After 14 years, fans ofBeyond Good and Evilfinally had their patience rewarded. Ubisoft announced at E3 2017 that the second game in series is in development, and released an amazing trailer featuring some art concept and several new characters from the game.
Beyond Good and Evil 2- Everything We Know
Check out the launch trailer:
According to Michael Ancel, the Creator ofBeyond Good and Evil 2, a new engine was created from scratch, allowing the developers to generate huge cities and allow planetary exploration between them. In the E3 trailer we can see a detailed, exotic, futuristic megapolis and numerous spaceships wandering in the stars. All in all, just from that trailer, this game certainly looks ambitious. Maybe notStar Citizenambitious butBeyond Good and Evil 2is definitely going for it.
What are the platforms and release date of Beyond Good and Evil 2?
So far Ubisoft has not yet decided how many platforms it will cover, at least not officially. ButSpace Monkey Program- Ubisoft’s news website forBeyond Good and Evil 2hints that players can chose from the three devices: PlayStation 4, PC and Xbox One.
This game is currently in early developmental stages, and Ubisoft has yet to settle on its official release date. During E3 2017, Ancel said it’s in Day Zero of development, though a team has already worked on the techniques required forBGE2for about 3 years. If everything goes smoothly we may be able to see BGE2 in late 2018, but it wont surprise us if it needs another 2 years in development.
What is the Story & Setting in Beyond Good and Evil 2?
Beyond Good and Eviltook place in the distant future, on a mining planet with both modern features and futuristic elements called “Hillys”. Players were tasked with uncovering the secrets of nefarious activities there as the reporter, Jade and her friend, Pey’j.
InBeyond Good and Evil, the cliffhanger left by the first game… remains unanswered. According to Ubisoft, BGE2 is the prequel to the original game and players now have a different set of characters. From a hybrid tiger to a talking monkey and other human-hybrid species. It’s possible we may even be able to customize our own main character. However, althoughBeyond Good and Evil 2takes place well before Jade was born, Ancel has promised that the characters of the previous game will be honored in some way.
The official game setting reads as follows:
System 3 (Where BGE2 takes place) has become the center of interstellar trade and colonization in the Milky Way of the 24th century, thanks to the creation of Hybrid slaves. While private enterprises fight over resources and power, the first colonists weave together the rich and diverse spiritual and cultural heritages of Old Earth to give meaning to their existence.
“In this new era of piracy, we will rise from lowly pirate to legendary captain at the helm of massive star-faring vessels, adventuring alongside crews of colorful characters to fight for freedom and the right to determine our own fate among the stars!
The art direction of the game has also changed. In the original game, Hillys is more or less your typical futuristic site. But in theBeyond Good and Evil 2trailer, we see tons of asian elements in the megapolis. There are Chinese signs everywhere and some of the main characters (the talking monkey and thug pig) are loosely based on the Chinese classic novelJourney to the West. There is also a giant Ganesa (elephant-head one) statue in the trailer, which comes from the Hindu Pantheon. This new art style of the game will most likely bring more fresh air to the genre.
What is the gameplay of Beyond Good and Evil 2?
The originalBeyond Good and Evilgame is a straight forward action-adventure. It has an intriguing story but the exploration elements and replayability are limited. However inBeyond Good and Evil 2, things could be quite different.
To start, this time we will be able to explore a seamless open world with streets, vast cities, planets and even solar systems! And it won’t be just an empty and lifeless world, with auto-generated objects and little interactions we are talking about. According to Michael Ancel, the universe inBeyond Good and Evil 2will be full of quests and points of interests. It will have"Real planets with cities, logical connection between the cities. And even all the natural events that you could have on these kind of planets, gravity, all the moons, and all these things.”
Here is a video of Ancel showing off the scaleability of the game’s engine:
“You can get out of the Chinese restaurant, jump into your spaceship, go across the atmosphere, and go into your giant spaceship, and then change the planet,” Ancel said. “And all this does no loading, and you can be attacked whenever it’s happening.”
“It’s like GTA but in space, in three dimensions.”
Of course, such a huge in-game universe requires all kinds of vehicles so players can explore it. In the sequel you can gradually earn money to build bigger and better spaceships, and thus beginning your epic adventure as a space pirate.
In the original game the combat system is fairly simple, you basically just needed one button to deal with all kinds of different threats. But inBeyond Good and Evil 2, there will be a more involved form of third person combat. How dynamic it will be in the final game remains uncertain but it we already know it will be much less mindless button mashing.
What’s To Come
Already we can see thatBeyond Good and Evil 2will provide more content and diverse game mechanics than its predecessor. Combined with a good background setting and an awe-inspiring story, it is shaping up to be another feast for players. Keep checking back for more as we will update this when we learn more!
