Beyond Good and Evil

I should have known things weren't going to go well between Beyond Good and Evil and me from the start, when it turned out to not be a first-person shooter like I had blindly assumed it was. I knew it was about some conspiracy in the future or something and I would be running around with a camera taking pictures (it's right there on the cover!) but I guess I assumed the first-person camera view meant I'd be attacking in first person as well. Nope. Beyond Good and Evil is a third-person action game, and despite the critical acclaim, it just never quite worked for me. It reminded me of Kameo in that it tried to do a lot of things, but did none of them really all that well aside from maybe building a cool environment and having some great voice acting. The game's divided up into 4 big levels and a central city, and I guess I can point out a few more things the game did well- traveling around on a hoverboat was pretty fun, and the bright colors and interesting music choices (lyrics in Spanish and Bulgarian!) made the overworld a pretty fun, unique experience in gaming. But the levels. Oh boy, those levels. Think of everything people didn't like about the central temples in the DS Zelda games, and it's there. Mostly just constant forced stealth, I guess. It's boring, frustrating as all hell, and really has only been pulled off well in the Metal Gear series, and even then only because those games are so insane. I can see why Beyond Good and Evil would work for some people, but it just didn't work at all for me. I usually post games I love on the blog, and it can be boring to read and write post after post about how great every game is, but the silver lining of playing one I don't like like Beyond Good and Evil (also, there's no traversing beyond 'good and evil', morality is pretty clear-cut here) is I get to give out the rare "Skip It!" Sweeney seal of disapproval.