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Just Cause Q&A Feature
Derek dela Fuente
23/06/2006
Avalanche Studios promises explosive action in a Caribbean setting for their debut title as TVG chats to the team to find out more...
Developed by Avalanche Studios in Sweden, the vision behind Just Cause is to create a game of exuberant action, where gamers have endless opportunities to explore and use their imagination with many avenues to play the game in a number of ways.
The game is large, exceedingly large, and the detail that has gone into creating some of the vistas from mountains to jungles to urban cities is mind-numbing (I think he meant mind blowing folks - Ed). Taking influence from a number of areas such as GTA to James Bond, but with its own unique feel and style, Just Cause finds players assuming the role of the ostentatious Rico Rodriguez - an undercover CIA operative - missions from contract killing to liberating a small town by inciting a riot offers plenty of great action which is supplemented with its neat story.
TVG recently spoke to a number of members from the team to find out more.
Christofer Sundberg, Founder & Creative Director, Odd Ahlgren, Design Director, Linus Blomberg, Founder & Technical Director.
Please can you tell us a little about Avalanche Studios, the team creating the game?
[Sundberg]: Me and my good old friend Nils Gulliksson created the Just Cause concept in early 2003 while Linus Blomberg (co-founder of Avalanche) was just starting to design and develop our new engine. As the technology is very unique, we were able to create a fresh and ground-breaking concept. Our vision for the game was to create an epic, action and stunt focused game set in a tropical environment. As big Rum drinkers the Caribbean was a given choice for us.
"It's the stuff of Die Hard, True Lies, Lethal Weapon, James Bond, Indiana Jones and Bourne Identity."
Starting up quite small, the team later grew quite rapidly after we finished the prototype in early 2004 and peaked at over 60 people internally. The team behind Just Cause is a mix of experienced industry talent, highly educated software engineers and artists and self taught programmers and artists. Our employees have worked on titles such as the Battlefield, Headhunter, Europa Universalis series and other individuals on big franchises such as Black & White and Worms. Experience doesn't directly mean that you are a great programmer, designer or artist though. We look very closely at the individuals and their talent rather than the experience. All members of our team has proven exceptional talent on the projects they have worked on before, during their education or with excellent demos, so they have all passed the test and got their foot through the door here and we are very proud to have them all on board.
The player will assume the role of Rico Rodriguez - an undercover CIA operative - as he attempts to overthrow the government of the fictitious San Esperito. Can you tell us a little more about the storyline behind Just Cause; where does the story/presentation lie in terms of style and maturity?
[Ahlgren]: The president of San Esperito is secretly harbouring nuclear weapons. Rico, the Agency's expert in regime change, is sent in to take care of the problem. He will take on an entire drug cartel, the San Esperitian army AND its police force, while driving about a hundred different vehicles, doing impossible and flamboyant stunts, delivering sweet one-liners, shooting guys and blowing stuff up. The game is fun, action packed, humorous and over the top. It is somewhere between, say, James Bond and Desperado when it comes to style and maturity.
Just Cause presents an enormous play area. How inventive do you believe you have been with the settings and can you elaborate on the way this interacts and influences the style of game play?
[Ahlgren]: VERY. We're not joking. You can do so much stuff it's ridiculous. How about jumping from a moving plane, paragliding down on top of a truck, hijack it and drive it violently off a cliff, jump out and shoot your trusty grappling hook to catch a ride with a car on a nearby bridge. Paraglide using the car's motion while checking out the sunset, then hijack a helicopter passing by, flying the helicopter over an army base and rocket blast the heck out of it with the launchers, jump out and take part in the bloody frey while the helicopter spirals to a fiery demise at the bottom of a deep canyon. Phew! That's just off the top off my head.
Just Cause appears to be deliberately exaggerated and over the top, with Rico performing death-defying manoeuvres on the wing of a plane, jumping from car roofs and many others; can you elaborate on this area for us and explain some of the things players will get up to?
[Ahlgren]: Well, computer games are all about getting away from it all. We want the player to be able to partake in that wonderful world usually only accessible to action movie heroes. It's the stuff of Die Hard, True Lies, Lethal Weapon, James Bond, Indiana Jones and Bourne Identity. It's a big action party and you are all invited.
Just Cause is one of the few titles to look impressive both on the next-generation and on the current-generation; how hard is it to create a game engine that caters for both sets of platforms, and what features have you specifically targeted on the Xbox 360 to ensure it looks as good as it does?
[Blomberg]: Thank you!
It is very hard to span such a wide range of platforms from the PS2 to the Xbox 360. But we had developed our technology with this in mind from the beginning which made this possible, but not without struggles.
For the 360 version we have an entire new set of shaders that unleash the power of the platform. This means that the detail level is a lot higher, and the lighting and shadowing is more advanced.
Who are the opposing factions you face, can you build alliances, what are some of the inventive ways they will try to undermine you and are there many ways to achieve success throughout the game?
[Ahlgren]: You will get to ally with both the guerrillas trying to liberate the island as well as one of the two major drug cartels: the Riojas. We do not care how the player achieves his success the only important thing is that he gets the job done.
Just Cause has a number of influences from GTA to James Bond - what would be your comments, how would you best describe the game and how do you counter the inevitable comparisons?
[Ahlgren]: The idea of a free roaming game is not exclusive to GTA, as little as the idea of a game set in a jungle is exclusive to Far Cry. Computer games are influenced by movies, games books and other computer games. We cater ultimately for the player. Our goal is to create an intriguing, fun, explosive, cool, immersive game.
Vehicles play a big part within the game so please can you highlight some of them that can be commandeered?
[Ahlgren]: Do you have an hour? No, really, there are about a hundred different vehicles, everything from scooters to tanks, from gyrocopters to jet fighters, fishing boats to speedboats. It's all in there and it's all great.
Finally, what is the structure of the game and the missions; will Just Cause be as inviting as the GTA series is to go and do your own thing, will there be plenty to reward the player for exploring and straying away from the main mission plotline?
[Ahlgren]: There is a set storyline which evolves linearity, but there are hundreds of side missions, racing challenges and collect missions to explore as well. Our message to the kids: Take it easy, stop and smell the gunpowder. Check out the scenery. HAVE FUN!
[Avalanche]: Thank you!
Just Cause is scheduled for a September release, keep an eye out for further coverage soon or alternatively track the game for all the latest updates...
Anonymous
Date Added:Wed 3rd Oct 2007 06:55
abuse-here@inbox.ru
thank you!
Anonymous
Date Added:Sun 10th Jun 2007 18:12
Anonymous
Date Added:Sun 14th Jan 2007 12:40
Anonymous
Date Added:Mon 25th Dec 2006 00:14
Anonymous
Date Added:Mon 25th Dec 2006 00:13
DeadLegs
Date Added:Mon 25th Sep 2006 18:16
Probably one of the best secret agent game i've ever played!!