Just Cause 2 gives the action game a parachute and pushes it off a cliff.
Sometime late last year, there was a backlash against the removal of stupid fun from Grand Theft Auto 4. While a fantastic, story-driven game, it was deemed that the lack of the outlandishness seen in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas detracted from the game, and praise was heaped upon Saints Row 2 for keeping it surreal.
If the footage released this week for Just Cause 2 is anything to go by, Saints Row 2 won’t hold the crown as king of the crazy, open-world game for long. Developed by Avalanche studios and published by Eidos, Just Cause 2 takes concepts from the original game and runs a long, long way with them.
Set on a massive, open-world island, the game is a tale of revenge. Protagonist Rico Rodriguez makes a return from the first title and his mission is to track down his mentor and now bad-guy Tom Sheldon. He goes about this by completing missions and causing chaos across the promised 300 in-world locations.
What sets this game apart from titles like Far Cry 2 is that the focus is on action rather than authenticity. This comes through a greater focus on the parachute and grappling hook this time around. Both are always available, which opens up huge gameplay possibilities. In the developer walkthrough video, below, you can see this in action, with the character base jumping off a mountain before systematically destroying a military fuel depot.
The grappling hook can be used on just about anything in the game. It can shoot a player to the top of a building, allow for mid-air helicopter hijacks, or be used to tie enemies to exploding barrels. The original game had plenty of potential along these lines, but failed to provide enough in-world interaction to truly make these features shine. Avalanche has rebuilt the game completely to allow for much freer gameplay after complaints about this in the original.
Besides the innovative gameplay, the other standout thing about Just Cause 2 is that it looks gorgeous. We expected nothing less, as it runs on the same Avalanche 2 engine that powers the micro-transaction-based hunting game, The Hunter (which I still consider one of the best bits of shader porn currently available on the PC). The engine is stretched much further in Just Cause 2, however, with the free-roaming island playing host to multiple environments from cities to deep jungle.
We still have to hold out until next year before we get let loose in Just Cause 2, but all the components are there to take the crazy gameplay of the original and make it into something truly special. If the trailer and demonstration video are anything to go by, there is a hell of a lot of fun to be had once it does make it into our hands.
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