Just Cause 3 Preview - E3 2015

When Just Cause 2 first made its debut, the game was met with generally positive reception and solid response from fans. The original game didn't exactly draw in millions of fans, so the sequel was still trying to establish the franchise as a major entry in the increasingly crowded open world action genre. The main selling point was the highly destructible environments and a focus on creating chaos. Thanks to mod support and a shift to the streaming/YouTube culture, the sequel has enjoyed a re-emergence in recent years. With the announcement that Just Cause 3 is coming this December, many new and original fans are looking forward to blowing more things up. We had a chance to see the game in action at E3 2015.

Players once again assume the role of Rico, a revolutionary fighter who finds himself in yet another Mediterranean island chain ruled by a cruel dictator. Over 400 square miles in size, the map is always open and available to the players – much like the preceding entries. It's a giant sandbox that lets you go anywhere you want, and approach missions from a variety of methods and directions. To help illustrate this approach, the host of our demo actually allowed us to choose what action our hero will take when presented with a task.

First up, we wanted to destroy the dictator's statue. The options included blowing it up with C4 or making the hand crush the face. We opted for the latter, and watched as Rico used his multi-point tether to tie the outstretched hand of the statue to the face, and then collapse them. The whole thing came down in a cloud of rubble and smoke. Rico then used his trademark grappling hook to reach the rooftops of nearby buildings. A gas station was noted nearby, and we blew it up right away – the developers noted that this was such a popular activity, it was taken out of the standard “chaos generating events” and made to respawn. So, players will be able to explode them as often as they like.

It was time to showcase the new traversal mechanics. While you still have your parachute and grapple hook, there's now a Wingsuit that can be deployed. It provides a correspondingly faster travel rate compared to the chute, and you can still use the grapple to pull yourself along and maintain momentum. When not in the air, you can hop behind the wheel of over 80 land, sea, or air vehicles. On land, the driving engine has been completely reworked to provide better handling. As you drive, the environments will be more interactive as well - crops in the field can be flattened, and trees will break apart on heavy impact.

We made our way to the next objective – the destruction of a large bridge over a ravine. The new physics engine is said to be tailored specifically to create large scale, chain destruction. We were given choices on how to approach this task – use a gunship, or simply parachute around the bridge and shoot rockets at the supports. Once again we opted for the more hands-on latter approach. As the bridge exploded and collapsed, the demo hosts pointed out that this level of mayhem wasn't possible in such detail on the old console generation.

Next, we got a look at the new Rebel Drop system. Rather than using cheats or mods, this new system is a way for players to call-in just about any item they want. Want a fast car or an airplane? Watch it appear right as you place the order. This way, if you want to mess around and have fun right away, you can. There's a new stunt system as well – for example, as you get out of an airplane mid-flight, you can actually control Rico and walk along the wings, providing more opportunity for insane situations.

In the meantime, we've arrived at our final objective, a huge military base with multiple large radar dish installations and radio towers. We chose to use a tank to blast our way through, and then watched a cutscene that combined wingsuit, parachute, and overall chaos to turn the facility into dust. It's where our demo concluded.

It's easy to see that with Just Cause 3, Square Enix and Avalanche Studios finally have the chance to release a very popular title right out of the gate. Riding on the recent popularity of Just Cause 2, everything seems in place to create a bigger, better third entry. If you're the sort of player who loves mindless explosions and freeform open world mayhem, JC3 will undoubtedly satisfy. For those with a passing interest, it may be worth waiting to see if the game has anything more to offer below the fiery surface.