Well, I'm probably one of the few people who has played the game and actually found it underwhelming.
the soundtrack, graphical style and setting are all great, but as far as story and gameplay goes, it falls short. Apart from the focus on taking pictures (which can get tedious), the gameplay is nothing special and I was often swearing at the context sensitive commands. Also, for a game called "Beyond Good and Evil", there's a severe lack of ambiguity and "grey areas". The characters are likeable enough, but apart from one plot twist, the story really is rather dull and unimaginative. It's like they wanted to go for something with tons of intrigue, with your character uncovering one giant mystery after another, conspiracies and choices challenging morality... But I guess either their tech and/or writer wasn't up to the task.
On top of that, it's a very short game with little to do on the side. Seriously, I always hear about people who like to roam around in the world with the hovercraft, but the world isn't all that big and there isn't all that much to do. And the whole "point of no return" isn't handled very well. I actually read there was going to be a lot more exploration, there were going to be multiple villages, mountains - even planets! But after playing Wind Waker, the director said he disliked long exploration parts, so he cut it from his game, leaving the rest of the developers depressed. You know what? I want to play that game.
I mean, this game came out the same time as Jak II: Renegade. Now while these games aren't exactly the same genre per se, they have some common ground - and in every aspect they would overlap on a Venn diagram, Jak II would take the cake.
But hey, that's just me.
