Do you sometimes find yourself asking “but what about the man BEHIND the explosions?” I don’t, because explosions are cool and people are lame, but if you’re different to me well obviously you’re wrong but more importantly the latest Just Cause 3 video is for you. It’s the first dev diary for the third person chaos simulator sequel and breaks down what’s changed about main character Rico compared to his previous incarnations.
I can’t help but feel this might be a misstep. The appeal of the Just Cause games, as far as I can tell as an outsider, is that mad world where anything can happen and planes are tethered to other planes by invulnerable ropes. Putting a persona on the character causing all this destruction – who is, after all, a multi-mass-murderer for whom they haven’t invented the war crimes he would need to be prosecuted for – doesn’t seem like the right move. It’s such a deliberately unbelievable set of circumstances that no personality will fit, particularly not the action hero asshole this seems to be heading for.
Still, good to hear they’re taking notes from the mod community on what’s fun and what isn’t. The scattershot nature of mods means that basically everything will be tested by the public at one point or another and the best stuff will hopefully rise to the top. If developers can then take those ideas and refine them in sequels, everybody wins. Equally, expanding the usage of the grappling hook, Just Cause’s most famously fun feature, is just taking what people have enjoyed most and giving them more of it.
Game’s out December 1st. There’s oodles more footage out there, if you’re after it.