Earlier this week, Ubisoft Barcelona posted a job opening seeking a senior gameplay animator to work on Beyond Good and Evil 2. The listing states that the game represents one of Ubisoft’s most ambitious projects to date–music to the ears of fans who had expected the title to be tossed aside, never to see the light of day. Most gamers are aware that Beyond Good and Evil 2 has been in development hell for years, with Bloomberg announcing in February that the title was still in pre-production after over five years of development.
After waiting nearly twenty years for a sequel, fans are getting restless. The first Beyond Good and Evil was released in 2003 and is considered by many to be one of the greatest video games ever made.
If a sequel is really on the way, can fans expect to return to the setting of the first game? Or is it time to explore new reaches of space?
Will Beyond Good and Evil 2 Take Place in a New Setting?
The 2003 title Beyond Good and Evil took place in the year 2435 on the mining planet Hillys, located in an incredibly remote pocket of the galaxy. Fans were instantly smitten by the planet’s rustic European look which combined modern sci-fi elements with more fantastical additions. The game begins with Hillys under siege by aliens called the DomZ, known to abduct beings and drain their life force or turn them into slaves. Protagonist Jade lives in a lighthouse being used as an orphanage for those who lost their parents in DomZ attacks.
In 2017, Ubisoft announced that during the upcoming game’s production, the team had shifted direction, deciding to make a prequel instead of a sequel. Beyond Good and Evil 2 will take place at least one generation before the events of the first game. It’s unclear whether players will find themselves on Hillys at any point in Beyond Good and Evil 2, though the game will see players traveling from planet to planet, encountering tons of different cultures and landscapes. It’s hard to imagine that Ubisoft wouldn’t let us return to such a nostalgic place–even if just for one quest.
Beyond Good and Evil 2 is currently in development.
