Just Cause 2's vehicle stunts look absolutely bonkers

1:00 PM on 12.03.2009   |   Nick Chester

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When Swedish-developer Avalanche Studios released the original Just Cause in 2006, it featured its share of over-the-top action and vehicle roof stunts.

But even the development team admits that it was a bit limited, which was the catalyst for wanting to truly take it to the next level for the upcoming sequel. The game's thrill-seeking protagonist Rico can now climb around on moving vehicles, take cover from enemy fire on those same vehicle, jump to other vehicles, as well as use his grappling hook and parachute at the push of a button. 

"This creates some really dynamic car chases where you are completely free to move from vehicle to vehicle and take out pursuers one by one," Just Cause 2 Lead Game Designer Peter Johansson tells me. "You have so many options, and combined with a dynamic AI, it ensures that a chase plays out differently each time and creates many different emergent situations."

In short, a bunch of unexpected, crazy, and death-defying sh*t.

Check out the exclusive video above to get an idea of just how crazy said sh*t can get, and hit the jump for more details on how it'll work when you're playing Just Cause 2 early next year.

I'm worried that while what we're seeing looks completely bad-ass in action, it might be difficult to pull off. I'm old, and my hand-eye coordination ain't what it used to be.

"It’s quite easy to get to grips with how to do all those crazy stunts since similar actions are always mapped to the same button regardless of state," Johansson assures me.

On the Xbox 360, the grappling hook is always mapped to the Left Button, with the jump and parachute mapped to A. The parachute can be opened by pressing A at any time while playing, provided Rico is traveling fast enough, like during a freefall, while driving, climbing around on a speeding vehicle, and even while reeling in quickly with the grappling hook. The dual grappling hook technique is similarly easy to execute -- the initial hook is fired off with the Left Button and held to charge the second hook. You can then aim at a second target and release to tether two object together -- attach an enemy to a wall, vehicle, exploding barrel, or even another enemy, for example. 

Johansson gives me an example that puts all of these crazy skills together in a scenario that would make Michael Bay blush. 

"So you can press A to do a simple basejump from an edge," he explains. "You can then press A again to open the parachute and navigate towards for example a car convoy. When a car is within range you can fire the grappling hook at it with [the Left Button] to automatically reel in to its roof. You can then move around on the car with the left stick and fire your weapons with the triggers exactly as you would when on foot. If you want to get to another vehicle, you just fire the grappling hook at it, or if you want to quickly get airborne again you simply press A to open the parachute."

For those looking to call out Just Cause 2 for not being grounded in reality, you're obviously missing the point. The physics technology in the game is advanced, but has been tweaked to exaggerate what Rico can do in and with the world. Any sense of reality, it seems, has been thrown out of the window for the sake of pure gameplay fun, giving the player the ability and opportunities to experiment in Just Cause 2's open world. 

"We haven’t really been thinking about it in terms of how realistic it should be and then let that dictate what we can or can’t do," Johansson says. "Instead we’ve focused on what would create the most fun gameplay within this playground and give the player tools explore, experiment and play around. I think that’s what sandbox gameplay should be about, embrace the advantages of the freedom and the big game world and allow the player to just enjoy himself."

One example of this freedom is seen in the video, where Rico uses his dual grappling hook ability to attach a moving vehicle to a passing statue. The statue tumbles as the vehicle speeds by and, as a result, the weight of the monument causes the car to veer off the road into a fiery wreck. Jonansson says how this scenario could have panned out is really up to the player. Because the grappling hook attaches to "pretty much anything in the game world," your options are wide open.

"You can, for example, lift a vehicle under a helicopter and then use it as a wrecking ball to smash the statue to pieces instead," he suggests. "You can then proceed to drop the vehicle on a gas station or any other destructible object to cause even more chaos."

That's all well and good, and quite frankly, thinking about doing that leaves me breathless. But there's a 747 in the video I'd like to possibly attach a car to. Rico will be able to fly that, right?

"Yup... there are over 100 different vehicles that Rico can use," he says, "and you can track which ones you've tried out on the vehicle database on your PDA."

Yes, I can confirm I'll be attaching everything I possibly can to a moving 747 when the game ships on March 23. Published by Square Enix under the EIDOS brand portfolio, Just Cause 2 will be available for Xbox 360, PlayStation, 3 and PC.