Post by Draxas on Oct 9, 2005 15:36:11 GMT -5
Hello again, readers. Today I'm going to talk about a game I recently finished, and that was discussed briefly here a while ago. As I recall, Ranger mentioned that he "wanted to shoot the people who wrote the ending." Yes indeed, I'm referring to:
Beyond Good & Evil for PS2
And I couldn't agree with the above statement more. I'll get to that in a minute.
BG&E is a 3d adventure game, in a similar vein as StarFox Adventures or Zelda OOT, the idea being that you have a reasonable amount of freedom do do as you like, and roam freely throughout the game world. Or at least, that's the concept... The execution was botched somewhat.
You control Jade, a photographer who also just so happens to be skilled with a staff a-la StarFox Adventures, though she actually fights "well" and has "effective combos," unlike Fox (but this is not a "rag on SFA" topic, so enough about that). Jade controls well and is *usually* pretty responsive in combat (though I occasionally had some issues where she ended up flailing that stick of hers in the exact opposite direction she needed to, but I don't think it's an inherent problem with the controls), her combos are quite decent and take down most foes pretty quickly, meaning that battles don't bog down or get tiresome before they end. She also has a charge-up attack, and fights with a partner throughout the game who can perform team-up attacks on command, but those tend to be somewhat gimmicky attacks mostly useful against special-case foes.
However, despite the reasonably well done combat system, it shares the focus of the game with stealth oriented segments, where the objective is to avoid being spotted (or at least take out the guards as quietly as possible) while snapping pictures of various mission objectives. The stealth system is also done reasonably well. Objects block line of sight realistically, and most noises will stir up unwelcome attention. However, these segments tend to be particularly unforgiving if you screw them up. There is no "kick them out and start over" penalty here; the guards will always respond with lethal force, and are by far the toughest non-boss opponents in the game, especially en-masse. As if that isn't bad enough, many of the later stealth sections pair these guards up with evil automated turrets; if the guards spot you, the turrets shoot you, and it's one-hit-kill. They're extrordinarily irritating, but luckily fairly uncommon. Also, the guards are *really* stupid, and their helmets muffle their hearing way more than they reasonably should; you can walk 6 inches behind one, and as long as you don't give him a nudge or break into a run, he'll never know it.
Like most other adventure games of this style, puzzles are prevelant as well. However, to the game's credit, they never become the focus, nor difficult enough to become frustrating. They also involve every aspect of the game; combat, stealth, item juggling, etc. Overall they seem to be rather well done.
There is also a vehicle system, in the form of the hovercraft you get early in the game. It's quite heavily armed, and not for any good reason; outside of a few (quite repetetive; you fight the same one at least 3 times) boss fights, it mainly functions to move you from place to place in the overworld. Fun to drive, but ultimately wasted potential.
And therein lies the main problem with the game. It's really short, and very claustrophobic. The best I can liken it to is this: Imagine if, in Ocarina of Time, you are given Epona at the start of the game. Now, play the game as normal, but as soon as you remove the Master Sword from the pedastal for the first time, you are immediately teleported to the spiral staircase in Ganon's Tower. Really freaking short.
Claustrophobic is something else, and arguably even worse. Most games will put up artificial barriers around the edges of their world, but they feel realistic at least; mountains, canyons, etc. This one is different; even when you gain the ability to move past the first set of artificial barriers, the game quickly throws a second set up in your way before you can go very far, and these are permanent. It's quite irritating, as you can SEE that there is more to the world beyond, but the game simply will not ever let you explore it.
The game also feels unfinished (or perhaps "rushed" is a better term). The story tries to cram a lot of detail and character development into a very small span of time, but it fails; the net effect is that most people end up not caring about or connecting with any of the characters, and the finer details of the world are lost. On top of that, there is also little incentive to fully explore the world as well; most of the things you need throughout the game are either in painfully obvious locations, or are simply dumped in your lap with little to no effort.
Worst of all is the ending. The game ends just as you START to unravel the mysteries surrounding the entire game... And then the ending movies drop about 100 more questions in your lap which go unanswered. It makes you feel like you've only played half a game, and that you should run out and get the sequel to figure out what really happens, but there is no sequel nor any plans for one to be made. This especially reeks of poor planning, a rush to market, an unfinished concept, or the desire to increase profits by breaking a single game unnecessarily into parts. Or perhaps more than one of the above.
I hear you asking, "But Draxas, you must be exaggerating, the ending can't be THAT bad, can it?" I answer you, "Yes, yes it can." Let me put it this way; after seeing the ending, I was struck by how closely it resembles the ending of FF7, which, no matter how much you like or dislike the rest of the game, is unquestionably one of the vaguest and most piss-poor endings in videogame history. Nothing is resolved, and many more questions are left hanging when the screen fades out than you had BEFORE watching the ending. In fact, the ending even matches FF7 in its structure; since I don't want to post spoilers here, if you're curious about what I mean and don't mind spoilers, PM me for info and I'll explain it in depth.
So, to sum up: Short, terrible ending, characters you can't relate to long enough to actually care about. And yet, the execution of the game itself is above average in most other regards... I'm sort of mixed about this one. I've seen the game for $10 at Best Buy, brand new, so if it sounds like something you'd enjoy, it's certainly cheap enough. If not, I reccommend at least a rental; the game is short enough that you should have little trouble finishing it before the due date.
Beyond Good & Evil for PS2
And I couldn't agree with the above statement more. I'll get to that in a minute.
BG&E is a 3d adventure game, in a similar vein as StarFox Adventures or Zelda OOT, the idea being that you have a reasonable amount of freedom do do as you like, and roam freely throughout the game world. Or at least, that's the concept... The execution was botched somewhat.
You control Jade, a photographer who also just so happens to be skilled with a staff a-la StarFox Adventures, though she actually fights "well" and has "effective combos," unlike Fox (but this is not a "rag on SFA" topic, so enough about that). Jade controls well and is *usually* pretty responsive in combat (though I occasionally had some issues where she ended up flailing that stick of hers in the exact opposite direction she needed to, but I don't think it's an inherent problem with the controls), her combos are quite decent and take down most foes pretty quickly, meaning that battles don't bog down or get tiresome before they end. She also has a charge-up attack, and fights with a partner throughout the game who can perform team-up attacks on command, but those tend to be somewhat gimmicky attacks mostly useful against special-case foes.
However, despite the reasonably well done combat system, it shares the focus of the game with stealth oriented segments, where the objective is to avoid being spotted (or at least take out the guards as quietly as possible) while snapping pictures of various mission objectives. The stealth system is also done reasonably well. Objects block line of sight realistically, and most noises will stir up unwelcome attention. However, these segments tend to be particularly unforgiving if you screw them up. There is no "kick them out and start over" penalty here; the guards will always respond with lethal force, and are by far the toughest non-boss opponents in the game, especially en-masse. As if that isn't bad enough, many of the later stealth sections pair these guards up with evil automated turrets; if the guards spot you, the turrets shoot you, and it's one-hit-kill. They're extrordinarily irritating, but luckily fairly uncommon. Also, the guards are *really* stupid, and their helmets muffle their hearing way more than they reasonably should; you can walk 6 inches behind one, and as long as you don't give him a nudge or break into a run, he'll never know it.
Like most other adventure games of this style, puzzles are prevelant as well. However, to the game's credit, they never become the focus, nor difficult enough to become frustrating. They also involve every aspect of the game; combat, stealth, item juggling, etc. Overall they seem to be rather well done.
There is also a vehicle system, in the form of the hovercraft you get early in the game. It's quite heavily armed, and not for any good reason; outside of a few (quite repetetive; you fight the same one at least 3 times) boss fights, it mainly functions to move you from place to place in the overworld. Fun to drive, but ultimately wasted potential.
And therein lies the main problem with the game. It's really short, and very claustrophobic. The best I can liken it to is this: Imagine if, in Ocarina of Time, you are given Epona at the start of the game. Now, play the game as normal, but as soon as you remove the Master Sword from the pedastal for the first time, you are immediately teleported to the spiral staircase in Ganon's Tower. Really freaking short.
Claustrophobic is something else, and arguably even worse. Most games will put up artificial barriers around the edges of their world, but they feel realistic at least; mountains, canyons, etc. This one is different; even when you gain the ability to move past the first set of artificial barriers, the game quickly throws a second set up in your way before you can go very far, and these are permanent. It's quite irritating, as you can SEE that there is more to the world beyond, but the game simply will not ever let you explore it.
The game also feels unfinished (or perhaps "rushed" is a better term). The story tries to cram a lot of detail and character development into a very small span of time, but it fails; the net effect is that most people end up not caring about or connecting with any of the characters, and the finer details of the world are lost. On top of that, there is also little incentive to fully explore the world as well; most of the things you need throughout the game are either in painfully obvious locations, or are simply dumped in your lap with little to no effort.
Worst of all is the ending. The game ends just as you START to unravel the mysteries surrounding the entire game... And then the ending movies drop about 100 more questions in your lap which go unanswered. It makes you feel like you've only played half a game, and that you should run out and get the sequel to figure out what really happens, but there is no sequel nor any plans for one to be made. This especially reeks of poor planning, a rush to market, an unfinished concept, or the desire to increase profits by breaking a single game unnecessarily into parts. Or perhaps more than one of the above.
I hear you asking, "But Draxas, you must be exaggerating, the ending can't be THAT bad, can it?" I answer you, "Yes, yes it can." Let me put it this way; after seeing the ending, I was struck by how closely it resembles the ending of FF7, which, no matter how much you like or dislike the rest of the game, is unquestionably one of the vaguest and most piss-poor endings in videogame history. Nothing is resolved, and many more questions are left hanging when the screen fades out than you had BEFORE watching the ending. In fact, the ending even matches FF7 in its structure; since I don't want to post spoilers here, if you're curious about what I mean and don't mind spoilers, PM me for info and I'll explain it in depth.
So, to sum up: Short, terrible ending, characters you can't relate to long enough to actually care about. And yet, the execution of the game itself is above average in most other regards... I'm sort of mixed about this one. I've seen the game for $10 at Best Buy, brand new, so if it sounds like something you'd enjoy, it's certainly cheap enough. If not, I reccommend at least a rental; the game is short enough that you should have little trouble finishing it before the due date.
