'j. At which point Pey'j gives her an M-disk. There the door to the next gate is locked. Jade goes through an air duct to try and find a way deeper into the factory. She finds a sealed grate at the end and returns dissapointed. Upon returning she hears Pey'j fighting with the Alpha Section soldiers. She runs back but is too late. Pey'j is captured by the Alpha Sections and taken away before Jade can get to him. Jade opens the gate and runs the M-disk on a terminal to find that the message contained instructions from Pey'j about a spacecraft he and Jade's father worked on together. Jade then proceeds inside the factory where she finds that the Alpha sections have been abducting people and sending them to an unknown location. Jade finds that a spacecraft with Pey'j in it which leaves before Jade can reach it. Then Double H and Jade defeat an alien made from a pearl. Later when they are about to leave Double H complains about being unable to breathe, which explains the breathing apparatus that Alpha Section soldiers require to function. Jade quickly rushes him back to the IRIS headquarters where they administer an antitidote.

Throughout the course of the game, Jade takes photographs depicting the truth behind the Alpha Sections and the DomZ themselves. The Alpha Section Soldiers have been mutated into half-DomZ creatures, presumably by DomZ spores. They work fully under the command of the DomZ and only appear to offer support, "saving one person for every ten they don't" as said by Hahn in IRIS den. Through the help of the Alpha Sections, the DomZ have been shipping human cargo to the planet's moon, where they drain the life force of those people, sustaining themselves.

Late in the game, Jade is able to take a picture of General Keck, leader of the Alpha Sections, receiving orders from the DomZ leader (referred to as the "High Priest") within a moon base. The room they are seen in contains the bodies of all the kidnapped Hillians in cocoon-like structures. It is unclear whether the citizens are alive or not. While in the DomZ moon base, she finds Pey'j in a DomZ torture device. When she is able to release him, though, she finds him dead. Upon leaving the area, she receives an e-mail, which states that he is, miraculously, alive after all. She rushes quickly back to find him so and Pey'j claims that Jade somehow revived him through her touch. Reunited, Jade is soon able to broadcast her photographs to the entire population of Hillys, ironically using the Alpha Section's propaganda broadcasting antenna at the moon base. It is ultimately revealed that Jade herself is not actually human; that the enemies of the DomZ had stolen something (perhaps life essence) from the DomZ High Priest centuries ago, and recently transmuted or contained it in human form as Jade herself.

High Priest of DomZ

During the battle with the DomZ High Priest, it attempts to destroy the human part of Jade, which is interrupted by Double-H. Later in the battle, Pey'J and Double-H are both absorbed by the High Priest, who creates dopplegangers of them at certain points during the fight. Eventually, Jade kills the High Priest, and using her newfound powers revives Pey'J and Double-H while freeing the captured people of Hillys. She appears to do this with part of the High Priest's "body", although it may be a form of vehicle or tool. The scene after the death of the High Priest shows a large cloak, and hands embracing Jade. After the end credits, a short scene shows Pey'j coughing, and his hand sprouting a DomZ Spore (similar to one seen and cured in Double-H during the game), followed by an ominous black screen with the words The End.

[edit] Social commentary

While it is not uncommon for games to have intricate plots with detailed backgrounds, this game was one of the very few to break away from this norm to involve itself in consideration of topics that cause much controversy.

[edit] Press censorship and the effects of propaganda

Given the time of release and the political scene at the time, some have speculated that the coverage given to the war between Hillys and the DomZ was intended to reflect criticism of the media situation in the United States with regards to the Iraq War. However, there is little evidence to back this claim up, and could equally be applied to any government in history that has applied or has been accused of applying press manipulation to further its own political goals.

[edit] Restricted currency

The Alpha Sections have outlawed the use of pearls as currency, forcing citizens to rely on a single electronic banking system, Optima, for all economic transactions. This could be compared to the creation of hoarding laws and the Treasury department.

[edit] Restricted travel

The Alpha Sections have cordoned off several sections of the planet as part of their plot.

[edit] Trivia

In the game, there is an island with an extinct volcano called Black Isle which could be a reference to the now defunct gaming studio Black Isle Studios. This is further evidenced by the fact that the Black Isle logo, a mountain, is shaped like the volcano.
The sites IrisNetwork.Net and Hillyannews.com are mentioned in game and were registered by Ubisoft as a promotional tie-in.
Some problems persist in the game even after installing the patch. However, Ubisoft has since released a savegame compilation to work around these problems. [1]