Throughout Beyond Good and Evil we are treated the cycling propaganda messages, news reports for either the Alpha Sections or the Iris Network. Each group purports the others to be the villains not working for the interest of the people of Hillys. Being that it must be one or the other the goal of the game is to search for the truth. Early on you are approached by the Iris Network to investigate the Alpha Sections and the imagery from their propaganda is much more denoting of villains. While there are two conflicting groups the game is directing you towards a single answer and the revelation of what it is.

The main goal and objectives of the game are centered on investigating and taking photographic evidence to reveal the truth. So while the question of ‘what is the truth’ and ‘what is going on’ are prevalent it is obvious to the player. The saw tooth face of the Alpha Sections commander and the incessant domineering control they seem to have over the planet leads the player to see them as an opposing force to a decent life for Jade and her family. In a meta sense we have the idea of the player conditioned to play as the lone hero. Given the circumstances of the story this role takes the form of an investigative photojournalist.

Though the argument can be made for that this one sided view could be Ancel’s commentary on the nature of viewpoint and subjective truth as it pertains to world view, but I feel that this is not corroborated by several facts of the game. You take control of Jade for the entire game and her entourage are solely made up of members of the Iris Network, including her uncle Pey’j. You could say this naturally colors her view point sociologically, or the fact that she is an entity that the Domz are after and that obviously opposes them that that could color her perception of the relative positions of right and wrong. I find that inconclusive and a little beyond the scope of what the game is presenting.

Beyond Good and Evil takes a simple art style and direction meant to enhance certain tonal qualities of the game. The areas result from a basic color pallet and the characters are set in certain representational color schemes meant to denote symbolic representation and association. Much like the color schemes of superheroes, to simplify the perception and make them instantly recognizable. From this point of view Jade has more in common with the Domz than she does the other members of the Iris Network of Pey’j. She is represented by green, yellow and white like the Domz, while many of the Iris Network have the colors yellow, blue and brown the same as Pey’j. Given the later revelation that she has a deep connection with the Domz, which isn’t completely explained, but seems to be symbiotic in nature, would denote any natural viewpoint from her to be naturally attributed subjectively to the Domz. Instead she works to uncover their plot and reveal the truth the Hillys population.

Furthermore, speaking of character viewpoint it makes sense to examine player viewpoint, which is decidedly in third person. The only time we actually look through Jade’s eyes is in fact when she is looking through the objective lens of her camera. At all other times we view the world from a rotating third person angle. Jade’s camera is the key to objectivity in Beyond Good and Evil. It can capture the moment as it was, not as we think it was. It is the item that captures the evidence and is your primary tool throughout the game. Being a tool of objectivity makes objectivity a primary goal of the plot.

A major theme of the game is objective truth, not subjective truth. The title Beyond Good and Evil when explored means it is representative of something not to be considered within the realm of the two terms themselves. Good and evil are opposites on a spectrum and the title is asking to look beyond them. Good and evil, however, are subjective terms, they have meanings, but what values that they constitute are not set in stone. In asking to look beyond subjective terms we are not asked to make a declaration or take one side or the other, but to look at what is there regardless what it is.

The animals you are asked to photograph are not good or evil. Your actions in taking their pictures may be beneficial, but it is an example of seeing what is there. There is no judgment only what is there. Another part of the world that exemplifies the objective truth of the world is the volcano. Near the beginning of the game you are told a rumor about a cache of pearls at the top of the volcano. This area is only reachable at the end. It starts only as a rumor, an unsubstantiated claim. Jade goes there, however, and turns it from a subjective belief into an objective reality. There is a cavern and there is a cache of pearls to be found. That is all well and good, but I think the two opposing groups represent the real meaning behind the title of the game best. The Alpha Sections and the Iris Network both have their own propaganda reels delivered to the people of Hillys. As is obvious to the player for one reason and another, the Alpha Sections are the evil and the Iris Network is supposed to represent the good. From both groups, however, comes some pretty hard to digest propaganda that is really in you face and difficult to take seriously. The Iris Network issues really make one cringe, because you know they are right, but their delivery makes them sound like insane conspiracy theorists. It’s only at the end in a final plea to the Hillys people themselves does everything change. No one is screaming or pointing fingers. There is no more fear mongering from either side; it comes down to a heartfelt plea and listing of the facts to the people. In a way this is Jade and company’s last stand.

Here it transcends the good and evil squabbles of the two groups and both groups’ attempts to win the hearts and minds of the people. Instead we have a few investigators telling the truth and showing the evidence of what has been happening. They have moved beyond both the Alpha Sections and the Iris Network in this move. It is by far the most important report made. The others may have gotten gradual support, but this is the one that caused the people to wake up and rise up in their own defense.

It is rather a hopeful message that the power of the people is all that it takes to drive off evil. What Ancel believes in here, is when presented with the truth and being a dangerous and horrendous truth, the people will do something about it. Whatever reasons a person may have for acting, be it self interest, survival, revenge, justice or any number of other motives the people will rise to right a wrong. It may seem not like much, but as I’ve said before it takes the power of the people to start things off. With their approval the governor can send the Hillys forces to defend their world.

The world of Hillys is simple when compared to our own. This simplicity allows for objective truth to be found and accepted much easier than it would be in our own. Thanks to Photoshop and the Internet, false information and lies can easily pass as truth. Because of that it makes real evidence harder to believe and accept. If Hillys had been more complex with multiple governments and more people and different areas and different types of thinking I don’t think the Iris Network could have gotten through. The people are always the key and here they happened to be receptive.

Truth is a difficult thing to nail down and differing voices make it hard to see everything objectively. We have to fight for it against all odds for it is the right thing to do and truth like it did quite literally to the people of Hillys, will set you free.

During the game’s tenure as the Vintage Game Club’s focus and playthrough, a lot of the discussion focused on the story and the player’s confusion that came about from it. Indeed it is confusing if you aren’t playing close attention and search out many of the details from conversations. Even then you have to make a number of inferences to get the whole picture.

First of all many people were confused about the supposed mystery in the game. There are two types of mysteries. First there is the puzzle element mystery, generally called the whodunit, and secondly there is the caper, this is generally about how is the hero going to pull this off. Beyond Good and Evil falls into the later category. We know who the bad guys are, if we couldn’t figure it out from the world setup or the propaganda, we are blatantly told by the members of the Iris network. We know the who, we even know the what, when and how. The action of the game revolves around the question “how are we going to prove it?” Everything Jade does is in an effort to answer that question.This leads to the next question that plagued many of the players of the VGC. What does it matter if we can prove the conspiracy? This is where Beyond Good and Evil’s storytelling and polish needed work. If you hunt around you can garner the details that let you infer why, but it is never explicitly explained. To understand why, you have to understand the different groups involved.

Let’s start with the Alpha Sections. This is the military that is stopping the Domz, the unquestionable bad guys of the game. The Alpha Sections work for the Domz or are a supporting arm, we don’t know the specifics, but they pass themselves off as the benevolent protectors of all the planets attacked by the Domz and are touted as especially efficient at combating them. They are an intergalactic group.

Next there is the Iris Network, a group of journalists working to expose the Alpha Sections for what they truly are. Most of the game’s conflict comes from these two groups exchanging propaganda. They are underground, but more well known than a secret terrorist organization or resistance group would seem to be. They are also an intergalactic group.

Then there is the Governor and her people. I can only assume given the themes and manner in which she runs the planet, that she is the democratically elected leader of Hillis. She has her own beliefs, but can only act in the people’s will with sufficient evidence.This is where things get confusing for some people. There is also the Hillian Military. They are the sworn defenders of Hillis specifically. They are members of Hillis defending their homes and are in no way associated with the Alpha Section,save one and this is where the confusion comes in. They both wear fully armored suits of very similar style and color. The people in the dungeons are the Alpha Sections; the people in town are the Hillian Military. You just have to talk to them a few times each to see the difference.

Finally there are the people of Hillis, the meandering populace. Understanding the difference between these groups is key. They are not all on the same side. They are not allied to each other. They all move with their own goals, most of which happen to be the same, but there are nuances and it is in these cracks that the conflict springs up.

Much confusion came up about the conspiracies and the necessity of many actions of the groups. I think there was a fundamental misunderstanding by many of the players of what the different groups were trying to accomplish. On the surface their actions are easily understood, but holes appear in their logic if the Iris was just trying to expose the Alpha Sections and were in danger why such a flimsy security system and if they did this elsewhere then why not bring those examples to light and if the Alpha Sections were imposing martial law why couldn’t they find the Iris network?

The truth I think is that none of the groups have the power many of the players thought they had. Every action every group took was in relation to the general populace of Hillis. They have the true power. The Alpha Sections could only continue their secret abductions for the Domz if they the people supported them and believed they were helping in keeping the Domz at bay. You can see early on one of the children tell Jade that he wants to join the Alpha Sections when he grows up because he thinks they are heroes. The people generally believe the propaganda on the radio and the TV. The Iris Network does want to expose the Domz, but more importantly they want to break their Alpha Sections hold on the people. They state in their early briefings that if they can prove a conspiracy then the people will rise up against them.

The Alpha Sections have to keep up appearances. Everything they do is out of site from the everyday populace. Their headquarters in town is closed off. The two chase sequences that I call some of the best in video games end when you make it back to the city proper. They can’t follow you, because they have to keep up appearances and not give anyone any reason to kick them out.

Meanwhile the soldiers you see in the city are not the Alpha Sections, they are the Hillian Military, who Double H is a member of. Talking to them over the course of the game you realize they serve not the government, but adhere to the philosophy that they serve and protect the people. One even says to Jade not to confuse them with the Alpha Sections; they have nothing to do with the war against the Domz.

The Governor, meanwhile, believes what the Iris Network is telling her, especially since she is being stonewalled by the Alpha Sections. However, she cannot simply tell them to leave, though if she did and exercised her power she could get rid of them. The problem is that the people believe in them and it wouldn’t do anybody any good to get rid of the people’s heroes, especially with the Domz attacking every few days. She has to do this intelligently and cautiously, only taking minor steps when she has enough proof so she can back up her actions should she need to.The whole story fits together quite nicely until the third act and it would have worked had they not changed the final strategy of the Domz to: this has been about Jade the whole time. This is where the major plot hole comes in and I have no way to explain it. Destroying the lighthouse and kidnapping the children can be seen as retribution and revenge for messing with much of their operations, but using it as an excuse just to get Jade to come to the moon is just too much. Why would they wait so long if they knew it was her? And why wouldn’t they kidnap her along with the others?

Another plot hole is when the people do rise up and the cavalry comes to the rescue we end up with a situation where the Domz leader is expressing victory by capturing the fleet on the inside of the shield. To me this in no way constitutes victory, especially when all your ships have been destroyed and your space squid ship thing has already been dealt with. All the military would have to do is blow up the station and the shields would come down. So I’m not entirely sure what that piece of dialogue was about, unless Jade has some ultimate power that in the Domz hands would turn the entire situation around.

This is nothing major, just me trying to clear up a few misconceptions about the narrative that came up. Not all of it could be cleared up, but the ending left a lot to be desired in more than one way. The game was rushed at the end of development that makes me think the ending suffered because of it.

This is the beginning of a new series whose purpose is to highlight the positive aspects of a game that would fall under the Killer 7 Argument and to explain why it fits the definition. This is mostly for games that have been overlooked, but any game fitting the definition is up for evaluation.

For the first iteration I’m going to do Beyond Good and Evil as if you couldn’t have guessed. It was recently the subject of a simultaneous play through by the Vintage Game Club over at Brainy Gamer.

Beyond Good and Evil definitely falls under the Killer 7 argument. It has been called a Zelda clone and in fact has even been called a Zelda for grownups. I’m not sure either of those monikers due it justice. It has many of the elements of a Zelda game: environmental puzzles, dungeons, upgradeable equipments, but there is so much more going on here.

First of all it changes the set-up slightly so we are no longer stuck with a silent protagonist and that protagonist is no longer male. However, the game defies our expectations once again by having Jade not be your standard female protagonist. In other words, she looks like a real human being rather than being some sexed up object to be ogled at and in doing so, ironically, is a far more attractive avatar.

Upon replaying it for the Vintage Game Club many subtle design choices came up in the discussions and revealed that create a simplified experience with the controls. Most of this was noticed early on, because the game doesn’t change its control scheme ever. It has a simple set of unified controls that transition from one mode to another. From this point of view, the R2 button is not the run button, but the move faster button. The hovercraft and the spaceship both use the same buttons to maneuver as Jade does on foot. On the PS2, the X button will always be action, the O button will always be item and the Square button will always be attack. I never noticed until it was pointed out why Beyond Good and Evil was such an easy game to control.

The story is original and the characters refreshing in an industry filled with derivative plots and characters that seem to fill the same shoes that they could be interchangeable. The relationships between the characters feel believable and you under up caring what happens to them and Hillis, the planet they live on, beyond just an avatar to get you to the next dungeon. The camera mechanic as well is a refreshing gameplay element that is not a gimmick, but central to the progressing through the game. It is introduced early on and in a believable manner that it does not feel like a tutorial at all.

In fact the entire beginning section is really a disguised tutorial section and maybe one of the better introduction to a game’s mechanics that I’ve ever seen. All the controls are discernible from the HUD and new controls are delivered through in-game dialogue in a natural and motivational way. By the way, the voice acting is really good. This is something that usually gets looked over in most video games, but each actor here brings their character to life, especially Jade, Pay’j and Peepers.

The art direction is a nice set of blues and greens is beautiful even without modern top of the range graphics. The cartoon style allows the player to get closer to the character than had it been hyper realistic. In either case it’s a nice change from gray and brown.

As much as I like the game as a whole there are many problem areas, most of which I’m sure came about from the fact that Michel Ancel, was rushed through the game’s development near the end and was forced to make cuts and not properly test the whole game.

The plot while a refreshing change does begin to become more obscure and is difficult to follow without paying very close attention to optional dialogue and some extrapolation. Beyond just that there are some major plot holes. Character’s supposedly in suspended animation are able to call after a few weeks while in captivity, injuries that would put someone out weeks are up and about when you leave the bar, and why the bad guys are going through all this trouble in the first place. The ending is an exercise in Indigo Prophecy Syndrome and while the credits leave an impression of what happens afterwords the little clip after that were clearly intended for a sequel that the game really didn’t need.

While I didn’t have a problem with them, many other players did have an issue with the forced stealth sections that make up a majority of the later dungeons. I think most of that comes from the fact they weren’t expected given the normal Zelda formula. Another reason I think that comparison is unfair. It creates a certain set of expectations that BG&E never intended to meet. The levels and gameplay styles come out of the story and are integrated for the purpose of sneaking around. Though a majority of the stealth ire is reserved for the instant kill security bots that show up later. This is not to say that there isn’t combat or action, the game is filled with tense moments created by the stealth that then explode into cathartic action sequences.

I have said before that BG&E is in my top 3 of best chase sequences of all time in video games and after replaying it I stick by that assessment. There is no blur effect that makes it feel even faster like in Burnout and the camera doesn’t shake like in the Bourne series. Instead the slow pace provides a greater sense of danger and therefore a greater sense of urgency. I don’t want to spoil it, but when those sequences come up you’ll understand what I mean.

The side dungeons are really short and aren’t necessary to completing the game for resources like they might be in other games. They are short and in most case extremely easy to the point of being jokes. The gameplay is varied enough that to be interesting to the very end, but the game is short, real short. It’s only about 10-12 hours if you spend time doing all the side dungeons and extras. But that isn’t a bad thing. The game is long enough to do what it needs to do and doesn’t overstay its welcome. Plus if you are rushing through the game you are missing a lot of what makes BG&E so great, the fine detailing. The day shifts from morning, noon, evening and night with regularity and the world’s inhabitants respond accordingly. Looking up at the night sky you find your camera identifying constellations. They have nothing to do with game other than being there. Plus the wildlife that abounds in the game is not just monsters there to kill you, but give the impressions of a breathing and thriving ecology.

Does the game have issues? Yes. Is it for everyone? I can’t think of a game that is. But with all that it falls short in, it does so much else right and different than you can’t help appreciate it. I do wish it had more time to tighten up what was there and add what could have been, but as an entire package it is worth a play through.

I do have a warning for you. The game can be purchased on Steam, but I would hesitate against getting that version. Many complaints pooped up about difficult controls that did not exist with the people who played the console versions. It wasn’t poor coding, but that the analogue sticks were very necessary and the keyboard wasn’t a good substitute for several sections. If you have no other choice I still recommend playing this game.