Beyond Good & Evil 2 Shown at E3, Sadly

Yeah so remember when I said Beyond Good and Evil 2 isn't coming to E3?

Well I guess I had the wool pulled over my eyes for that one, huh? Good to know there are still surprises left in the world. But then again, hearing them talk about the game itself, one could argue that not all surprises are good...

Let's back up here. First, the trailer itself. Language warning! (gasp!)



It looks pretty, and it very much looks like a Beyond Good and Evil game, with the mix of animals, ethnic cultures mixed with cyberpunk elements, and a smattering (well, more than a smattering in this case) of an anti-establishment, rebellious attitude. Gabrielle Shrager, narrative director at Ubisoft Montpellier, introduced it like so:

“Our story takes place before the birth of Jade in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural human society in a distant solar system. It is a time when corporations create hybrids in their labs and enslave them to colonize the stars in order to compete for power and cosmic resources. With our crew of crazy and unforgettable characters, we fight in the name of freedom and the right to determine our own fate among the stars. And we will helm massive star-faring vessels through territories as spectacular as they are dangerous.”

While the story details were left scant, they did explain that it was a seamless multiplayer adventure that can be played either solo or co-op, where you travel around the galaxy, discovering new places, fighting against the authority while you rise from being a lowly pirate to a legendary captain with your own hangar of ships, a full crew, and smattering of unique and powerful weapons. Your crew can even include other players, which is an interesting development.

Speaking of development, if you were hoping this game was coming soon, well... no. No release date was announced, and more importantly, they announced a new "Space Monkey" program where users can help participate in the game's development over Twitter "at the earliest stages of development", so... yeah, we've still got a ways to go.

As for me? Well, I called this an unwelcome surprise (and I'll probably write a big article about it later) because the appeal of Beyond Good and Evil, beyond the setting and diverse cast (which Ubisoft has most certainly capitalized on) was that it was a tightly-focused traditional single-player action-adventure game which had a perfectly good cliffhanger ending. This game looks fine, but it's not Beyond Good and Evil 2: it's going to become a microtransaction-heavy multiplayer game set in the same universe. And if you think otherwise, well... then you haven't met Ubisoft before. They probably refused to develop it unless it had those features, because that way they could continue to add microtransactions and other "optional cosmetics".

So we're still a long ways from seeing a true Beyond Good and Evil sequel in our lifetime. But who knows, maybe if this sells well...?