History VideoGame / JustCause2

* AcceptableBreaksFromReality: Everything involving the grappling hook. The first game tried to avoid this by making it relatively realistic (it connects to vehicles because it's a rare-earth magnet, and it's mounted on a gun body for better stability), but it was also quite hampered by this (it can ''only'' connect to vehicles, cannot be used at any time, and equipping it prevents you from using a two-handed weapon). In ''Just Cause 2'', any semblance of realism was dropped, and the versatility of the grapple immediately spiked.
* AirborneAircraftCarrier: [[IncrediblyLamePun The Mile High Club]], which is essentially a luxury cruise ship with wings and engines suspended from a pair of massive zeppelins, possesses a small helipad, and a rear hangar for a single jet aircraft. Planes don't so much ''take'' off... it's more ''fall'' off, and pull up before you hit the ground. Fortunately, as the name implies, it is ''very'' high up. Don't bother trying to land on it with any kind of plane, of course.

** The AI enjoys beaching their own boats (often with [[MadeOfExplodium explosive results]]) and crashing them into each other. Additionally, soldiers wielding rocket launchers are willing to shoot you even if you're close enough to hug them even though they kill themselves in the process.

** 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.)
* BadassGrandpa: [[spoiler: The soldiers of Hantu Island.]]

** Thankfully, Santossi managed to turn this around by giving a RousingSpeech at the end, [[DareToBeBadass crying out for the people]] [[LaResistance to take arms against the oppressors]], which is even more awesome in the fact [[HeReallyCanAct in that her voice didn't seem to comically trip on itself like the rest of the game]].

* ApocalypticLogistics: Hantu Island is a forsaken military base manned by (supposedly) 100-year old Japanese soldiers who still think WWII is going on. 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.

** Not to mention that causing chaos helps to unlock the next story mission. That's right: StuffBlowingUp advances the plot. [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Does this remind you of]] [[RedFaction any other games?]]

* 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 someone 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.

** Due to a ''remarkably'' stupid oversight, switching to the alternate joypad controls (switching the shoulder button functions from lower triggers shoot to upper triggers shoot) switches the on-foot functions still accessible in a vehicle but ''not'' the functions exclusive to a vehicle, meaning "reverse" and "release tether" end up mapped onto the same button. This tends to run the player into a brick wall on mission 2, where they will be unable to figure out why their attempts to drag Sheldon's car out of a ditch instantly break their grapple tether.

** Every single location'' in the has a name that means something in Indonesian/Malay, and most of them are named like real locations would be (Awan Cendawan Nuclear Plant which translates to "Mushroom Cloud Nuclear Plant", "Bamboo Forest Village", "Town of the Rising Sun" and "Polluted Sky Factory", to name a few). There are over 300 locations, all of them with a proper name.

* CoolPlane: The Panauan Military Air Force has some obviously Sukhoi-inspired, rather impressive-looking, and clearly "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_generation_fighter_aircraft fifth generation]]" fighter aircraft at it's disposal, present in at least one of their major airbases - and there are about seven military airfields total - though one of those is merely the national airport after being locked down by the military. Most airbases, however, tend to field late third/early fourth generation aircraft... namely VTOL-less Harriers.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Alexander Mirkov is a dead ringer for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Valuev Nikolai Valuev]].

* GottaCatchThemAll: Horrible, horrible offender. In the 400 square miles of Panau to explore, there are about 300 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 (also helpfully pointed out on the map once they're available) and 100+ 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), and you're going to be in it for the long haul. There's a reason the strictest achievement only requires you to get 75% of it.

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 XboxLive Gold members for the first half of June 2015. On PC, a multiplayer mod was released on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} in 2013.

The first sequel to ''Just Cause'', Rico is a few years older and has been assigned to track down his mentor and superior from the first game, who has disappeared on the Southeast Asian island of Panau, which has recently been taken over by a ruthless dictator. Various improvements have been made to the gameplay, allowing for even more over-the-top shenanigans. Rico can now use his grapple to attach to any object, pull enemies off their feet, tether them to various objects, and essentially use it for all manner of physics-based stunts and proving that [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential it's a bad day to be a henchman]].

* SpritePolygonMix: The grass on trees are flat sprites when viewed from afar; it's usually not too obvious unless you're flying in a helicopter over a forest, in which case the trees will visibly rotate as you pass them.

* OnlySaneMan: Panay wants to exploit Panau's massive oil fields to build a superpower military. The Russians, Chinese, and Japanese want the oil for economic strength. The US wants the oil for continued global domination. Realizing the madness of it all, Rico simply [[spoiler: blows the oil fields to holy hell]].

* NoEndorHolocaust: [[spoiler: Rico's nuking of Panau's central oil field should more or less guarantee that everyone in the country would die of radiation poisoning within a few weeks, along with everyone who should've died in the initial blast. Everyone seems content to sample Tom's [[RunningGag succulent pig]] while the mushroom cloud glitters in the night sky, and not bring this up at all.]]

* CriticalExistenceFailure: Applies to settlements: You can blow up 97% of a base, and as long as that little generator 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.

** [[OverlyLongGag Or that]] "White Tiger" does not exist, [[NoExceptYes and that he will be painfully executed once he is finally captured.]]

* AirborneAircraftCarrier: [[IncrediblyLamePun The Mile High Club]], which is essentially a luxury cruise ship with wings and engines suspended from a [[FreudWasRight pair of massive zeppelins,]] possesses a small helipad, and a rear hangar for a single jet aircraft. Planes don't so much ''take'' off... it's more ''fall'' off, and pull up before you hit the ground. Fortunately, as the name implies, it is ''very'' high up. Don't bother trying to land on it with any kind of plane, of course.

* TheRemnant: In one mission, you're tasked with traveling to a supposedly cursed island to find a plane that the Ular Boys had recently lost contact with. You fly to the island only to [[spoiler:have your plane shot down by a giant EnergyWeapon. It turns out the island is filled with really, ''really'' old Japanese soldiers who are still fighting WWII, and had built the giant EMP tower to win the war... [[BadAss You make short]] [[StuffBlowingUp work of it]].]]

* ColorCodedArmies: The white star logo on buildings, which only really serves as a giant "please destroy me" sign.

The second game's UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 version was available for free to [=PlayStation=] Plus subscribers, and later the UsefulNotes/{{Xbox 360}} version became free for XboxLive Gold members for the first half of June 2015. On PC, a multiplayer mod was released on Steam.

* AccentUponTheWrongSyllable: Bolo Santosi (or bo-LO san-TOH-ZEEE if you will) is especially prone to this.

** Actually, EVERYONE in Just Cause 2 lightly suffers from this.

** The AI in the sequel enjoys beaching their own boats (often with [[MadeOfExplodium explosive results]]) and crashing them into each other. Additionally, soldiers wielding rocket launchers are willing to shoot you even if you're close enough to hug them even though they kill themselves in the process.

** It's not uncommon to see AI airplanes crashing into skyscrapers. The pilots make no attempts to avoid the crash whatsoever.

** In ''Just Cause 2'', there are a number of missions that require escorting an engineer through an enemy base so he can hack their systems. The engineer ''never'' takes cover, runs straight into groups of enemies, and stands around waiting to be shot. VERY frustrating on Hardcore difficulty.
** Civilian AI planes fly at a fixed altitude. A fixed altitude above sea level, that is, which means that they'll merrily fly right into the sides of high mountains without even attempting to avoid them.

* BattleshipRaid: The [[spoiler:atomic submarine]] near the end of Just Cause 2.

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Literally the first person we see killed in Just Cause 2 is the black guy in the helicopter Rico is in.
* BondOneLiner: Plenty in the sequel, when you blow up something big enough, like statues and pipe-lines.

---> [[{{Narm}} "Try to transport fuel NOW, you pipeline jerks!"]]
---> (Referenced in Just Cause 3 with the name of an achievement.)

* CarFu: The game ups the ante by allowing you to actually use a car as a weapon--A wrecking ball (tied to a helicopter) or a mobile bomb (leap out a car going at high speed and it ''will''

* CriticalExistenceFailure: Applies to settlements in Just Cause 2: You can blow up 97% of a base, and as long as that little generator 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.

* DudeWheresMyRespect: Notably averted with the 3 factions Rico sides with in the game. The Roaches, Reapers, and Ular Boys all respect and revere Rico as the incredible soldier he is.

* EvilVersusEvil: In Just Cause 2, 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]].
* EveryBulletIsATracer In Just Cause 2, almost every bullet has a bright yellow tracer trail.

* GameBreakingBug: In 2, the optional mission "Black Gold" has you destroying a gas rig. If you die during the mission with the rig partially destroyed, the destruction doesn't count, but the structures remain destroyed, making the both the mission and completion of the rig {{Unwinnable}}. Quitting and restarting restores the rig enough that you can complete the mission, but now the rig itself cannot be 100% completed. The only solution around this is to get 100% on the rig BEFORE you start the mission.
** It is actually impossible to get 100% completion in ''2'' without modding the game, because the game's completion list checks for items that were never fully implemented: One Agency mission is supposed to reward 6 resource items upon completion, but because of a bug does not, and one of the water towers that the game tracks is located in a village that was completely removed from the final game, water tower and all. Because of this, 99.67% is the closest a player can get to completing everything.

** Military bases often have a Gatling turret emplacement [[BuffySpeak thing]]. Rico can [[RemovableTurretGun rip the gun from its stand]], of course, but it has several drawbacks: his movement speed is decreased, he can't sprint or jump, he can't use the grappling hook, and he can't move while firing it. However, it's still good for tearing up enemy bases for two reasons: it has [[BottomlessMagazines infinite ammo]] and, unlike other examples of this trope, it actually has a Gatling rate of fire - point it at ''anything'', pull the trigger, and the target will be dead in about a second.

* GottaCatchThemAll: Horrible, horrible, offender. In the 400 square miles of Panau to explore, there are about 300 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 (also helpfully pointed out on the map once they're available) and 100+ 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), and you're going to be in it for the long haul. There's a reason the strictest achievement only requires you to get 75% of it.
* GrapplingHookPistol: Though it's more like a grappling hook gauntlet.

-->'''Panay''': Prepare to meet your demise at the hands of... ''my ninja''!
-->'''Rico''': I ''hate'' ninjas...

* MacrossMissileMassacre: [[spoiler:Baby Panay's rocket launcher]] in Just Cause 2. You can also do a little bit of this yourself with the Quad Rocket Launcher DLC.

* MustacheVandalism: In the sequel, you can do this to billboards of Baby Panay.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: In the “An Officer and a Hitman” mission in ''Just Cause 2'', you’re tasked by Razak with taking out a colonel. [[spoiler:After you take out the defences around his mansion, the colonel himself runs outside with a rocket launcher, and reveals himself to be slightly off. Once you’ve killed him, Razak comments on the fact that the colonel was a madman and commends you on a job well done, then continues reflectively:]]
--> '''Razak:''' [[spoiler:Although, I fear we may just have rid the military of a problem…]]
--> [[spoiler:They’re probably breaking out the champagne as we speak.]]
--> [[spoiler:[[OhCrap Damn]].]]
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Alexander Mirkov in ''Just Cause 2'' is a dead ringer for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Valuev Nikolai Valuev]].

* PatchworkMap: ''Just Cause 2'' suffers from this somewhat. One of the elements improved from the original is more varied terrain, with deserts, snowy mountains, and lush jungles...all contained on an island group slightly smaller than Oahu. The southern main island is mostly desert, despite directly bordering open ocean in some places, and the northern main island is mostly snowy and mountainous, with a snowline of about a thousand feet. In the summer. Less than a thousand miles from the equator.
** A few rivers also seem to have estuaries or deltas at both ends.
*** Here is a [[http://i.imgur.com/MRLIhoc.jpg map]], so you can see for yourself.

* QuicksandBox: Panau in ''Just Cause 2'' is so huge that even the developers agree it may be too big for some players to handle. Hence, the strictest collection achievement only requires you get 75% of the map. Pity the person who needs to hundred-percent driving all the vehicles, though!

* RegeneratingHealth: The second title combines this with the ol' medkit system; Rico can regenerate a fixed amount of his health, but any damage taken over that needs a medkit. It's like a less rigid version of the segmented health bar some other games use.
* TheRemnant: In one mission in ''Just Cause 2'', you're tasked with traveling to a supposedly cursed island to find a plane that the Ular Boys had recently lost contact with. You fly to the island only to [[spoiler: have your plane shot down by a giant EnergyWeapon. It turns out the island is filled with really, ''really'' old Japanese soldiers who are still fighting WWII, and had built the giant EMP tower to win the war... [[BadAss You make short]] [[StuffBlowingUp work of it]].]]

** DLC brings back [[BottomlessMagazines infinite reserve ammo]] revolvers from the first game as "Rico's Signature Gun", though it's not quite as good this time around - in addition to still being weaker than the normal revolver, it now has limited ammo and the only way to get more is buying it from the black market.
* [[BatmanCanBreatheInSpace Rico Can Breathe At High Altitudes]]: No, seriously. The stunt jump ability allows you to stand or hang off any airborne vehicle, including ''plane surfing''.

* SigilSpam: ''Just Cause 2'' has the government of Panau's symbol, a white star on a red background, everywhere. Items include electrical generators, oil tanks, water towers, propaganda trailers, gas stations and vehicles.
* SignificantAnagram: [[spoiler:Tom Sheldon]] goes by the alias "Sloth Demon" in the beginning of ''Just Cause 2.''

* SpritePolygonMix: The grass on trees in ''Just Cause 2'' are flat sprites when viewed from afar; it's usually not too obvious unless you're flying in a helicopter over a forest, in which case the trees will visibly rotate as you pass them.
* StuffBlowingUp: The easiest way to cause chaos in the sequel.

* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: After certain missions in the sequel, the government-run radio news station will broadcast increasingly ridiculous cover-ups for Rico's antics. After taking over an oil refinery ("where most of Panau's gasoline is refined from Bruneian sludge") for an organized crime syndicate, the station will [[HandWave dismiss claims of gunfire as "hearsay"]] and assure listeners that [[BlatantLies "no organized crime takeover has taken place"]].
** Or attempting to dismiss explosions at a nearby military base during a takeover was simply "[[AssPull a previously unknown volcano]] that was verified by government scientists" and that it [[HandWave "has since disappeared".]]

* AwesomeButImpractical: The fixed-wing military aircraft in the second game. Great for getting from one side of Panau to the other in a couple of minutes, but don't expect to do any fighting in them: actually using them to attack anything is so difficult as to render it almost pointless due to the speed such aircraft travel at, and the distance you have to actually fire them at to hit something without crashing into it is about 1 km out - not to mention they're not missiles, but just unguided rockets, of which it's been said that, were it not for gravity, they couldn't even hit the ground. Your best bet is to just spam rockets in the general direction of the target and hope at least one of them hits what you're trying to destroy. And even that is after all the trouble you go to hijack one, present in only rare and heavily guarded locations, and take them off while still under fire.

* BilingualBonus: One location in the second game - Awan Cendawan Nuclear Plant - translates to "Mushroom Cloud Nuclear Plant". How apt.
** In fact, pretty much ''every single location'' in the second game has a name that means something in Indonesian/Malay, and most of them are named like real locations would be (like "Bamboo Forest Village", "Town of the Rising Sun" and "Polluted Sky Factory", to name a few). There are over 300 locations, all of them with a proper name. How many developers would put effort into ''that''?

* BoomHeadshot: The second game keeps track of the number of headshots you make, rewarding 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.

* FragileSpeedster: Motorcycles in the second game explode if you so much as graze another vehicle at top speed.

* GatlingGood: Military bases in the second game often have a Gatling turret emplacement [[BuffySpeak thing]]. Rico can [[RemovableTurretGun rip the gun from its stand]], of course, but it has several drawbacks: his movement speed is decreased, he can't sprint or jump, he can't use the grappling hook, and he can't move while firing it. However, it's still good for tearing up enemy bases for two reasons: it has [[BottomlessMagazines infinite ammo]] and, unlike other examples of this trope, it actually has a Gatling rate of fire - point it at ''anything'', pull the trigger, and the target will be dead in about a second.

* GrapplingHookPistol: Though in the second game it's more like a grappling hook gauntlet.

* GunsAkimbo: Possible in the second game with smaller weapons. This somehow, awesomely, includes revolver-mechanism grenade launchers.
** Also possible in the first game, but only with the standard revolvers.

* MemeticBadass: In-universe for Rico in the second game. 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."]]
* MileHighClub: It's not a plane, but the second game has an airborne "gentleman's club" ''called'' the Mile High Club.

* PresidentEvil: Pandak "Baby" Panay in the second game.
* PressXToNotDie: The dreaded QTE is present in the second game, but they are relatively simple (press 1, 2, 3 or 4 in the correct order, or when they are displayed during hijacking) and do not require ridiculously fast reflexes, nor are you (usually) heavily penalized for failing. There are two types;

* RevolversAreJustBetter: The second game has one, as seen [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rya5camqUOo here]]. It possesses immense firepower when fully upgraded, and can shoot down a light helicopter with relative ease.

** Rico's standard guns in the first game were a pair of revolvers with [[BottomlessMagazines infinite reserve ammo]] - weak, but useful for saving ammo for your other guns. DLC for the second game brings them back as "Rico's Signature Gun", though it's not quite as good this time around - in addition to still being weaker than the normal revolver, it now has limited ammo and the only way to get more is buying it from the black market.

* RidingTheBomb: [[spoiler: The ending of the second game involves doing this. Repeatedly.]]

* SoftWater: Played straight in the first game. Averted in the sequel; a 10,000 foot fall into water will kill you just as dead as a fall into concrete - unless you dive in head-first. If you remember to do so it's possible to high dive from the altitude ceiling and only sink three feet.

* TankGoodness: Surprisingly, there are no tanks in the second game, but it makes up for this by having armored cars mounted with tank turrets. They're both relatively speedy ''and'' can take loads of punishment.
* TheAllSeeingAI: Doing anything that causes heat in the second game instantly alerts the guards to your current location, regardless of where the thing that alerted them actually happened. This goes even if you just detonated a remote charge from the top of a building on the opposite side of town.

* WeaponizedCar: The second game has several you can buy from the black market. DLC adds the Tuk Tuk Boom Boom, a tuk tuk with a {{BFG}} on its back.

* WhatMeasureIsAMook: Rico's speech at the end of the second game that the oil isn't worth dying over is a bit weird, considering the handy in-game counter will likely show that by this point he's killed well over 1000 enemy soldiers (plus a few hundred civilians, probably) while all along he had no real idea why he was even fighting.

[[redirect:VideoGame/JustCause]]