Ubisoft announces Beyond Good & Evil 2 at E3

Beyond Good & Evil 2

So far it has been a fantastic E3 convention. The Xbox One X looks fantastic as do the many games that have been announced at pre-E3 press meetings. With games such as Anthem, Spider-Man, Destiny 2 making huge waves.

However, one of the biggest surprises so far has been Ubisoft’s announcement of Beyond Good & Evil 2. The developer showed a cinematic trailer of the upcoming action adventure game to wide acclaim. The trailer itself does not feature any in-game footage, but that did not appear to lessen the excitement of lead developer Michel Ancel. Ancel is of course the original developer of the first Beyond Good & Evil. The first game came out in 2003 and offered and odd mix of action, puzzling and vehicle combat. Mixed with a fantastically French comic book setting the game garnered a cult status.

Yet, it was not a commercial success. That is probably the primary reason why almost a decade and a half have passed. The original came was also not easy to play. I remember leaving it be for weeks on end when I became frustrated. Yet finishing it did give a lot of fulfillment. I owned the original game on the Xbox. I have no idea why I bought it for that console as I also owned a GameCube. Lets face it, I had a Xbox for PC like games and GameCube for Nintendo games. Now I can’t play the game because the original Xbox gave the ghost more than a decade ago – though my GameCube works just fine.

Beyond Good & Evil 2 Cinematic Trailer

So what we do know about Beyond Good & Evil 2?

So far only tidbits have been announced, below is a small summary.

Beyond Good and Evil 2’s story takes place before the birth of Jade in a multi-ethnic society in a distant solar system called System 3 in the 24th Century. Corporations have taken control and enslave hybrids that they cook up in their labs, and pirates struggle for resources and survival. You will play as a pirate as part of a rag-tag team of heroes fighting in the name of freedom.

Beyond Good and Evil 2’s solar system will be presented as a “massive, seamless online environment”, and Ancel promises you can explore Beyond Good and Evil 2’s universe by yourself or with friends.

Ubisoft has been making a lot of quasi-MMOs in the last year, from The Division, Ghost Recon and Watch Dogs 2. I think a shared online experience with a game such as Beyond Good & Evil 2 is fantastic. What do you think? Beyond Good & Evil 2 has so far no set release date, but I don’t expect it any sooner than late 2018 at the earliest.