‘Beyond Good And Evil 2’ E3 Demo Video Has A Flying Monkey, Massive Spaces
The debut trailer for Beyond Good and Evil 2 was one of the standouts at last week’s E3 2017 convention in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, no gameplay was made publicly available of the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC title until now. Ubisoft Creative Director Michael Ancel gives a walk-through of the prequel complete with a huge mother ship, flying monkey, and a massive play space.
Ancel gave a teary-eyed introduction at Ubisoft’s E3 presentation announcing Beyond Good and Evil 2. He doesn’t get as emotional in the new video, but still exhibits his care and devotion to the franchise as he provides an off-screen walk-through.
The demonstration is meant to show off the game engine, Ancel calls “Voyager,” along with some of the gameplay elements. A release window has not even been announced for Beyond Good and Evil 2 as the Creative Director’s Montpellier studio is still in the early stages of development. However, it does manage to show the scope the studio is aiming for.
The giant mothership from the debut trailer hovers next to a giant statue of an elephant god, one of the many religious figures in the human-animal hybrid culture in Beyond Good and Evil 2. The mother ship is 400 meters long and opens up to reveal a smaller dog fighter-like ship that is 20 meters.
It is here viewers are reintroduced to the hybrid monkey character from the debut video. Ancel states the jet-packing wearing simian is one of the main characters in the game, but players will have the opportunity to create their own in the game. Ancel flys the character around the two ships and giant statue to give a sense of scale.
The eyebrow-raising part of the video comes when Ancel pulls away and begins to show how the planet they are on is part of the larger System 3 solar system. Sunsets, for example, are not simple skyboxes but actual sunsets based on the rotation of the planet and the sun it orbits.
This leads to the Creative Director demonstrating how the spaceships can blast off from the planet and glow with the friction of the atmosphere.
The demo is impressive, and it will be interesting to see how this translates into a game. Ubisoft is using the Space Monkey Program to get feedback from fans to help them develop Beyond Good and Evil 2. More behind the scenes videos like the one released today are planned along with other feedback opportunities.
Beyond the in-engine demo, the video does provide a somewhat blurry glimpse at the main cast of characters. A poster over Ancel’s head reveals 17 different individuals, many of them hybrids.
What do you think of Beyond Good and Evil 2 so far? Sound off in the comments below.
[Featured Image by Ubisoft]
