Just Cause 3 is a bigger, badder version of a game you’ve already played

Just Cause 2 was an absolute delight to play. Wanted to fly a plane into an oil refinery? You could do that. Wanted to fly it while riding on top of it? You could do that too. How about riding the fighter jet, jumping off at the last minute only to parachute to safety and walk away like a badass? Yeah, Just Cause let you do all those things, and more.

So how do you possibly make a game that goes just those few steps further? Just Cause 3 is the answer to that question in nearly every regards

Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, Avalanche Studios are sticking to what they know with Rico and the crew. He’s more versatile, more fluid and far more creative with the way he’ll tear down statues, buildings and pretty much anything else that gets in his way. At the core of these destructive tools lies the grappling hook that made the previous game so famous – now with the added delight of being able to sling together numerous objects at once.

Speaking to Producer Omar Shakir, it’s clear that the grappling hook is still very much at the heart of what Just Cause is all about.

“In Just Cause 2, you fired a tether to one point and another and it automatically retracted. In Just Cause 3, players are given control over when – and how intense- they want the retraction to be. It all depends what type of spectacle you’re trying to create. To take things further, you have multiple tethers. You can create car slingshots just with two. Imagine what you could do with three, or four, or five. The possibilities are constricted only by your imagination.”

The grappling hook goes very much hand in hand with another new toy, the Wingsuit. Much like the parachute of old (which is still here), the wingsuit will allow you to soar the skies as you combine it with smart ground grappling hooks to keep you going forward. Animations have allowed fluid transitions between the wingsuit, parachute and grappling hook, so that mixing these is an effortless and smooth affair. The three together create an interesting dynamic triangle that players will be able to use and abuse to their liking.

“Having the grapple hook, the wingsuit and the parachute create this perfect trifecta, this perfect trinity of mechanics. That’s where we started.”

“When you want that adrenaline rush, when you want that fix of mobility – or you just want to pull off a crazy stunt – you have the wingsuit to perfectly compliment the stability of the parachute. It gives players far more choice when playing.”

These little tweaks and additions are primarily sourced from feedback the team received after the launch of Just cause 2, which had a loyal community years after release. The community was so strong, in fact, that they decided to add to the game what they felt was most lacking- multiplayer. And it seems the same might have to be done with Just Cause 3 – despite interest, this sequel will not feature PvP online features, aside from an asynchronous, ranked leaderboards for you to compete with.

“Just Cause 3 has a multiplayer, asynchronous component, but not a traditional, co-operative, competitive one. So you can set challenges for your friends to try and beat within the open-world – much like an online leaderboard of sorts.”

Despite this, Omir and Avalanche believe that Just Cause 3 is a game that the player base somewhat created with them. One of the biggest inclusions players wanted was a more relatable Rico – or rather a tale that explains more about why the merciless mercenary is able to pull off what he does all of the time. Just Cause 3 tackles that, but doesn’t let itself get too serious in the process.

“[We] like to harken back to the Indiana Jones series. You have a real, grounded action hero, in these crazy situations. It is possible to do that, when you look at something like Indiana Jones. It’s just like in Temple of Doom when he gets chased by a giant boulder. Or the way he uses his whip to get around. It’s crazy and unrealistic but it’s all still fun. That’s how Rico is. That’s the type of reality he lives in – it feels like it couldn’t have really happened, but it did.”

“With Just Cause 3, we wanted to flesh Rico out a bit still. The way we do that is by bringing him back to where he’s from. How did he get this grapple hook? How did he acquire these skills that he has. And with a not so wordy character, we used a past acquaintance to help flesh him out throughout the story.”

Just Cause 3 is very much a similar game to its predecessor, rather giving players more tools and control over the mayhem they want to create over a different experience. That’s definitely going to sit well with fans of the franchise, who will be able to pull of Omir’s favourite stunt themselves in December later this year.

“At one point, I grappled a guy to fuel tank, and a helicopter appeared while he was busy trying to wriggle his way out of it. So I tethered the helicopter to the fuel tank as well and retracted it. The guy got sucked in with the fuel tank into the helicopter, creating a massive explosion that sent the poor guy’s ragdoll body over a cliff and down into a valley. I was then able to grapple hook to it and use it to propel myself forward as I used the wingsuit to get away”

Sign me up please.

Last Updated: June 24, 2015