Beyond Good & Evil 2 Shown Off at Ubisoft's E3 Presser

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Beyond Good & Evil 2 Shown Off at Ubisoft's E3 Presser

Despite what you might have heard last month, Ubisoft did bring Beyond Good & Evil 2 to E3 this year.

Just last month, Beyond Good & Evil creator Michel Ancel said on Instagram that the long-awaited Beyond Good & Evil 2 would not make an appearance at E3 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/170436-Beyond-Good-Evil-2-Wont-Be-at-E3-2017-Revealed-Later-This-Year] this year, but that it would be announced later in 2017. But Ubisoft's plans apparently changed, as the company closed out its press conference today with a cinematic look at the game, which is a prequel to the original.


Set before Jade, the protagonist of the first game, was born, the trailer has a funky, Fifth Element-like vibe. It features a monkey running a con on a pig, and then escaping with a female friend on a flying motorcycle.

Michel Ancel took the stage after the trailer, and had a few things to say, including mentioning that BG&E2 is a "Seamless online playground," which may worry some people. Here are his full remarks:


There's a persistent rumor floating around that Beyond Good & Evil 2 could be a Switch timed exclusive, but Ubi has said nothing about platforms, release dates or exclusivity as yet. If it is going to be on the Switch, or some sort of timed exclusive, we'll likely hear more about it in Nintendo's Direct stream tomorrow.


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[BarkBarker]

.......okay. I mean it doesn't seem to carry much with it other than "it's real now stop hoping and star waiting" and I'm not sold on what it's selling but whatever. It may catch me with some actual gameplay.

 

[Goliath100]

What I really liked about Beyond Good & Evil is that it was a game about espionage, where the goal most levels was to take pictures. I doubt that element will even be there.

 

[DemomanHusband]

C'mon, was it necessary to make it a prequel? Just because the anthropomorphic frogs that run Ubisoft can't think of anything to do with Jade and Funny Pig Man, do we really have to go backward in what is now a BG&E timeline? If the gameplay looks even halfway decent I'll be legitimately impressed, although I suppose every Ubisoft game manages to look good before release by cutting out any indication of a slog.

This E3's been really dry, unfortunately. the only stand-outs in my mind have been Bethesda's two new games and the rather beautiful cringe-fest that is the unneeded combination of Mario, X-COM, and Rabbids. With Evil Within 2, I'm only really excited to see how dumb it becomes. Please, please let the Sony conference be fun.

 

[fix-the-spade]

C'mon, was it necessary to make it a prequel?

Of course it does, because moving the plot forward would require some kind of imagination, something surgically removed from all Ubisoft employees and placed in storage until such time as they leave the company.

The standard of writing in the last five years of Ubisoft games has been such that I'm not excited at all about this. Beyond Good and Evil had a great story, but we already know how this game ends, since it's the beginning of BG&E. How I wish this had been announced a decade ago, when Ubisoft was the publisher of Prince of PErsia, Brothers In Arms and Far Cry.

I was hoping for a proper sequel too...

 

[American Fox]

Fuck.

 

[The Madman]

After all these years there's no Jade and Peyj? Some sort of major online component?

Also calling it now, that's totally supposed to be Jade's mom at the end there seeing as this is some sort of prequel. No other reason they'd focus on her eyes like that, so if it was meant to be subtle they kinda failed.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

After all this, it's a damn prequel? Why even call it two? How about zero instead to match the number of fs given now?

 

[Bob_McMillan]

The world looks cool I guess.

Never played the first one, so really don't care much about it.

I got Beyond Good and Evil for free on Uplay, maybe one day I'll play it.

 

[Jacked Assassin]

I guess I'm looking forward to Beyond Good & Evil 2 because I didn't care for the ending to the first one.

That whole Jade being a Magical McGuffin really annoyed the hell out of me.

 

[Naldan]

So edgy. So real. Besides that, people here have said what I would have said. Other than that, no matter if this sells or not, a "real" BG&E sequel is dead. If this sells, Ubisoft dishes out more of that thing. If it doesn't, well, there will be nothing else.

Maybe it will play good.

 

[Frezzato]

They shouldn't have used the BG&E name. Call it something else, anything else. Then it wouldn't be so upsetting.

 

[Zhukov]

Fucking fuck me fucking dead that fucking felt like a fucking lot of fucking "fuck" for a BG&E game.

Not the end of the world, but it did feel a bit odd.

And it's a prequel? Umm... ok?

"Online playground"? The hell?

I mean, it was a decent trailer, but... guys. Guys, I can feel it. It's Ubisoft. They're Ubisofting!

 

[90sgamer]

Well, crap. Ubisoft managed to make Beyond Good and Evil unappealing. Cool, I'll have more money for better games.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Y'all can have your cynicism because I'm stupid excited for this.

I want it.

Now.

Gimme gimme gimme.

 

[Creator002]

Fucking fuck me fucking dead that fucking felt like a fucking lot of fucking "fuck" for a BG&E game.

Not the end of the world, but it did feel a bit odd.

That's what I thought. It feels really off in relation to the original, but I really couldn't care less if someone wanted to put "fuck" as every second word.

I know everyone wanted a sequel, but I'm waiting to see what they do with the prequel. Jade's origins are unknown and the hints we get are left unexplained at the end of the original. I'm actually curious to learn about it.

 

[Fulbert]

Fucking fuck me fucking dead that fucking felt like a fucking lot of fucking "fuck" for a BG&E game.

Not the end of the world, but it did feel a bit odd.

And it's a prequel? Umm... ok?

"Online playground"? The hell?

I mean, it was a decent trailer, but... guys. Guys, I can feel it. It's Ubisoft. They're Ubisofting!

My thoughts, basically. I jumped a little when I saw the Ubisoft Montpellier logo, but when the monkeyman started swearing like a dock worker, I was like, "Nah, no way this is BGaE." The BGaE I remember was a sweet little tale straight from French comics, but this is way too edgy. But hey, I'll take it.

The "online playground" thing is really worrying though. Hope it isn't too invasive.

 

[wulf3n]

Ugh, ok.

So a few points.

1) Are we really still doing cinematic only trailers for games?
2) Cinematic only trailers for Beyond Good and Evil 2 not going anywhere is becoming a tradition.
3) Who let Die Antwoord write for Beyond Good and Evil 2?

 

[Pseudonym]

I might be interested in the actual game. It looks to be a bit different from the original but the Rayman games are also not that similar and that works. I think a cinematic trailer isn't a terrible idea for BG&E. It can set the mood and the tone. The mood and tone seem to be different but not hugely so.

It might be horrible or great for all I can really know based on what little I know, but I expect it to be just decently good.

 

[Zhukov]

Fucking fuck me fucking dead that fucking felt like a fucking lot of fucking "fuck" for a BG&E game.

Not the end of the world, but it did feel a bit odd.

That's what I thought. It feels really off in relation to the original, but I really couldn't care less if someone wanted to put "fuck" as every second word.

Oh, I don't mind it so much. Just came as a bit of a surprise.

Granted, it coming from a monkey does make it kind of fun. Show me clip of a person yelling, "Bang bang, muthafuckas" while shooting a gun and my eyes will roll clean out of my skull (funnily enough the FC5 preview had exactly that). Having a monkey do the same thing makes me chuckle.