Questions Answered by Magnus Nedfors, Game Director, Just Cause 2
Aside from the same main character, is there a link between the stories of Just Cause and Just Cause 2? Will the tone be similar to the campier tone of the first, or will it be more serious this time around?
No, the stories are not really connected except for what you mention; it’s the same characters that are seen in the first one. The tone is still campy, but with a deadly twist. Action bonanza-cum-satire if you will.
What aspects of the first game did the team work hardest to improve or change? What was the most challenging part of making the game?
Maybe obviously, but we wanted to use more of the good things and also see that we improved on parts that weren’t good in the first one. One good thing from the first was the grappling hook, so we have put lot of effort to incorporate that into every aspect of the game. A bad thing in the first was the disconnection between the main story and so called “side activities,” in JC2 we have redesigned the whole mission structure so that everything you do is connected and drives the game forward.
Another thing was that our big world felt a bit empty in the first game for JC2 we have filled the world with fun activities for the player, there should always be something to do close to you when playing.
We want Just Cause 2 to be about game play freedom, the player should play the game the way he wants in many different aspects. Do missions if he wants, in what order he wants, just create chaos while free roaming if he wants. The most challenging part of doing a very free game is to support that in as many areas as possible, it makes testing the game a pain since you can do it in so many different ways and in different order.
I played the demo that’s up on Xbox Live and loved the combination of parachuting and grappling, was that hard to balance to make it fun?
The combination of the two primary gadgets has been around since the first game and it felt FUN from the first day we had it. Of course there has been many work hours put into it to make it as good as possible but it has been a key focus for us for a long time and the payoff is just great fun so I can’t really say it’s been hard… difficult at times yes, hard no.
The draw distance of the demo was really impressive, and I was sad I couldn’t explore further. How big is the island? Were you trying to replicate any particular region (other than just a general Central/South America look)?
The game world is called Panau, it is a fictional island nation in south east Asia. It is over a 1000 square kilometers and is partially based on real areas from Southeast Asia. Another development from the first game is that our world now has different climate zones, like desert, arctic mountains as well as lush jungles. We used New Zealand and Hawaii as an inspiration when it comes to areas that have many different environment types close to each other.
Are there more stunts for players to perform in the sequel?
Even though the first Just Cause had lots of over the top stunts you could do, we have added a lot of new things you can do as Rico. First off, the grappling hook has been greatly improved; it’s now constantly attached to Rico’s arm so you can use it at any moment. You can use it to reel yourself in to buildings or other objects like vehicles so it’s a totally new way to move around in the game world, getting to a vehicle is never hard now.
One other example I want to mention when talking about stunts is the improvements on “car surfing,” in JC2 you can do more than just stand on top of the cars, now you can move between different positions, using the vehicle itself as cover in gunfights.
Was the idea of multiplayer thrown around at all? Did the team come up with any ideas you can talk about?
JC2 has been a single player focused game from the beginning; we wanted to put all our efforts into making that as good as possible. To be honest (and with a risk of being in some future article with stupid quotes from game developers) I believe that all talk about that a game needs multiplayer to be good or complete is wrong. Creating multiplayer gameplay put limits on what you can do in the single player experience so I’m pretty sure we made the right decision on this. (That said there have definitely been cool ideas about multiplayer-grappling hook-parachute-gunfight-mayhem tossed around but it’s not in Just Cause 2).
Is there any DLC planned yet that you can talk about or hint at?
We do have downloadable content available from day one to those who preorder Just Cause 2 and while I cannot comment on any specifics at this time, I can confirm there will be additional DLC releases sometime in the future.
