Terrain deformation, seamless orbital entry, rude scale, and more detailed in Beyond Good and Evil 2 briefing
I’ve been among the crowd, the horde, hoping for a Beyond Good and Evil 2 announcement for years and years. When E3 rolled around and two animal hybrids swore at each other over a table I was part excited, part confused, mostly elated – Beyond Good and Evil 2 was announced as early in production.
If you Google ‘Beyond Good and Evil 2 Development’ you’ll find a mass of articles from outlets picking apart an interview with Creative Director Michel Ancel, stating that the game hadn’t even been properly started. Some drummed it up excessively, others focused on other elements of the story like rumoured exclusivity of the title not being true. We generally don’t comment about rumours or leaks here on the site, sources normally leak in confidence that it will be handled well, and us adding a twist on that surely dilutes the meaning. Similarly, it results in 2nd, or 3rd, hand news editors sometimes running ‘words from the production team’ (which are not cement until all agree) as gospel, which then results in people seeking blame when the news they ran from adapting a leak has turned sour. Phew.
Michel Ancel revealed, in a trailer released for Space Monkey Program members, fourteen-and-a-half minutes of in-engine footage for the recently announced title. Showing incredible engine, amazing use of scale, and a stunning amount of scope for the game.
In the demo he flew a small vessel from the maws of a 400M long vessel, before exiting the vessel to jetpack around the area. He explained that each of the vessels were explorable, and any instance of the ships were as well – meaning that you might start off the game delivering pizza to a ship model you might later own. Explaining that exploring it’s halls whilst there on a low-level job like that could score you a scoop and a bunch of credits if you spot and photo any sinister goings on.
Features-wise that was it outside of going impressively fast in a ship – with the engine handling well despite it’s early days.
What was most impressive throughout the whole demo was the scale and scope of the game. When people talk about exploring multiple planets in games some people instinctively think of Mass Effect, it’s critical planets only explorable a mortar-volley’s distance away from the main focus of your visit, and it’s resource planets a square cut-away littered with, frankly, not very much at all. The demo was vastly different than this the character left tiny standing atop a 700M tall statue, the planet’s surface explorable fully, stellar aspects affecting the shade on the surface which isn’t even rendering because you’re bolting through the air at 20’000kMph
There was also talk about dynamic reactions to asteroids. The example planet was actually a satellite, orbiting a larger planet, locked in orbit like our moon. Ancel explained that the other side of the planet is prone to meteorite collisions – a surface warping collision which not only sends dust spiralling outwards as the land is warped, but also sends corporations and their slaves to the site to investigate the rich minerals that have been violently deposited on the planet.
There’s plenty more information to come regarind the game, and the best way to stay up to speed on it is through Ubisoft’s Space Monkey Program.
Platforms for the game have not yet been confirmed, so we’ve put down PS4, Xbox One, and PC for now.
