GR: One of JC's best features was the grappling hook - how are you enhancing it in the sequel?
PJ: During Rico’s few years of absence, he hasn’t forgotten any of his old tricks. In fact, he’s learned quite a few new ones and we’ve worked hard on ensuring that stunts now become part of your basic movement and combat.
The signature grappling hook returns and has several enhancements. It’s now an arm-mounted device that’s attached to your forearm at all times, which means you can fire it with its own dedicated button - no need to equip it first. It attaches to pretty much anything in the environment and can for example be used to reel-in to static or heavy objects to swiftly move around, mount buildings or quickly get to a vehicle. With a bit of creativity, you can use the grappling hook in combination with the enhanced parachute; how about opening the parachute while reeling in to fly high up in the air or using the grappling hook while parachuting to slingshot your way around.
GR: Panau is, according to the PR bumf, 1000km sq. Do you reckon you could have made it any bigger?
PJ: 1000Km sq is pretty big! We could have made the island of Panau bigger but that would not have really added anything. Our goal with Just Cause 2 was to make Panau packed full of fun and meaningful things to do, and then give the player freedom to make his own choice for how to tackle the mission. Even if you decide to just play around for a while, for example by hijacking a fighter jet and exploring the beautiful coastline at breakneck speed, there’s always going to be many different opportunities for activities all around you.
GR: The district-conquering gameplay of the original was a bit lacklustre and repetitive in comparison to the excitement of the main missions. Will this style of action return, and if so how will you make sure it's just as fun as the main game?
PJ: The structure of Just Cause 2 has been completely redesigned and now uses a much more flexible system that allows you to decide for yourself what you want to do to reach your goals. The central theme is chaos and Panau is packed full of opportunities for you to cause it.
When you cause chaos, you manipulate the unstable situation in Panau, make the rebel factions stronger and weaken the government. This is represented by areas of influence that grows around strongholds that you’ve taken over together with the rebel factions. Within the area of influence, new activities and information about other opportunities to cause chaos are unlocked.
