What about the original Beyond Good and Evil?

 What Sequel? There's no sequel

Every now and then I harper on about this 'game', this long obstructed promise that has stretched and contorted to a thing of myths and frivolous legend murmured over in drunken stupors by those few out there who haven't yet lost hope. Those one might consider only a hop, skip and a jump away from the hopeless in the Half Life Three fandom group, only they at least got their 'Half Life: Alyx' game, we've just smoke and mirrors. I'm speaking of the project called 'Beyond Good and Evil 2', and no, I don't mean 'Beyond Good and Evil 2', I mean 'Beyond Good and Evil 2.' Hmm? That's confusing? Oh well, you see, 'Beyond Good and Evil 2' is the long proposed sequel to the Ubisoft cult classic 'Beyond Good and Evil, whereas 'Beyond Good and Evil 2' is the much more recent, teased with actual very early alpha gameplay this time, prequel to Ubisoft cult classic 'Beyond Good and Evil'. Make more sense now? I hope so, because it doesn't to me.

These games, both of them, held the promise to expand the world which could have easily become one of Ubisoft's best and most unique exports if the studio ever cared a lick about it more than they do. You can't tell me that one of the biggest studio's in the world, (at one point at least) a studio which excretes a half-hearted Assassin's Creed game out every couple of years or so, couldn't have sacrificed some of that trite in order for us to be 3 sequels deep in a series brimming with more creativity than Yves Guillemot has every tripped up over in his CEO Tenure. The fact that they keep turning around and promising more, only to disappear for another eight years and make out like that was all just a bad dream, is evidence that Ubisoft clearly suck as the arbiters of this genuinely cool idea for a series, a series I genuinely feel could be a Regent of the animated-fictional-worlds kingdom with another entry, and I really hope someone with actual agency comes along and snatches the rights for the series out from under them, for everyone's sake.

But "what even is Beyond Good and Evil", I'm sure a great many are asking out there everytime they see this name,(it was just a cult classic, afterall) and to be honest there was a time not so long ago that I was right there with you. Much as with the extended Tim Schafer library, I hadn't really been there for the years when this game was active and instead ending up hearing about this game from the outside. Or more accurately, I would thumb through game manuals religiously and now and then, on the back, would see this strange looking advert splayed on the back of the Ubisoft ones and wonder, 'What's that about? This little advert sort of makes it look creepy and drab'. Those were honestly my first thoughts regarding this game whenever I saw those printed ads, spurred by non-gameplay shots of protagonist Jade caught sneaking in the middle of her boxart, or spying on armies of mutant-like creatures wielding a camera whilst words like 'secret' and 'conspiracy' were scrawled across the layout. Typically I can imagine a lot of this stuff would be exciting, but with it's dark-mossy hue, long shadows and oppressive high-angle shots, young me was actually turned away from the game.

It seems so strange because for the actual game itself, there's so much colour and life to the world and it's characters that to think of it as imposing is remarkably off-base. In fact, I'd go so far as to chide the advertisers for failing to really hone in on the parts of the game that were it's strengths and instead focusing on what the raw narrative did. In fact, even with focusing on the narrative I don't really think they nailed the essence of the game, making it seem more like a spy-thriller into disturbing government conspiracy than the almost Disney-style (with a decidedly more politically driven edge) romp that the length of the game was actually made up of. Maybe that's just another way in which Ubisoft failed to support the hard work of their developers when it came to this game. Heck, their advertising department are solely responsible for why I, at least, almost never played the game.

Yet as was the wisdom of one Guido Mista, we may stumble and err but eventually and inevitably we always end up on the path we were meant to. That is the crux of living entwined with the red string of fate. (Unless we gain a Requiem, I suppose) So of course I would find my way to this game over a decade later, spurred on my endless good words and 'you have to play this game's. And my experience? I really enjoyed the thing. I mean it's flawed, in many fundamental aspects too, from a stealth system which seem functionally useless to a rigid combat system which is basic and frustrating nearer the end, and with smaller issues such as navigation aides that sometimes screw up when pointing towards interiors. This ain't no 'Ocarina of Time' or 'Deus Ex', worthy of joining the halls of some of the best games ever made. But the rest of the package is strong enough still for my to heartily recommend it above the garbage Ubisoft have pumped in it's stead.

Set on an alien mining planet called Hillys, populated by humans and anthropomorphised animals, Beyond Good and Evil follows the tail of a young spunky woman called Jade and her boar-uncle Pey'j as she judo flips and quarterstaffs her way into the middle of a conflict between the tyrannical fascist military dictatorship known as DomZ and the good people of Hillys. Through the body of the plot, our orphanage-running heroine opposes the DomZ misinformation campaigns and rampant propaganda through the power of free press and various clandestine actions that could charitably be labelled as 'journalism' but more falls under 'straight wet work'. Oh, and smashing things. She does a lot of smashing things. So can you see what I mean with that premise? There's something very 'Disney' in that premise, young orphan works to save her local talking animal people from the big bad guys, alongside the pretty and well prosperities visual style, and that is a spirit you'll see backed up in game itself from every facet. The orphan turned freedom-fighter feels very 'Treasure Planet' or 'Atlantis' to me. (Although I may very well me misremembering those movies for how they look rather than how they were. I haven't watched either in decades)

For me, however, the star of the show is the setting because of course it is. Hillys is this freely roamable space that the player is encouraged to explore between main mission areas and it is just brimming with character. The various different types of animals all come with accents and personalities derived from different cultures from our world, with my favourite being the Caribbean shark people. (though I may be a little biased there.) But even beyond just the world, we're talking about a game with a hovercraft exploration mode which doesn't feel tacked on, plenty of worthy and gameplay enriching secrets for those who want to explore off the beaten path, an in-game camera that encourages you take pictures of everything for lore that's easily digestible, a cast of funny and memorable characters to make you care; and even a few boss fights. Yes, this was back when games had boss fights. There's also a surprising number of set piece cinematic moments to be playthrough standout scenes, which isn't something you got a whole lot of back in 2003, so in so ways we're talking about a game far ahead of it's time too.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that Beyond Good and Evil is some of the best content that Ubisoft has ever had under it's banner, and the fact that we're still sitting on a potential sequel with little to no word on how that's trucking along, tells me that, amazingly, Ubisoft prime have no idea about the value of the property they hold. They'd rather go along bastardizing Tom Clancy or squeezing out yet another Far Cry before their next flush. BGE is less than a fiver on Steam (in the UK) and worth anyone's time more than other vastly more expensive Ubisoft offerings, and given we'll all be too busy signing our grandchildren's immigration papers to Alpha Centuri by the time BGE 2 comes out, we might as well rock that ol' classic out in the meantime.