About the game
Just Cause 2 is a 2010 action-adventure game developed by Avalanche Studios and published by Square Enix. It is the sequel to Just Cause (2006). You play Rico Rodriguez, an operative of a group called the Agency, who is sent to the fictional island nation of Panau to overthrow the dictator Pandak "Baby" Panay and track down his former mentor Tom Sheldon.
It is a third-person open-world game. Fights use guns and a grappling hook that can tether objects to each other and pull Rico along, and a parachute can be opened and repacked instantly, so players slingshot into the air and glide. There are agency missions, faction missions, stronghold takeovers and race challenges. The Chaos system gives points for completing missions and destroying government property, and enough chaos is needed to move the story on.
Panau covers about 1,000 square kilometres, with deserts, mountains and jungle and more than three hundred settlements. A black market dealer sells weapons and vehicles, which can be delivered by helicopter and upgraded with parts found around the island. There are over 2,000 parts to collect.
The team saw Just Cause as a missed opportunity and redid the missions, enemy artificial intelligence and most of the core mechanics. Panau was inspired by Southeast Asia, with some Hawaii and New Zealand. The developers kept the first game's campy, over-the-top tone. The game runs on Avalanche Studios' Avalanche Engine 2.0, and Square Enix London Studios helped with development.
It was announced in January 2007 by Eidos Interactive and came out on March 23, 2010 in North America and March 26 in Europe for Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. A demo released on March 4, 2010 drew more than two million players. Pre-orders came with a map of Panau and the Black Market Chaos Pack.
Reviews were generally positive. Critics praised the open world, the stunts, the grappling hook and parachute and the graphics, and criticised the story, the gunplay and repetitive missions. It was the best-selling retail game in the UK on release week and sold more than six million copies. It plays on Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles through backward compatibility, and Just Cause 3 followed in December 2015.
The text above is adapted from Wikipedia and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
What critics said
Metacritic 81 out of 100 (Xbox 360). Individual reviews: Eurogamer 8/10, Game Informer 9/10, GamesRadar 4/5, GameSpot 8/10, Giant Bomb 4/5, IGN 8.8/10.
Extra content
Paid add-ons were weapon and vehicle packs, and a few small packs were free. A fan-made multiplayer mod was later approved as an add-on, but only on the PC version.
- Black Market Aerial Pack: An F-33 Dragonfly jet fighter, dual parachute thrusters and a multi-lock missile launcher.
- Black Market Boom Pack: A quad rocket launcher, a cluster bomb launcher and an air propulsion gun.
- Black Market Chaos Pack: Rico's signature gun, an Agency hovercraft, a Chevalier Classic, a bull's-eye assault rifle and the Tuk Tuk Boom Boom. It came with pre-orders, and its contents were later sold separately.
- Free packs: A Chevalier Icebreaker ice-cream truck with bullbars, the Tuk Tuk Boom Boom and a Chaos Parachute pack.
Good to know
- The demo, released March 4, 2010, attracted more than two million players.
- An Ultimate Edition with the Black Market Aerial and Boom Packs came out on December 20, 2011, on PlayStation Network only.
- Just Cause 3 buyers on Xbox One also received Just Cause 2 through backward compatibility.
- The original sales projection was 2.2 million copies. Sales passed six million.
- One achievement name uses a strong swear word, so the list here masks it.
Made by
Director Magnus Nedfors, Producer Daniel Willför, Designer Peter Johansson, Writer Odd Ahlgren, Writer Matthew J. Costello, Writer Neil Richards, Artist Stefan Ljungqvist, Programmer Fredrik Larsson, Composer Mats Lundgren.
