Just Cause 3

Just Cause 3
Developer(s)	Avalanche Studios New York division
Publisher(s)	Square Enix
Aspect Ratio	4:3 and wide-screen
Resolutions	PC - Up to "4K"; PS4 - 1080p; Xbox One - 900p
Platforms	Microsoft Windows (Vista or later); PlayStation 4; Xbox One
Release Date(s)	Dubai: November 23 or 24, 2015; EU and NA: December 1, 2015; India: December 5, 2015; Japan: January 19, 2016
Genre(s)	Action; Third-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player; Multiplayer (PC only)
Ratings	PEGI 18; ESRB M
Media	Retail box and digital download
Languages	English; French; Italian; Japanese; German; Spanish; Arabic; Russian; Portuguese; Spanish; Polish (text only)

Just Cause 3 is the third game in the Just Cause game series.

General info

The game was rumored to be under construction for over a year, until it was announced on November 11, 2014. By the time of the announcement, the game had been worked on for about 3 years.

According to the developers, the Just Cause series is a proper sandbox and they're improving further on that. That means JC3 is even less story focused. The map is also said to be much more densely full. The story will basically let the player know how to use the tools and the player will be able to use them anywhere.

In comparison to Just Cause 2, the storyline is now much longer, but there are no faction sidemissions. However, there are now Random Encounters (which can re-occur) and a lot more types of races and other challenges.

The game allows players to shoot their way through walls, blow up and pull down even bigger Radars and Statues, which will shatter into more pieces. You can even blow up an entire bridge, if you're being chased on it. "That is the scale of destruction we're after, not really breaking a hole in the wall."

"The Modding community has always been something spectacular in all games and any game that gets the love of the modding community is already in a good spot. A game that's all about the sandbox - really in a good spot." - A developer for Just Cause 3.

The game also has "volumetric terrain", which allows players to explore underground caves and climb tall buildings easier.

Awards

According to the PC retail box cover, it's the "winner of 10 E3 awards".
According to Machinima, it's the "number one craziest action game".

Setting and plot summary

General Di Ravello took over the nation of Medici (located in a fictional Mediterranean archipelago) when Rico was still a child. Rico's parents were killed during the coup, but Rico managed to escape and eventually join The Agency. Several years after the events of Just Cause 2, Rico has left the Agency and travels back home to Medici to fight Di Ravello.

Di Ravello is planing on using Medici's unique explosive and magnetic mineral Bavarium, along with a vast military to conquer the world. There is a rebellion fighting a civil war against him, but it's failing until Rico shows up to aid them.

Medici was reported to be "nearly 400" square miles but also sometimes "just over" 400 square miles. 400 square miles is the size of Panau, but it will be more densely full than Panau.

Special editions

"Day one edition" (preorder). The preorder vehicles have later been released as separate DLCs. This pack is also known as "Weaponized Vehicle Pack".
- Weaponized Pescespada SS speedboat with miniguns.
- Weaponized Urga Ogar buggy with machine guns.
- Weaponized Serpente high-end car with rocket-launchers.
Collectors edition. Available for purchase at the Square enix store. It includes:
- Day one edition of the game.
- 24 x 24 inch (60 x 60 cm) paper map of Medici.
- 32 page book of screenshots/artworks.
- 15 inch (37.5 cm) replica of the JC3 version Grappler.
EB games exclusive day one edition. Available only at EB games.
- Same as the normal "day one edition", but includes a "Capstone Bloodhound RPG".
- A collectors edition bought from them will also include the unique rocket launcher.
"XL edition". This seemed to only be available as a download version. It includes:
- "Day one edition".
- "Air, Land & Sea Pass" with 3 DLC mission packs. Owners of the pass will get Downloadable content for Just Cause 3 one week before it becomes available for separate purchase.
- Exclusive day one Flame Wingsuit and Parachute skins.
Preordering on Steam granted the Final Argument sniper rifle.
Gold Edition. This is available for Xbox One and PS4 only. It includes several items of Downloadable content for Just Cause 3.
- The game.
- Sky Fortress expansion.
- Mech Land Assault expansion.
- Bavarium Sea Heist expansion.
- Weaponized Vehicle Pack (Weaponized Pescespada SS, Weaponized Urga Ogar and Weaponized Serpente).
- Explosive Weapon Pack (? - probably some DLC rocket launcher).
- Reaper Missile Mech.
- Kousavá rifle.

List of game features and gameplay info

See Category:Just Cause 3 Vehicles and Category:Just Cause 3 Weapons for more about those subjects. The below list no longer covers those.

A Black Market. The black market related info is all likely to change, because those screenshots are said to have been from an earlier version of the game where some features were not yet in their final form.
- The market sells and rents vehicles for seemingly real money, introducing micro-transactions into the game. As revealed later by Christofer Sundberg, Avalanche Studios co-founder and chief creative officer, that is not the case. The game will not have any micro-transactions.
- There's also some kind of a "diamond shop". It's not known what exactly those diamonds are, but they seem to be some type of in-game currency for the market.
- There seems to be a time limit for how often it's possible to get a vehicle drop from the market.
- The PDA is shown to have a flexible screen connected to the inside of Rico's left arm.
The game counts "Mayhem (from kills)" instead of Chaos points.
One picture shows a list of objectives and mission info for the province that the player is in. This reveals that Medici is divided into provinces.
The Protec Grappler G3 will return and it will look about the same as it does in Just Cause 2. The new grappler will at first have 2 cables, but can be upgraded to 6. Each set of cables can be used to pull objects together.
Gas Tanks will make a return.
There will be bird flocks.
Parachute and Grappler mechanics are reported to have been "vastly improved".
The next antagonist will also be a dictator - General Di Ravello.
The protagonist will still be Rico Rodriguez.
There will be a Wingsuit.
It will be possible to store vehicles at captured settlements. These vehicles can be called upon for some type of Heavy drop. According to another source, all vehicles become available for delivery, if you've driven them once.
Rico can carry 4 different weapons instead of 3 now + explosives. One single handed weapon on each leg and two two handed weapons on his back.
The Stunt positions at the front and back of a car don't exist anymore, but it's possible to freely walk around on the car roof.
The Wingsuit is something you can switch to while in the air. It's possible to switch between the wingsuit and the Parachute.
Rico carries an infinite supply of small triggered explosives, but only 5 can be used at a time.
Races are back and they work the same as in JC2, but leaderboards are uploaded over the internet.
It's possible to hack SAMs in Medici to make them shoot at government aircraft.
Capstone FH155, anti-aircraft guns, are no longer connected to the ground, so they can be dragged around with a grappler.
There'a base with a huge satellite dish. It's reportedly difficult, but theoretically possible to use the pulling strength of the many grappler cables to make it collapse. It's also possible to use a flak gun to shoot it to pieces.
The new consoles will allow the use of a "share feature" which will allow players to create and share videos.
There will be destructible Di Ravello statues.
There will not be an official JC3 multiplayer any time soon, but they might make it at an unknown time in the future.
Rico used to be a race car driver before joining the Agency.
Mixed quotes from game director Roland Lesterlin and design principal Francesco Antolini:
- Cars have full deformation and hinged parts so they break and parts move. "The feel of it has a full racing engine underneath. We do shocks, downforce and things that you’d find in a full racing game. All vehicles have modifications, too." Even a bus can be given nitro.
- "In JC3 you can move freely on the wing" (of a plane)", so you could spawn a motorbike on the wing of a plane and ride it off."
- "It buys into that philosophy of an open world that’s at your disposal, if you want to spend a lot of time on challenges, then by all means. If you want to drive a vintage sports car along the Mediterranean coastline and skid around corners, sure. Maybe your big thing is rocket-propelled grenades and huge bases. Because the world is so big, we want to scratch whatever itch you have."
- It's only possible to set 5 Triggered Explosives at a time, but "There are modifications to your equipment which can change the way you play. They're not upgrades in a sense they make you better – you can choose to have an immediate explosion or switch it to be a propellant and you'll see a line of fire come out. You could put it on a dynamic object and it's going to propel it in a certain direction. This way, you can create the Rico you want."
- "...enemy AI adapts to fight back. We thought we had it all sussed when we rolled up for battle in a tank, only to discover the enemies gearing themselves up with RPGs. Helicopters are called in when you take down half the base. Battles escalate quickly and you can easily find yourself biting off more RPG than you can chew, as you're free to roam the world from the moment the tutorial starts."
- "Completely destroy a base and a new challenge becomes available, tentatively named 'Destruction Frenzy'. It's as subtle as it sounds. It’s a Red Faction: Guerilla-inspired affair, where you're given the rebuilt base minus the enemy forces, a set of explosives and told to tear it down in the shortest amount of time."
- "Avalanche has dropped the Black Market, and instead has made all weapon and vehicle drops completely open and free. Players said they had to spend lots of money to get a car, a jet or whatever in JC2, so we got rid of that. You can call in anything you want: vehicles, two-handed weapons, specials, whatever. We make a joke about it because it happens so fast. We know people have a strategy, like using a chopper or a certain weapon. We don’t want to hold them back, so we say 'go for it'."
- Grenades have auto-aim when thrown from mid-flight, because "if I’m going to throw a grenade I want to be a cool action hero, and cool action heroes don't miss with grenades".
- Roland Lesterlin (JC3 game director) about Easter Eggs: "So you know, you work on a game for so long, you have to have those days of joy. In fact, a little while ago we said to the whole team: "Like hey guys, whatever you wanna put in the game and hide, you can do it." And so we'd spend some days developing all sorts of crazy stuff that's gonna be in there cause we have so much fun making this game and hopefully that comes through in how the game works and feels. It's hard to say "no". It's really quite hard to say "no", I mean they are so funny and it makes you quite happy just to allow all that exuberance and enthusiasm in developing the game to get in there and we hope the fans like it too."
If you put a marker on the map and get in a vehicle and a faction member is in the car, you can stunt jump to the roof then the faction member will jump to the drivers seat and drive to the marker.
Bridges are destructable, but they respawn.
Gas stations in Medici will respawn.
Missions do not restrict anything. The missions will only give goals, but how these are to be achieved is entirely up to the player.
Missions do not have any actions that can't be done in free-roam. Other than meeting storyline characters.

Downloadable extra content

Main article: Downloadable content for Just Cause 3.

Before launch, Christofer Sundberg reported that "Beyond launch, we are likely to look into DLC packs and items as part of our ambition to support Just Cause 3 and its players for many years to come, but until that time we're completely focused on making the best Just Cause game we possibly can."

So far there are 3 large expansion packs that add additional areas, missions, vehicles and weapons. In addition to that there's a few smaller DLCs that add a few individual vehicles and weapons.

People playing on the PC can also use the Just Cause 3 Multiplayer.

Patches

Main article: Just Cause 3 Patch history.

Trivia

Gameinformer.com was given exclusive publishing rights for all new info during the first month after the announcement. People from that site reported having gotten to play the game for several hours.
A few screenshots that were leaked a few days before the announcement (see below in the gallery) indicated that the new Black Market will use real money and introduce micro-transactions into the game. Christofer Sundberg, Avalanche Studios co-founder and chief creative officer, has denied this and explained that the game will not have any micro-transactions. "To be perfectly clear: Just Cause 3 will be available in 2015 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC. It will be distributed as a retail box and digital download. It is not a "Free To Play" game. It does not feature in-game micro transactions." According to avalanchestudios.com, those screenshots show how they were considering different business models. That model was cancelled.
See the locked archive page Just Cause 3 News for all the info that was slowly leaked and published before the announcement. The game was rumored to be under construction for over a year.
By the time of the announcement, the game had been worked on for about 3 years (since 2011). We know this because that's when the earliest known game artworks were drawn and when Roland Lesterlin was hired for "Project Mamba".
During development, the codename for the game was "Project Mamba".
Members of the development team that created "Burnout" have worked on JC3 to improve vehicle handling.
This is one of the 9 first games in the world to use Denuvo "anti-tamper technology", which is hoped to eliminate game piracy in the future.
So far this game has the most storyline missions, with 22 in total, exceeding Just Cause (1)'s 19 (though technically 21 due to the three parts).
See Just Cause 4 for anything relating to a possible sequel.

Gallery

Artworks

Info sheets and others

Screenshots

Most, if not all the screenshots here are promotional ones from developers. This explains some otherwise unobtainable (or just difficult to obtain) camera angles).