Beyond Good and Evil 2 is beyond ambitious, has a long way to go

After 15 long years, Beyond Good and Evil 2 is officially in full development at Ubisoft Montpellier. While the wait isn’t over yet, we finally have the first video proof the game exists.

The announcement trailer was revealed at Ubisoft’s E3 2017 conference. There isn’t one second of in-game footage in the entire thing, but it does give us an idea of what to expect.

At first the video is all about annoying ape hybrids and explosive hover car chases. But as we reach the end, we see that this is only a small part of the entire experience. Beyond Good and Evil 2 is, first and foremost, about space travel and discovery.

You will create you own own male or female character, and set out to carve your place in System 3. This vast solar system is a place where several different factions fight over the limited resources. You will join in on this fight as a space pirate, and make your way from a lowly smuggler to a legendary captain.

At this point we don’t really know what the overall plot will be. We do know that this is a prequel to the original Beyond Good and Evil. The game takes place in the 24th century, in a future were China and India became superpowers. That explains the Hindu temples and the giant statute of Ganesh we see as Knox and his lady-friend fly around the city.

System 3 is an online environment, which you can explore freely “on your own or with friends.” It’s still unclear if the game will support full cooperative multiplayer during the campaign, or just a few smaller online features, like co-op specific missions or leaderboards.

You aren’t really own your on, though, as you do have your pirate crew. We saw some of them in the trailer like Knox, the aforementioned annoying ape hybrid, and a few other diverse cast members. You can even see the rhino hybrid with dreadlocks creative director Michel Ancel shared on his Instagram page.

It’s clear that Beyond Good and Evil 2 is a much bigger game than the original, which is to be expected. The entire solar system will be procedurally-generated, kind of like we saw in No Man’s Sky. Planets will actually rotate around their axis and the sun, creating “lifelike” sunsets and day cycles.

However, unlike No Man’s Sky, Ubisoft Montpellier is working on populating the world with things to do. There is a quest system in place to loosely guide players through the story. You will have the freedom to decide how you complete these quests and in what order.

Beyond Good and Evil 2 is an ambitious game that still has a long way to go before we can play it. If you want to help the development team by sharing ideas and providing feedback, sign in to the Space Monkey Program.