Ubisoft has announced that the Beyond Good & Evil 20th Anniversary Edition remaster will arrive on PC and Consoles on June 25th. If it sounds familiar, news of this leaked back in November, along with an early build. But now it has an officially official release date.
Alongside the announcement is a new trailer showing off all the upgrades. It looks similar to how I remember it but with fancier lighting effects and other touch-ups. Pretty nice. It’s being improved to run at 60FPS and 4K resolution. It will also have some new additions such as a “Treasure Hunt” and an anniversary gallery.
The press release also gives us this tease: “Finally, this special edition will feature hunt in which players can discover more about Jade’s past and collect exclusive cosmetic rewards. This exclusive new mission also reveals more about the narrative link to Beyond Good & Evil 2, showing Ubisoft’s enduring commitment to the franchise.”
“Feature Hunt” might be an autocorrect of the aforementioned “Treasure Hunt.” Either way, it’s interesting to see both Ubisoft’s “commitment” and Beyond Good & Evil 2 being mentioned. The sequel was first teased way back in 2008. Its protracted development has been both mysterious and dramatic, so right now I have a “believe it when I see it” attitude toward it.
I played Beyond Good & Evil on GameCube around the time it was released in 2003. It had an interesting narrative for its time and good variety to its gameplay. It kind of fell into the era’s forced stealth section pitfall, but was otherwise solid.
Despite not having played it in about 20 years, I still have a pretty solid memory of it, which says a lot. I mainly remember it for its exceptional soundtrack and phrases like “A box of K-bups will completely restore your energy.” However, I also remember the feel of the hover craft and various scenes from the game. If nothing else, it’s a stellar example of the early ‘00s period of games.
I’ll probably pick up the remaster.
Beyond Good & Evil 20th Anniversary Edition will arrive on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, and PC on June 25, 2024.
