Beyond Good And Evil 2 Is A Totally New Game Currently On “Day Zero” Of Development

At their E3 2017 press conference, Ubisoft pulled off the surprise of the show by dropping a new Beyond Good and Evil 2 trailer. Obviously, fans were excited the cult-classic series' return, but reactions to the trailer were mixed. This didn't seem like the Beyond Good and Evil universe we knew – oh, sure, there were talking animals, but Jade was nowhere to be seen, there was a lot of swearing, and BG&E creator Michel Ancel was talking about shared online worlds and other things not typically associated with the series.

Well, there's a reason Beyond Good and Evil 2 looks so different – it's literally is a different game than the one that was first revealed a decade ago. Originally, Beyond Good and Evil 2 was going to be a more traditional action-adventure sequel that continued the story of Jade and Pey'j, but around three years ago it transformed into a far more ambitious and innovative prequel.

The new version of Beyond Good and Evil 2 is part of the burgeoning "mind-blowing space exploration" genre, along with games like No Man's Sky. According to The Verge, who got a look at a rough demo, you create your own character and start at the lowest end of society on an alien planet. Eventually, you build yourself up, become the captain of your own ship, and explore the universe, which will be occupied by other procedurally generated planets and players. Here's how Ancel explains it:

"Whatever character you choose, you will start at the very bottom of the social system. Maybe you're delivering pizza. But one day you will have this gigantic spaceship. You explore, you discover new cultures, those cultures are adapted to the planet, and then you can customize your ship based on what you discover on the planet."

Soooo, basically it's Futurama: The Triple-A Game? Not that I'm complaining – that sounds like a great idea! It also sounds very ambitious. Maybe a little too ambitious. The Beyond Good and Evil 2 E3 trailer was slick, but apparently, the game itself barely exists as the past few years have been spent creating the technology that powers the game…

"[Without] this technology, you can't really start the game. It's too difficult. But now we can say for sure that we will make this game, we'll finish it. Because we have the technology for it. [We're in] day zero of development."

Ancel also wants to take a Early Access-approach to Beyond Good and Evil 2 development, with fans providing feedback as the game progresses. The re-debut of Beyond Good and Evil 2 was a great E3 moment, but I can't help but feel like the Ubisoft showed this latest version of the game too early. Expect a lot of changes between now and when the game actually releases.

Beyond Good and Evil 2 is slated for PC, Xbox One, PS4 and (maybe) Nintendo Switch.

[via The Verge]