History VideoGame / JustCause2

The UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 version was available for free to [=PlayStation=] Plus subscribers from August to November 2012, and later the UsefulNotes/{{Xbox 360}} version became free for UsefulNotes/XboxLiveArcade Gold members for the first half of June 2015. On PC, a multiplayer mod was released on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} in 2013.

** The [[ColonelBadass colonels]], all of whom can take more punishment than elite mooks.

** [[spoiler:Baby Panay himself, who survives a grenade explosion up close and carries a special rapid-firing rocket launcher.]]

** The AH-33 Topachula helicopter: the one attack helicopter you can find at military bases which is guaranteed to mount rocket pods, but takes forever and a day to actually take off and has the maneuverability of a brick. On the other hand, its slow movement rate and ability to hover makes the rockets actually ''useful'', which is more than can be said of the same weapons mounted to the game's fixed-wing aircraft.
** All the DLC guns are very powerful and come fully upgraded. Unfortunately the only way to refill ammunition for them is to order more from the black market dealer.

* BattleshipRaid: Rico raids the president's [[spoiler:atomic submarine]] in the final mission.

* BoomHeadshot: The game keeps track of the number of headshots you make in the Statistics menu, and rewards you with an achievement at 50. This with a sniper rifle is also an easy way to take care of the otherwise-MadeOfIron Colonels; for that matter, headshots are the only way to even injure them ''at all'' with normal weapons.

* CriticalExistenceFailure: Applies to settlements: You can blow up 97% of a base, and as long as that little generator (or more likely the oil pipeline half a mile away that somehow still counts as part of the base) you missed is still intact the base will be still inhabited by the army - but when you come back and destroy it, the base will become abandoned.

* DirtyCommunists: Despite being one of your allies, the Reapers are explicitly said by Karl Blaine to be "all about the land and the people, as long it's their land and their people" and are known to be quite greedy. Their leader Bolo Santosi is also shown to be very power-hungry too.

** There's a JokeItem in the form of the [[https://justcause.fandom.com/wiki/Happy_Bubble_Blaster Happy Bubble Blaster]], which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: a fun little purple, yellow and blue toy that shoots bubbles. This item does no damage, but civilians will still cower in fear and [[FelonyMisdemeanor the military will still come after you for using it]]. It can be found in a tower in southwest Lautan Lama Desert (roughly X:4245; Y:25980).

* EvilVersusEvil: There are no good guys. The Panauan government is a brutal military dictatorship, the three resistance groups are all essentially gangster groups with inflated senses of self importance, and [[spoiler:the Americans, along with the Russians, Chinese, and Japanese, all just want Panau's oil]].

* GottaCatchThemAll: Horrible, horrible offender. In the 400 square miles of Panau to explore, there are 368 locations. To 'complete' a location, you have to destroy every structure marked with a red star in that location, and find every upgrade box nearby. You have a radar telling you the distance to the nearest box, but no such thing for the buildings. Including all 4 types, there are 2,700(!) boxes to find. Add on top of this 300 faction items to collect (helpfully pointed out on the map when you join the relevant faction) and 104 different vehicles to catalog (woe betide the completionist who forgets to fly the cargo plane before they take over the only two airports they spawn from, because they aren't coming back after that)[[note]]There '''is''' a way to alleviate this, however. DLC vehicles ''counts'' for this, so if you failed to get the rarest vehicles in the game, you can just get one from the DLC; no to mention that anyone who bought the game post-2010 will get two of the DLC vehicles without having to buy the DLC packs that contained them[[/note]], and you're going to be in it for the long haul. There's a reason the strictest completion achievement only requires you to finish 75% of the game's content.

* GratuitousNinja: Baby Panay has a whole battalion of ninjas in his army. They are all able to teleport in a puff of smoke, can't be caught by the grappling hook and harass you with submachine guns.

** Often, getting 100% on a military base involves an extended period of hovering around with a helicopter looking for that last explodable thing (it's usually a single Generator) among the wreckage.

* MadeOfIron: Baby Panay. [[spoiler:He takes a grenade point blank in the face and gets shot an ungodly number of times, but only dies via ''nuclear explosion''.]]

* GrapplingHookPistol: Rico's grappling hook gauntlet. Useful for pulling himself places quickly, scaling sheer cliffs, pulling enemies and objects down, and [[WhipItGood lashing people]], among other things.

* StupidStatementDanceMix: A non-spoken variant: the Chevalier Ice Breaker, a free DLC vehicle, is a weaponized version of its fellow ice cream truck, the Chevalier Piazza IX. Rather than a horn, it plays a modified version of the Piazza's ice cream truck jingle, edited to the backing of a funky beat.

* MemeticBadass: In-universe for Rico. If you idle long enough by your allies, you can hear them talking about how you "killed ten soldiers. With his bare hands!" and then [[UpToEleven it becomes "ten tigers."]]

*** Destroying certain objects brings up specific messages. For example destroying statues "increases civil unrest" (it doesn't), destroying pipelines "disrupts gas production" (the number of vehicles in traffic stays the same), and destroying radio masts "disrupts enemy communications" (they still radio for reinforcements just as well).

** Some of the soldiers will occasionally yell "[[Film/{{Predator}} If he bleeds we can sure kill him!]]" in combat.

** Hantu Island is partly based on the American T.V. series [[Series/Lost Lost]] and several notable features of the series can be found on the island, including the mysterious smoke monster, the word 'SEARCH' written in the sand, and the hatch.

** Hantu Island is partly based on the American T.V. series [[Series/Lost]] and several notable features of the series can be found on the island, including the mysterious smoke monster, the word 'SEARCH' written in the sand, and the hatch.

%%* LargeHam: Tom Sheldon and Bolo Santosi. Rico has his moments as well.

* SuicidalOverconfidence: The little grunts will happily fire at your armored attack helicopter with just a revolver.

* ColonelBadass: The Colonels, obviously. They pack assault rifles or machine guns, have a ton of health and wear reinforced body armor, so the only ways to kill them are with headshots or explosives.

* ApocalypticLogistics: Hantu Island is a forsaken military base manned by (supposedly) 100-year old Japanese soldiers who still think WWII is going on and are protecting a storm-generating superweapon capable of knocking planes right out of the sky. They have access to modern vehicles and weapons and seem to have all the fuel, food, and electricity they need despite being isolated for decades on an island with little natural resources, though its implied by the presence of wreckage on the island that their supplies come from hapless cargo aircraft they manage to shoot down.

** [[spoiler:Baby Panay himself, who survives a grenade explosion up close and carries a rocket launcher.]]

* ColonelBadass: The Colonels, obviously. They pack assault rifles or machine guns, have a ton of health and wear body armor, so the only ways to kill them are with headshots or explosives.

* TheNapoleon: President "Baby" Panay.

** Baby Panay is a combination of real-life dictators Kim Jong-il and Baby Doc, since they inherited their countries from their fathers.

* InformedAttribute: Destroying certain objects and killing Colonels will give you special messages. Killing Colonels supposedly lowers enemy morale, destroying statues of "Baby" Panau increases civilian unrest, destroying communication towers hampers military communications... All of these messages are just for show, and there are no associated gameplay effect.