Last year, I saw an early build of a game called Just Cause. It's a title that begs to be a punch line, but this game won't be the butt of any jokes. Developed by Avalanche Studios and published by Eidos, Just Cause takes mission based driving games to the next level. Imagine a game more open-ended and non-linear than Grand Theft: Auto set in an environment more lavish and detailed than FarCry. If you can picture that, then you'll at least be in the same ballpark as Just Cause.San Esperito is a tropical island ruled by a corrupt dictator (redundant, I know) named Salvador Mendoza. The island is torn between several opposing forces including Mendoza's military, drug cartels, corrupt local police and guerrillas fighting for control. The situation is volatile to say the least. You'll take on the role of Rico Rodriguez, a CIA operative specializing in regime change. Your job is to seize this opportunity to tip the scale in the right direction.
The game is massive, spanning a cluster of islands over 250,000 acres (or about 400 square miles) in area, all with no loading screens. It's gorgeous, too, with viewing distances that rival any other game of any genre. The game features dramatic weather effects and a natural-looking day/night cycle. Perhaps the most visually stunning aspect, though, is the sky. I've never seen more natural-looking clouds in a video game and the sunsets are simply picture-perfect.
You'll be given various missions from assassinations to liberating villages to destroying buildings. How you carry out these missions is largely up to you. You'll have all of the resources of your agency at your disposal, including helicopters, boats, jet fighters and, of course, an arsenal of small arms. If your target is traveling by car, you can blow it up with a well placed rocket, run it off the road in a stolen truck or para glide onto its roof and commandeer it. It's your choice.
Rodriguez has a penchant for theatrics. He can launch himself into the air from moving vehicles by climbing onto the the roof and deploying the parachute he always keeps handy. He can then use his grapple gun to lock onto another moving vehicle and reel himself in.
In one scene I saw in the demo, Rodriguez was tasked with assisting rebels in liberating a small village. He did this by providing air support in the form of a missile-launching helicopter. As the battle raged below, an on-screen gauge displayed “control” of the village as it gradually shifted from military control to guerrilla control. It's just one of the many nice little touches Avalanche is strewing throughout the game.
Another is their recognition that “annoying” and “fun” are not compatible concepts. In other games, if you find yourself out in the middle of nowhere with no mode of transportation, you have a long walk ahead of you. In Just Cause, though, Rodriguez can make a quick call for an air drop and in seconds he has a set of wheels (or a boat as the situation may require).
Just Cause is slated for release this Fall, so keep an eye out.
I'm a thirty-something computer programmer. I live in Delaware, but I grew up in Arkansas in a tiny town of 2500. We didn't have video arcades. Heck, it was nearly an hour's drive to anything as sophisticated as a Wal*Mart. Needless to say, my exposure to video games as a child was somewhat limited.
In the mid 80's, I cut my teeth on a used Atari 2600 bought at a flea market and a handful of games like Space Invaders and Pac Man. I was hooked in a blink. In the decades since, I've become a big fan of many genres of games. From first-person shooters to role-playing to strategy and everything in between. The only games that categorically don't interest me are sports games.
The easiest way for a game to win me over is to have a gripping story. I'll forgive a lot in a game that grabs me and keeps me interested. The inverse is true, too. If a game does not have a killer story, its gameplay had better be pretty darn compelling to make up for it. That doesn't happen very often
