Once upon a time, Duke Nukem Forever was the game that held the crown for being longest ever in development at fourteen years.

That crown is now held by Beyond Good and Evil 2, a game that was announced way back in 2008. And on the original game’s 20th year anniversary, it finally feels like there might be a finishing line in sight.

To celebrate the original release in 2004, Ubisoft have released a remaster of Beyond Good and Evil, a sign that not only do they still value the franchise, but there’s actually new content that links up to the anticipated upcoming game. They’ve even taken time to reassure the fans ‘It’s still coming’.

But let’s rewind time for purposes of this piece and go back to the original adventure of Jade and Pey’j. A game that ranks among many people’s Greatest Games of All Time, but also one that was lost a little bit to the annals of time.

For the most part, it’s aged pretty well. The combat feels quite simplistic now, reserved to a single button, and jumping is out of your control with Jade clambering up onto ledges when you walk up to them or hopping over holes involuntarily.

But the game has never looked better, it flows wonderfully and many of its core ideas still feel fresh and interesting all these years later. Like taking photos of the creatures in the world, earning money and pearls for your finds – really leaning into that Pokemon Snap vibe – and the world design, traversable via hovercraft and open ended areas on foot with elements of stealth and mystery.

Beyond Good & Evil was really ahead of its time back in 2003. Back then, Ubisoft were really taking the stealth genre for their own with the likes of Splinter Cell being top of mind and while BG&E was much more lite in comparison, it does enough to really support the concepts of espionage filtering through the game. Jade and Pey’j are outsiders, fighting against the alien-like DomZ in their beloved mining town of Hillys.

As they continue to repel the threat and support the local community, they gain the attention of IRIS, a secret network of spies who are investigating the alien threat, believing they’re in contention with Alpha Section. Recognising Jade’s potential, IRIS recruit her to join as an undercover reporter and before you know it, you’re right in the thick of a larger conspiracy.

Beyond Good & Evil presents an intriguing, fun world that you’ll want to explore, with plenty of interesting activities to mix up the action between hovercraft races, small mysteries and puzzles to solve and fun side mini games. You’ll gain pearls for your time spent in the game and can use these to purchase larger upgrades for your hovercraft to access new areas and further explore your environments.

All these years on, the game itself still has more personality than many modern games, with a vibrant, lovable cast that you can’t help but fall for. Pey’j and his wild exclamations, Jade and her inquisitive nature which leads her into all sorts of trouble, and even the likes of HH who brings a smile to the face.

And if like me you were there for the original game and played through all those years back, there’s new content in here as well, including a quest that apparently links back to Beyond Good & Evil 2! A new speedrun mode has also been thrown in, so you can test your skills to see how quickly you can blast through the game, along with updated achievements.

At a reduced price, there’s enough in this package to get you back in and the visual upgrade really does help the game to stand out and stay fresh. The implementation of Ubisoft Connect will probably feel quite strange, forcing online elements into a game that never had them before, and it seems to have caused issues for more than a few users, with some people even suggesting they can’t start their game after a failed log-in.

But on PS5, with the added haptics and DualSense support, along with the 4K, 60 FPS upgrade, Beyond Good & Evil 20th Anniversary Edition is a mostly wonderful celebration of a world-class game that even manages to add in new content to help build out the longevity. Hopefully this helps build up a larger fanbase ready for whenever that new game arrives. If it ever does..

Verdict

Beyond Good & Evil – 20th Anniversary Edition is a mostly brilliant celebration of a cult hit. The visuals really help the world continue to stand out in 2024, the new additions add more to the world, including a new quest that hopefully links to the future of the series and an all new speedrun mode is the perfect way for veterans to test themselves all over again. The implementation of Ubisoft Connect does present some issues and some mechanics feel a bit dated in 2024, but for the price and quality, we cannot recomend playing this classic game enough. 

Pros

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Beyond Good & Evil – 20th Anniversary Edition is out now on PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Switch

Played on PlayStation 5

Code Kindly Provided by Ubisoft for review purposes