Digital Foundry’s Thomas Morgan wrote in support of Beyond Good & Evil 20th Anniversary Edition, writing for Eurogamer that the remaster is a “smooth upgrade” of the classic, which, while prone to some performance issues on consoles, particularly the Nintendo Switch, is “the most definitive, the most appropriate way” to experience Beyond Good and Evil.
Morgan began by praising the remaster for not straying too far from the original, while improving it in several ways. The visuals get the most significant upgrade, but the game now boasts a fast-paced mode and has also been refined in the later hours through new content that ties it in with the highly anticipated Beyond Good & Evil 2. Additionally, new bonuses and add-ons detailing the creation and development Beyond Good & Evil, according to Morgan, “could be worth the price of admission on their own for die-hard fans.”
Regarding the improved assets and textures, he wrote:
“Practically every texture has been reworked with a newer, sharper version: the ground textures, the sky box that fills the night horizon with stars—all of that has been replaced. Some textures are much closer in quality to the original and HD versions, while others potentially use AI higher level to repurpose the original asset… most of the materials are obviously made from scratch, adding more complex shader effects in the process that simply wouldn’t have been possible in 2003.”
“Because it’s such a story-driven game by nature, this change is often best applied to the characters of Beyond Good and Evil. Their jackets, hats and T-shirts now reveal a more cloth-like effect in close-up… you’ll also notice many subtle changes to the world of Beyond Good and Evil: new crumpling on the carpet in Jade’s room and added tufts of grass towards the exterior view. All around, it gives every area a subtle sense of ‘lived in’ without overdoing it.”
Moving on to performance, Morgan noted that the Playstation and Xbox versions of the remaster were hit with a sudden, albeit rare, drop from the target 60 frames per second to 30 that was hard not to notice. Reportedly, the Switch version was even worse in this regard, aiming for 30 frames per second, but falling to 20 seconds in intense sequences.
When it comes to resolution on the Switch, the results were mixed:
“The Switch’s resolution while docked varies between 900p and 1080p depending on the situation. Most of the dungeon areas aim for that 1080p max, while the canal area in the center of Hillys – with all the flying cars – has numbers closer to 1600×900. Still, that’s impressive stuff considering the system simply can’t deliver anything more. As for resolution, the Switch’s portable mode also usually has the game running at the maximum possible 720p. It’s a perfect pixel-to-screen match and looks sharp while playing on the go. However, there are reductions…[the] The Switch’s smaller pool of 3.GB of usable RAM requires a reduction in texture and shader quality.”
Ultimately, performance and resolution issues led Morgan to describe the Switch version as “frustrating” on two separate occasions. But his verdict on the game, regardless of the version, remained the same – he ended by saying:
“-this one [remaster] is a powerful way to reacquaint ourselves with Beyond Good and Evil while we wait for its sequel – or to experience the game for the first time.”
