Xbox 360
It's hardly a surprise that sandbox games continue to be very popular with developers given the high sales of franchises such as Grand Theft Auto, Assassin's Creed and The Elder Scrolls, to name but a few. But the subtle balance of exploration potential and gameplay still seems to be elusive which brings us to Avalanche Studios and the Just Cause Intellectual Property. Whilst 2006's Just Cause was beautiful and instantly gratifying it was ultimately unfulfilling as missions were unvaried and repetitive and each session of play rarely captured your attention for more than an hour.
It was a case of style over substance which closely paralleled the issues with Assassin's Creed. Avalanche Studios will surely be hoping for a similar success story to Creed's sequel in Just Cause 2. We got a chance to check out the developers presentation at Edinburgh Interactive and rather than simply taking the great points of the first game (controls, visuals, short frantic bursts of action) and just adding more variety, plenty of new gameplay devices have been included to strengthen the overall experience
Players resume the role of Rico Rodriguez, this time travelling to the fictional island of Panau (South East Asia), to hunt down Tom Sheldon a rogue agent, and former boss, who would cause more than a few red cheeks from embarassment if he turned coat. Once again the environment looks set to be the jewel of the game, whilst reviewers have tended to call GTA 4's gritty monchrome city the star of that particular experience, it pales in comparison to the technicolour paradise that is Panau. Frozen tundra, desert, grassland, farms, urban environments and tropical paradise are all yours for the taking.
If you want to talk about scale then Just Cause 2 will boast 10,000 km2 of landmass, 100+ vehicles including planes, boats, bikes, helicopters and cars, 300 settlements to explore and 15-90 hours of gameplay. One city in Just Cause 2 will rival GTA 4's Liberty City, in size at least. Of course you won't really feel like you've travelled from one end of GTA 4 to the other as travel is fluid and fast (more than could be said for Ryan Air). Armed with the combination of the grappling hook and the parachute, players can reach almost anywhere in the world - grapple onto a car, leap onto the roof and then parachute off as the car drives off a ravine, zip onto the side of a helicopter and then fly into the clouds before a final triumphant freefall exploding the helicopter with a dose of remotely detonated c4.
These little escapades, that could only be made via heavily scripted cut scenes in other action epics such as Gears of War 2 or Modern Warfare 2, comprise the heart of Just Cause 2. Playing feels like being James Bond, Randolph J. "Hurricane" Spencer and Rambo rolled into one. However so far all these action scenes could have come from the original title, the sequel's Ace in the pack is the tether ability. Part of his grappling kit, this device can fix almost anything to anything else, keel haul an opponent by attaching him to the back of your boat, stick a car to the road to create a makeshift obstacle or just attach two enemies together for some "special" time. The developers' favourite trick was to attach a heavy car to a chopper to form a mobile wrecking ball.
The possibilities are endless but should you wish to play the game as more of a suave agent than an all out renegade then you can order cars to be dropped off mid mission, upgrade your gear for efficiency via the black market or if the situation turns sour, request an extract to a nearby settlement. At some point though you'll have to drop the suit and shades for a vest and rocket launcher as the later missions are unlocked by causing havok, in what's called the chaos system.
Once the main game is over, base jumping achievements, and locked weapons released by collectibles will help retain your interest but sadly that will be all to hold you as the game will ship with no multiplayer mode. It's a real shame as this kind of fun cries out for a multiplayer mode, still it's forgivable when you consider the dissapointment of GTA 4's multiplayer, particularly on PC where modding enthusiasts had already added it fairly competently to the previous outings (last GTA 4 reference we promise).
There are a few concerns still unaddressed: 300 settlements may mean boring generic locales, some characters look dated and occasionally the environment draw distance would shorten noticably but with time still to spare Just Cause 2 is looking like highly promising. It's Rico Time!