Just Cause 2 Q&A Feature

Despite its occasional bugs, Just Cause picked up a cult following out of its complete disregard for the laws of physics and its penchant for mayhem. This Autumn Avalanche return with their unique recipe for chaos and look to go one better with Just Cause 2 on the latest generation of consoles.

Set on the tropical island of Panau, Rico Rodriguez is back, though slightly older and world-weary. He's also brought with him a revamped grappling hook and parachute to explore the new, enormous world awaiting him as well as a host of new stunts, vehicles and weapons.

TVG spoke to Peter Johansson, the lead designer of Just Cause 2, to find out what was in store for Rico, and gamers, this time around.

TVG: Compared to the last game Rico looks older. So where are we now with the story and has the game matured along with Rico?

Well it's been a few years since the events in Just Cause. Rico has actually quit the agency business because he's grown disillusioned with it all. He's been away from the agency for a while, maybe spent some time in Mexico drinking tequila, but now he's forced back into it and has to deal with it all again. We really wanted to make Rico a more interesting character this time and not just this slick guy in black clothes. But having said that we still like playing around a bit, the game's still all in the name of fun and we're not too fussed about realness.

TVG: You talk about the "fun" factor which was the major selling point of the original. What have you done to bring that across to the sequel and have you upped the ante this time?

We looked at what made the core experience of Just Cause: it was the stunts and the freedom of what you could do with the game. But in Just Cause it wasn't really that integrated into the missions: you really didn't feel that it was part of everything you did. So that's what we've done now: try to make the stunts and freedom integrated into the way you move around, into the combat and into the missions. It's something we've worked on a lot. For example, in Just Cause you had to equip the grappling hook before you could use it, now it's just attached to his arm, so you can use it the all the time.  You can shoot this car over there and then grapple to a ridge over there or shoot some guys over here and so on. We've really tried to get this constant flow of stunts and combat. At the end we have this car chase that really showcases all of Rico's abilities.

TVG: You mentioned before in previous interviews that developing the original engine and game simultaneously let down Just Cause. What has the new engine enabled you to do now?

We're in a much better position with that now. Developing a new engine from the ground-up was a learning experience for Just Cause 1. This time around I think we've been in a better position and been able to just concentrate on where we want to take this, and how we can take Just Cause to a new level. Just Cause was also more held back by the last generation of consoles. The PS2 is a nice machine but the new generation has made it easier this time around. Getting the technical polish on and getting rid of the bugs is something very important to us this time.

TVG: Has the avalanche 2 engine allowed you to improve your vision of the game?

Definitely, we now have this technology that has given us this huge world. Now we can just say what can we do with it? How can we make better use of this massive environment? We want to give the player more freedom and make it less linear. If we made it a linear game with mission 1, 2, 3 it just becomes a normal game with more transportation between missions.

I think the freedom that you have in the map is important. We wanted to blur the lines between missions and free roaming. It's up to you whether you want to take on missions or just play around and free roam, but in the end everything you do is part of causing chaos which in turn is an important part of progressing through the game. Free roaming has actually replaced side missions and we've made sure that there is always something meaningful and interesting to do all around you. If you only want to do missions then of course you can. But if you complete a mission in a military base, for example, then you can continue to cause chaos after the mission is has ended.

TVG: Do you feel confident that you're ironed out all of those bugs that haunted the first game?

Yes that's something we feel very good about now.

TVG: The grappling hook and the parachute are what set this game apart from other sandbox games. Is this the focal point again?

That's something that is a very important part of it. We have this big game world and we wanted to give Rico abilities that makes him very fun and easy to move around and that's where the grappling hook and parachute really come in. Other games are in a more confined area so you wouldn't really need that. Now, in Just Cause 2, it's almost as natural as running around. If you see a vehicle 50 metres ahead of you, you're not going to run to it, you're going to use the grapple hook and reel in to it, land on the roof and then take it over. We didn't want to end up with this really big world that just meant that everything took longer.

TVG: The map looks huge, and you have talked before about their being up to 2000 iterations of the different items what can you tell us about that?

There's collectibles all over the game. You can track them down using the signal strength indicator that you have next to your map in the HUD. Once you've collected those you can call on your black market contact by throwing a flare in the game. You can then trade those collectables with new weapons, upgrades or even vehicles and upgrades for those.

As you cause chaos in the world, items also become available for you to unlock and then it's all up to you. Whether to unlock a rocket launcher or upgrade the basic pistol depends on the type of gamer you are. Two players can finish the game with completely different sets of items.

TVG: How have you revamped the AI?

Actually the AI has been completely redone from scratch so nothing has been reused. AI in combat is one area that we really wanted to improve because it got a bit of criticism in the first game. We wanted to make it more tactical and challenging. So we've given the AI a really quite advanced planning system which now enables them to react to this dynamic environment.  They will act differently depending on your situation. For example, if they have a vehicle up close they will use it to drive to you. They can also take cover behind different parts of the moving environment or work together and flank you. If they are guarding a specific important object they will be careful moving away from it and so on.

They also behave differently depending on how much "heat" you have built up. Also as you cause more chaos in this world, the military will start to get more desperate and increase their security. This means that they will call for even more back up as the total carnage you have caused in the game racks up. It's hard for us to know the order the player goes through the game, so that's a way for us to make sure that if you do a mission later in the game it's going to be more difficult to match your improved weaponry. It's all part of making the game as non-linear as we can.

TVG: Have you got any plans for multiplayer?

For Just Cause 2 we're not doing multiplayer. Multiplayer is really nice if you do it right and integrate it into the game nicely. For Just Cause 2 there was so much we wanted to do with the core experience to make sure it was the best single player experience we could offer that we didn't feel multiplayer was suitable. We've talked a lot about how we could do it in the Just Cause franchise but for Just Cause 2 we're not doing it. We didn't want to put a limit on what we could do with this core experience by imposing a multiplayer on it. With all the stunts you can do, what happens if the other guy wants to go on the other side of the world? There were too many aspects to deal with there, so we have focused on delivering the best single player experience that we could.

TVG: Any DLC plans?

I can't talk too much about it actually. We have the technology to do it so we'll see what happens.

TVG: Just Cause was expected at the end of last year, was there a reason for delay? And did it have anything to do with the recent staff redundancies?

It was important for us to get the technical polish in there and to make sure we delivered the best game that we can, so that was basically the reason. Now for fall 2009 because we feel really good about it now, that's why it's been quiet for a while, we weren't sure we could show you it until now.

TVG would like to thank Peter Johansson for taking the time to answer our questions.  Just Cause 2 is scheduled to release during the autumn.