yeah dude, when you got the space ship extension, it seemed like it was supposed to open up a huge new part of the game, but it really felt like it was cut

It would never happen, but it would be awesome if they ever did a 'Director's Cut' of BGE, an updated version but with the cut content. I know there's a sequel supposedly coming, but I'll always wonder 'what if...'

yeah, but several other planets would have been a huge task, and i imagine their storyline might seem thinned out, as compared to Hillys, i hope they had good reasons to cut the content

Unless they invented some new gameplay mechanics with it as well I fear the gameplay might have outstayed its welcome as well. I mean its not like its a short game as it stands at the moment. If you even had just another planet you would be extending the game by at least 50%.

yeah exactly, but i couldn't help feeling some rough edges in the last moments of the game.. it was like the game was screaming "new worlds lie ahead, waiting to be freely explored", while dragging you along a line to the last boss. When i got the spaceship i actually imagined a sort of sequence like the sailing and swordfighting in Monkey Island 3, until you found the base of the alien force.
But like you said, the game probably wouldn't have been the same fun if it had turned into an open space-exploration game...

Having just finished the game for my 2nd time I have to say that I disagree. The game doesn't suddenly pull mysticism, that was in there from the start. If the primary villain was Alpha section I'd agree but the primary villain was domz. An alien race that floats around, has telekinesis (as seen from the boss in the factory) and seems to be powered by crystals. That seems pretty mystic to me.

I have to admit though I didn't really care for the writing. I liked the characters and all but the drama seemed phoney and it was written more like a movie than a game in many places. I think the nadir of the story for me was when the children gets captured and Jade gets depressed. While she of course should get upset it seems weird that she gets that close to giving up at a time when she's so close to defeating an alien invasion. If it would've happened in the middle of the game it would be more understandable (but then the children would have even less characterisation).

I doubt they would have made the other worlds as big as Hillys, I'd imagine that Hillys would've stayed the main hub with the other worlds holding a main mission plus some side quests. They'd probably have spread the missions we do have in the game across the worlds as well, for instance the transportation of victims from the factory to the slaughterhouse never really made much sense for me, why not just transport them straight to the moon from the factory? I'd imagine the original intent was that the victims were taken to a slaughterhouse on another planet, where victims from all the worlds were gathered before being transported to a secret base. This would have brought the ship in sooner and got you travelling around a bit more, add in a few more side missions where you get to collect more pearls for upgrading the ship more, such as giving it bigger guns and such that were completely optional so that completionists could have something to aim for and bob's your uncle. We could also have had a few worlds that required searching in order to find the secret base, and getting marooned on the wrong world due to the engines breaking down (damn cheapskates at the mammago garage!).

Also, if we presume that Jade's powers were meant to be more woven into the story and not suddenly appear it could have been possible that Jade was meant to 'discover' and develop some new abilities as the game went on, the gameplay may have changed as it went on (I always found the sudden change from hiding from Alpha Sections to attacking them head on disconcerting, I didn't even know you could kill them by smashing their armour off, seemed a sudden jump) though I hope they didn't intend anything too out there.

yes I would have loved that scenario! :D