The story is further brought to life by the game's interesting menagerie of
characters. Each is filled with personality and brought to life by
excellent voice work. Pey'j's devotion to Jade is obvious and his
enthusiasm is inspiring - and this is all coming from a talking pig, mind you.
Even minor characters are full of personality, and it's always fun in the game
to come across a new character.
 |
| Your hovercraft serves both as a transport and as as
your vehicle for races and battles. |
Hillys is an intriguing and beautiful world - part Venice, part Naboo, and
entirely fascinating. The water effects and reflections look fantastic,
and the colors, textures, architecture, and characters all give Hillys its own
unique look and feel. Air and water traffic, and the various animals
roaming the land and sea help bring the world alive, making it more than a
pretty picture. Add an excellent soundtrack with a myriad of musical
styles and you get a world with far more personality than found in most of the
video games out there.
Gameplay itself is heaviest on the stealth and puzzle solving aspects.
You'll need to infiltrate many guarded locations to continue your investigation
and get photographic evidence, so you'll need to stay out of sight most of the
time. There's enough of this in the game that if you don't enjoy stealth
games you won't have fun with BGE. The game's puzzles are pretty
straightforward and many fall into the same general categories, so most players
won't find themselves getting stuck at certain points in the game.
There are times when you'll have to resort to fighting, and the game has a
simple fighting interface for when push comes to shove. All attacks are
initiated with the X button, with the exact type of blow determined by the
direction that you push the stick. Jade can unleash a surprising variety
of attacks with this system, but BGE does not give you nearly the degree of
control as found in most fighting or action games and does not have any kind of
combo system.
In addition to your time spent sneaking around on foot, you'll also have the
opportunity to pilot a couple of vehicles. For most of the game the
vehicle will be your trusty hovercraft. The hovercraft comes equipped with
a laser gun, and can be upgraded to include special weapons, increased armor, or
speed boosters. You generally use the hovercraft to travel between the
locations in Hillys, but there are some hovercraft specific missions as well
which include battles, chases, and races. These are a fun change of pace,
but the chase and race missions can run a little on the long side and failure
means starting over from the very beginning.
If you play a lot of games, you won't have too much trouble making your way
through the game. However, BGE should be viewed as the sum of all of its
parts. Together they make a game that is experienced almost more as a
story than as a game. If you're looking for a change of pace from all of
the unoriginal, cookie-cutter games out there, then I highly recommend that you
give the world of Hillys a visit.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
89%. Playing BGE should be viewed as
taking part in a fantasy novel. Play it more for the experience than the
challenge and you'll find your time well spent.
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