Many announcements have been made at E3 this year, but one that has been building a lot of buzz with longtime gamers is the long-awaited trailer for Beyond Good & Evil 2, sequel to the beloved 2003 open world, action-adventure game.
While the sequel was first announced back in 2008, nothing else was heard about the development, and many fans gave up hope that it would ever see the light of day. The cinematic trailer shown at this year’s E3 shows that the game has certainly changed from the original, with its liberal use of expletives and explosions. While the trailer shows that the Beyond Good & Evil 2 might actually come out this time, it didn’t reveal anything about the gameplay and how it might be different from the original.
According to this article from The Verge, Ubisoft’s French video game designer Michel Ancel showed off a technical demo of the game and how it has evolved. Whereas the first Beyond Good & Evil played sort of like a Legend of Zelda meets Pokémon Snap with hovercraft sections, the sequel is drastically more complex. It apparently combines RPG elements with procedural generation and “online worlds.” Its also not very complete (it is just a tech demo, after all), with developers still working on many aspects of the game, such as graphics, combat, and the narrative.
Speaking of the story, not much has been revealed, but what is known is that Beyond Good & Evil 2 is technically a prequel to the original game. This has made some fans upset, as not only do neither of the main characters from the first game appear in the trailer, but the first one actually ended on a cliffhanger that has yet to be resolved.
Still, the trailer has given a lot of fans hope that they will get to see more from the Beyond Good & Evil universe. While Ancel said that the game is still too early in development to expect a 2018 release, he hopes to have something new to show for next year’s E3. Until then, fans will have to wait patiently.