If you keep abreast of gaming news, you can’t have failed to spot the very sad news that the much anticipated – at least for those with fond memories of the first – Beyond Good & Evil 2 may never see the light of day after all. Of course it’s not the first time announced games have sunk without a trace, so as we await news on the fate of Jade let’s take a look back at another M.I.A. game that sadly never made it as far as our hard drives. They may be going through somewhat of a renaissance now, but it’s hard to forget how LucasArts once managed to raise gamer’s expectations only to crush them beneath the cold hard boot of progress on one of their most loved adventure games.
Full Throttle was remembered fondly due the great story by one Tim Shafer of Ben and his quest to clear his name of the murder of the last motorbike manufacturer by the evil Ripburger whom has taken over the company and plans to use it to create minivans. As well as being a great adventure game, it also featured some novel elements, including action orientated fight scenes that tasked you with fighting other riders on the road. It had some great characters, especially in lead Ben -helped considerably by the vocal talents of Roy Conrad. Despite some criticism over some particularly obtuse puzzles, it was (and still is) loved by many and the possibility of a sequel was always highly anticipated.
Unfortunately, any hopes seemed cursed before they began – Shafer had already left LucasArts by the time the first attempt at a sequel was announced back in 2000. The game only made it as far as November that same year before it was cancelled with nary a word uttered by LucasArts, reportedly primarily due to a disagreement with the development team and somebody “influential” within the management. The project lead and art director of the game, entitled Full Throttle: Payback, were let go from the company soon afterwards.
Fast forward a couple of years and the second attempt at a sequel was announced. Entitled Hell on Wheels the new sequel promised more action orientated gameplay, 40 new weapons including “chairs, bottles, pool cues, chains, crowbars and even a guitar” and “more than 35 new levels in over 20 different environments”. Promising this and the return of such characters as Maureen and Father Torque, many Full Throttle aficionados were chomping on the bit to get a hold of the sequel, and LucasArts even managed to get to the press previews in several magazines (incidentally, including the very first issue of PC Gamer magazine I ever bought) and a trailer was released for E3 in 2003:
However, shortly after the release of the trailer things started to go downhill. Fans were worried that the game was veering too far from the adventure roots of the original, and many people were worried about the game having poor graphical quality compared to other adventures at the time despite the multiformat development. Whatever it was that happened, by the end of 2003 Full Throttle 2 was no more. It remains to be seen whether it will ever be picked up again or exactly how good either of the two sequels would have been, but one thing is for sure: Ben and the Polecats are sadly missed.
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Beyond Good & Evil 2 should be a great game, if it does ever turn up… loved the first one. Full Throttle 2 could be fun, I’m surprised no-one has made a fan-game sequel.