Beyond Good & Evil

Critically acclaimed, commercially unsuccessful, and yet still an important touchstone for the evolution of action games. We take a look at why.

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NOT ALL GAME-CHANGERS are major successes. Alas, sometimes even time doesn’t necessarily prove their final quality, but somehow, against the odds and their own nature they help to shape the future of games, and become a must-play experience for the impact they ultimately had on all that follows. Beyond Good & Evil is one such game.

Michel Ancel’s ambitious adventure had its issues and it would be fair to say that time has not been kind in some respects, but the ripples its release sent out through the industry cannot be denied. Ancel and Ubisoft Montpellier’s singular vision, its art direction, its commitment to a particular tone and to the clear definition of its characters have left a lasting impression on the games that have dared to follow in its footsteps. It may not have managed to complete the journey it set out on, but it certainly lit the path for others to follow.

So, let’s be more specific about this path. Coming off the success of Rayman, Ancel put together a team of about 30 people with a wide range of creative backgrounds. There was game-development experience, of course, but also team members with backgrounds in animation and comics. There was a clear focus on world building and narrative coherence – things that had been explored, certainly, but perhaps not in something quite so outlandish and not combined with such a simple, clear focus: to give us as players a pure feeling of freedom and exploration.

Now, those concepts are rather abstract and perhaps freedom seems like an odd thing to cite when