Ubisoft at E3: Beyond Good & Evil is back

Since it’s been so long since the first installment in this series (and the first game was a cult hit), you’d be forgiven for not knowing much about this game. That’s OK though—Ubisoft put it front and center. The narratively acclaimed space opera is back with several of the quirky characters players originally enjoyed and a few new ones.

We saw space travel, aerial combat in a crowded city that reminded us of and a diverse cast of characters with a wide range of interesting looks and accents. looks to be hodgepodge of weird and delightful—but we still don’t know that much about either the story or gameplay, which were both excellent in the original game.

‘s big reveal was actually during the Microsoft press conference yesterday. This presentation had a little less gameplay, but it involved a long trailer with civilians dying in a ruined Washington, DC, set to sad music. A Ubisoft rep took the stage to talk about the first year of content for the game.

Year one will include three DLC packs with unique stories and locations. Ubisoft also announced that eight-player raids are coming to the pseudo-MMO franchise.

launched in a rough state, but it was greatly improved by later updates. We’re hoping the sequel starts out strong. It’s slated to launch on March 19, 2018 on PS4, PC, and Xbox One.

Remember the ship combat in ? It was a lot of fun, though it wasn’t quite varied enough to carry the numerous hours of it you had to play through in that game.

Ubisoft clearly thinks it was worth further exploration. is a big, flashy game that pits crews of sexy pirates (“wolves in a dog-eat-dog world”) against The Man in the Indian Ocean. The gameplay looks identical to the ship battles in but with more polish and several new features.

will hit this year for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Its existence had already leaked, but we knew nothing about  other than its setting—Ancient Greece. Ubisoft closed the show with this game, and showed a lot of it.

is set during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, and it lets you pick between two characters to play through the game with—one male, one female. We saw dialogue choices, including romance options, ala  or .

That’s not surprising, given that last year’s  had so much in common with . And  looks more than a little like . The controls, combat, and exploration all look very similar. Ships seem have an expanded role, though.

For the most part, it looks like exactly what you’d expect from a follow up to —more of the same, but with a few more options. The game will land on Xbox One, PS4, and PC on October 5, 2018. For more on , check out our hands-on.

Other announcements

Ubisoft made some smaller announcements, too—updates on already detailed games, DLC, and more.