Beyond Good and Evil 2

By Dave Kozicki 

…Or what do a hot photographer, a pig, Nietzsche and Michel Ancel have in common?

If you’ve been paying attention, you would surely know by now that Ubisoft showcased a slew of their latest releases in Paris last week at “Ubi-days”. Now we know that a cel-shaded Prince of Persia looks the bomb, playing as Vader or Yoda in Soul Caliber IV has us quivering in anticipation on the verge of an epileptic fit, and Far Cry 2’s branching character driven storyline is intriguing to say the least, but what has twixed our nether regions the most is the announcement (kinda) and teaser for Beyond Good and Evil 2 (working title).

We’re sure many of you are going “huh?!?” at the moment, and shame on you all for doing so! SHAME ON YOU!!! If you didn’t catch the original on PS2, Xbox, PC or Gamecube (and judging by sales, you didn’t) you missed out on one of the most engaging, deep, layered, cinematic and straight out fun adventures each console has known. Fittingly named after Nietzsche’s book of philosophies, it deals with blind faith, and unquestioningly believing what the Church or Government tells you as absolute truth and fact.

Such themes are central to the story of Beyond Good and Evil as the talented and sexy protagonist, Jade, comes to discover that all is not well in the district of Hillys. Armed with a dai-jo stick, camera and enough sass to put Tina Fey to shame, she teams up with her uncle Pey’j (a pig funnily enough) to uncover the resistance and unearth a dastardly plot of alien invasion. This glorious piece of gaming gold had something for everyone.

Wonderfully tongue in cheek humour, a fantastic well-rounded mix of gameplay (platforming, stealth, beat ‘em up, racing, RPG elements and you could even get your photography on and catalogue every species on the planet), extremely cinematic storyline (including one of the best interactive Michael Bay-esque chase sequences we’ve seen, and easily rivals its Hollywood counterparts) and a surprising amount of heart. As you can clearly see, we’re still quite enamoured with Beyond Good and Evil. But now, out love affair begins anew.

What would we like to see in the sequel? So glad you asked! After gleaning a mere skerrick or two of information from the teaser, we see the hovercraft makes a triumphant return, with a suitably 1950’s cool hipster vibe and the setting is an arid desert, as opposed to the lush green island environments in the prequel. We dig that. It immediately sets a different tone, and the several moons in the distance lead us to believe that there could be some extended space travel. We’ve got our fingers crossed for that. We’d really like to see a Mass Effect or even Knights of the Old Republic styled interplanetary hopping as Jade and Pey’j, hopefully, take the fight to the Domz (aliens) home-world and start causing a ruckus.

The balanced gameplay mechanics would need the barest minimum of tweaks, though we would like to see a next-gen bolstered racing/flight system and graphical upgrade, though if the teaser is anything to go by they’ve already taken care of that. The photographic elements, so integral in the original, should make a return, and as before, be the key to your success. What we’re really hoping to see is some refinement to the combat system.

As much as we loved sneaking around and popping discs into the back of people’s heads and wailing on them with the dai-jo stick, we’re assuming this new adventure takes place a fair whack down the road, and would hope that Jade is now a seasoned, battle hardened veteran, and as such, should be able to kick some serious ass. We’re not talking God of War depth here (though that would be sweet), but perhaps a few grabs, holds and a deeper range of fisticuffs could be in order.

We can’t even begin to describe how excited we are about this one. Rayman creator Michel Ancel hinted that Beyond Good and Evil would be a three part series, yet despite critical acclaim, the sales just weren’t there. Fate has given him a second chance and it’s up to all of you to ensure it, and another sequel happens. Keep them peepers peeled and put this on your watch list. You wont be disappointed.