Beyond Good & Evil 2: What to Expect
We examine the original game and the trailer to draw conclusions.
by IGN AU Staff, IGN AU
Australia, February 16, 2009 - Ubisoft has its Miyamoto. His name is Michel Ancel and he is a masterful game designer. Rayman is his – a character he developed in his teens that landed him a position on Ubisoft's staff, and a few busy years later, he crafted the series into one of gaming's best known franchises. King Kong, created around Peter Jackson's reimagining of the cinematic classic, was also his – a critically overlooked action shooter that debuted alongside the Xbox 360 when it launched.
And then there's Beyond Good & Evil – a game that enchanted us with its stunning characters, subversive plot and gameplay that gave a few gracious nods to the leaders of the adventure genre while stepping out on its own with elements of photography, stealth and creativity.
A Few Thoughts
BG&E was – is still – a masterpiece of game design and direction. You might know about it – perhaps you even bought it – but it was never a financial success, for all its great ideas and strong storyline. Part of the problem was a perceived identity crisis –Ubisoft simply didn't know how to market the thing. The story starred a green hued heroine wildlife photographer living in a land of people, humanoid robots and anthropomorphic animals, with society on the brink of a social revolution and uprising. Gameplay skipped between photography, shooting, racing, balletic combat and role-playing – and it was unconventionally beautiful. How do you make that sound palatable to Joe Average gamer out there, who only has eyes for the next Halo or Gran Turismo?
Jade's return to the spotlight looms in the distance. But what can we expect in the sequel?
The as the story goes, you play Jade – as we mentioned, a photographer living in a lighthouse on an island off the shore of Hillys, taking care of orphans with her 'uncle' Pey'j – a gruff bipedal hog with a penchant for fixing engines and beating things around with his wrench. She works for the IRIS network – a renegade media organisation that wants to combat the spread of the oppressive DomZ race who are bent on invasion. So it's uncertain times for Hillyian residents.
The ending, without spoiling things, leaves room open for a sequel – thanks to a small scene after the credits that suggests things aren't entirely resolved.
Years later, Ubisoft teased us with a brand new trailer:
We know from interviews that Beyond Good & Evil 2 has been in various stages of production since at least mid-2007. That indicates a few things. One, Ancel had a lot of time to sit back and digest his work on 2003's effort – to take in the handful of criticisms and to really ponder where to take the story and characters. Two, it also means that Ubisoft isn't rushing this one. It has no reason to, since technically demand isn't there, if you're going by sales figures. So, what can we expect and what do we want to see?
BG&E to Wii?
First things first – a whole new generation of gamers need reintroducing to Jade and company, and what better way than through rereleasing the original game, optimised for Wii? The Wii offers a control scheme that perfectly suits the emphasis on camera aiming and control, as well as hardware that is, functionally, only a little more powerful than the GameCube – making a port of the GameCube game a logical Choice. So that's the first option.
Xbox 360 / PS3 Download?
The second option would be to rerelease the game via Xbox Classics or over the PlayStation Network. At this stage, the game isn't backwards compatible, which strongly suggests Microsoft and Ubisoft are looking at ways of monetising this game once again in time for the sequel. If that turns out to be the case, here's hoping for 1080p optimization and improved textures.
The Setting:
The trailer, which is rendered by the in-game engine, according to Ubisoft, opens with a fly-over of a desert stretch, dry and dusty, broken only by a single stretch of tarmac pushing to the horizon. Three moons fill the skyline, staggering off into the ether, subtly reminding us that this isn't your typical central American desert. As the camera pulls down, we see Pey'j resting against the front bumper of a broken down hover car, its engine spewing black smoke and a figure we assume to be Jade perched under an umbrella on the trunk.
Pey'j - the single most interesting pig since Porco Rosso. Or 'Babe'.
Gone are the rivers and byways at this stage, replaced by an open desert wasteland. This isn't likely to be a playable location – rather, just the set-up for the introduction to the game. Pey'j and Jade are on the move (well, technically they're not during the trailer) – and the game will probably pick up when they've repaired the car or hopped a lift.
The teaser touts a new desert landscape - but is this a red herring? We think so.
One thing the scale of the trailer suggests is that there may be a greater emphasis on seamless travel between locations – particularly as it looks like the setting is now completely different from the interlocked islands, labs and city sections of the first. With seamless locations comes the return of vehicles – perhaps the broken down junker of a flying car from the trailer. That would make sense – Pey'j perhaps needs to repair and upgrade this hover car to allow you to access each sequential area, much like the the Pearl System from the first. Mammago's garage probably won't return, unless they've relocated since the last game.
The Gameplay:
Shortly after the announcement of the sequel we never saw coming, Ubisoft's CEO, Yves Guillemot, had this to say:
"We saw with Beyond Good & Evil that so many customers were extremely happy with the game. (...) We had a different audience at that time. We had more core gamers than casual gamers than we have today.
We think the game was probably a little too difficult for the general gamers at that time. We're going to make it more accessible and make sure that it's really done for the new generation that's come into videogames."
This doesn't mean we're looking at a 'dumbed down' sequel by any means. In fact, the gameplay in BG&E was anything but complex – the camera was intelligent, the interface was mostly intuitive and levels themselves were designed in such a way as to be iconic and interesting as much as straightforward enough to traverse (there's a reason why this game is hailed as a classic, after all).
We're pretty sure Jade will retain her combat staff and acrobatic gameplay.
Rather, we interpret that statement as intent to further refine the gameplay from the first, while making adjustments to things like the map system and menus to ensure new players and hardcore gamers equally enjoy the experience. After all – given the first game's dismal sales, Ubisoft is rightly assuming that the sequel will be preaching to a crowd of players who are unfamiliar with the gameplay elements from the first.
So what do we expect to change in the sequel? Not a whole lot. Jade will likely still use her acrobatic fighting techniques, aided by her Dai-jo combat staff. It was intuitive and combo-based before and we expect further refinement. Of course, that's hardly much of a prediction, but the first game got its fundamental gameplay so right that it's hard to point a finger at specific flaws or areas in need of refinement.
While photography might remain, we think the stealth elements will get the flick.
The stealth mechanics from the first game may be given the flick, however. For a while there, stealth gameplay was all the rage – everything from your Sly Foxes through to Wind Waker had some element of stealth gameplay. We expect that Ubisoft has moved on from here – perhaps in line with the changing tastes and directions of the industry.
The Music:
Beyond Good & Evil's score remains among the best in the last generation of games. Its combination of piano and strings, eastern beats, sitars and panpipes gave the setting a sense of diverse culture and wonder. Thankfully, one of the few concrete facts we have about the sequel is the return of composer and performer Christophe Heral. His arrangements can already be heard in the teaser trailer – sitars strumming slowly against the swish of wind and sand.
The Future:
If this little re-examination of the teaser trailer and the original game feels a little light on facts, that's because there isn't a whole lot to go on right now. Michel Ancel is working away with his small but talented team of programmers and artists –and you better believe the result will be something special.
Go and seek out the original - you owe it to yourself as a gamer.
There are so many questions beyond those we raised above – will Double H return? Is Jade still looking after orphans? Where the dickens is Hillys? Will our predictions about the gameplay directions come true, or have we missed the mark completely? Only Ubi staffers know for sure – and they ain't talkin'.
All we can do is sit and wait – but if you need to kill time, make sure you hunt down a copy of the original game and get ready for one of gaming's greatest overlooked adventures.
