If you’re longing to vent your gaming spleen through relentless action, massive explosions and frantic gunplay – all offered through a beautiful sandbox world – then chances are you’re currently staring at the horizon waiting for the appearance of Pandemic’s Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.
Just Cause 2 confirmed and detailed by Eidos. Credit: Eidos.
However, Eidos Interactive is keen to direct such expectation towards the upcoming arrival of Just Cause 2, its own Avalanche-developed sprawling and over-the-top sequel, which will be released in 2008 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Games for Windows.
Moreover, Just Cause’s closely-permed hero, Rico Rodriguez, is set to return in yet another "fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants" adventure, where he will no-doubt wreak spectacular havoc (this time across the gorgeous South East Asian islands of Panau) while striving to put down rebel uprisings or destabilise corrupt governments.
"Remember everything you loved about Just Cause , then take it to the next level: vehicles, stunts, weapons, freedom, grappling hook, action, everything," enthuses Alex Price, Brand Manager at Eidos. "The game world is even more incredible in Just Cause 2 and Rico has done a bit of growing up, so expect quite a few new surprises up his sleeves."
Eidos promises more stunts, vehicles and weapons – and also an "overhauled grappling hook" – as Rico is unleashed on a game world offering a massive 1000 sq km of action that can be explored, exploited and exploded at the player’s well-tooled leisure while guiding Rico from assignment to assignment.
When it comes to worthy open-ended, free-roaming destruction ably capable of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Mercenaries, M&C Gaming would perhaps be more excited by a sequel to last year’s superb Crackdown, but an improved Just Cause certainly won’t go amiss.
While Eidos is promising more of this and more of that, we can only hope developer Avalanche Studios has also thought to address some of the original game’s glaring problems – not least its all-too-obvious draw rate, the dull Liberation sequences, and the appalling lack of side-mission variety.
If Just Cause 2 can successfully improve on a flawed but promising original, and also bring more explosive action to the table in the process, then EA and Pandemic might not be assured the biggest slice of the retail pie when it comes to Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.
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