Okay, okay. This is one of those times where thereâs kinda no real ânews,â and yet itâs still worth mentioning because, well, Beyond Good & Evil 2
The sequel to the beloved 2003 action-adventure game has been one of this generationâs great pieces of vaporware. The series has been missing in action for a decade, skipping this generation of gaming consoles completely. Since the initial teaser trailer weâve seen only concept environmental screenshots and demo videos. BG&E 2 clearly exists, but itâs hard to say much beyond that.
(Above: A concept video that surfaced several years ago.)
That said, itâs been nice how willing BG&E creator Michel Ancel has been to talk about the game, even if he doesnât really give definitive answers about its current status. Heâs talked in the past about his ambitions for BG&E2, and how heâs probably waiting for the next generation of consoles
https://lastchance.cc/beyond-good-evil-2-probably-will-have-to-wait-for-the-5908209%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Ancel talked a bit more about that last weekâwhile demonstrating this yearâs Rayman Legends, he talked to Eurogamer and IGN about the state of Beyond Good & Evil 2
Ancel says that the sequel, as they imagined it, became too big even for current-generation consoles. Though itâs not entirely clear what he means by that, given that the first game was made for the previous generation of consoles.
From Eurogamer:
Ancelâs vision for the sequel is big â much bigger than the first Beyond Good & Evil, which had a lot of its scope cut back from his initial plans.
âIn Beyond Good & Evil 1 at first it was a full planet, you could go to the North Pole and see the eternal day,â he explained. âBut we had to limit it as we were only 35 people. We couldnât fill the whole world with all the things we wanted. We were frustrated at the end of BG&E1, and when we started the sequel we started again with this idea â youâre free and can investigate and travel the world as much as you want.â
While the first game saw players explore just a small section of the planet Hillys (and a quick end-of-game excursion to its moon), its sequel is planned to feature a far more open world, and worlds. âWe wanted to not make this experience [BG&E2] linear, to give the player freedom to explore planet to planet, city to city â and not empty cities, of course. So these are things we worked on.â
The scale heâs talking about is well beyond⊠well, frankly, itâs beyond what Iâd even want or need from a BG&E sequel, but if he wants to make the game span multiple planets, thatâs cool with me. You know, as long as he makes the thing.
IGN also sat down with Ancel and asked him aboutâwhat else?âBeyond Good & Evil 2. Hereâs some of what he told them:
âMore than âbigger,â itâs the freedom we want to give to the player,â Ancel explained. âIn this kind of game, while youâre investigating, you donât want to investigate in a story that has been written by the developers. My feeling is that you want to investigate with your own way of investigating. I like the freedom of choosing your vehicles, flying away with the spaceship and all those things. It was in Beyond Good & Evil 1 but it was not as much as we wanted. I like the fact that if you want to fly from one city to another, one planet to another, itâs something that you should be able to do. That freedom and the world of Beyond Good & Evil is very challenging to do.â
Ancel said to Eurogamer that one way or another, he and his team are âon it,â and said, âWeâve made a lot of things already. Now we need to put them together and make that game.â
Well then. Not a ton of specifics to be found. But the man is still talking about Beyond Good & Evil 2 in a way that suggests that somewhere, in some pot on some stovetop, heâs got a stew going.
And so the world keeps on turning, bringing us one revolution closer to the day when we finally learn something solid about Beyond Good & Evil 2. Maybe on that day, weâll finally get to stop using the same damned high-res Peyâj image weâve been using for the last five thousand years. Cool!
