Publisher Square Enix and Avalanche Studios have lifted the veil off of the appropriately fiery first trailer for Just Cause 3, which situates series protagonist Rico Rodriquez within a world of chaos.
Featuring enough explosions to keep even Michael Bay awake at night set against an almost melancholic, slowed down version of The Prodigy’s Firestarter, the footage sets the tone of the upcoming open-world threequel rather brilliantly. In taking the action to the sun-kissed beaches of the Mediterranean, Just Cause 3 will once again follow Rico as he does his utmost to topple a malevolent dictator known as General Di Ravello (who we assume is the one adorning the propaganda poster in the clip) and restore a sense of calm to the area.
But Avalanche is looking to create a sense of riotous fun within this trouble-in-paradise set-up. In keeping with the tradition of the franchise, the third numerical entry will place a heavy emphasis on player freedom, as you shoot, blast and hijack your way across the four corners of the game’s gargantuan, 400 square mile map.
Speaking to IGN, Avalanche Chief Creative Officer Christofer Sundberg outlined how the series has matured, despite the fact that Just Cause 3 embraces the silly chaos like few others. Here’s what the executive had to say in relation to bringing development to the studio’s American office in lieu of its native Swedish dev team.
“It needed to have a set of fresh eyes on it. Just Cause has always performed better in Europe than it has in the US, so I think it can benefit from being developed in the US. It was a perfect match. Just Cause 2 was a little rough around the edges, but now I think it’s really come together.”
Armed with grappling hooks and just the right amount of firepower, Just Cause 3 will also allow intrepid explorers (or, rather, adrenaline junkies) to take control of a number of vehicles too, and going off of the recent screenshots, the studio is pushing to create a pixellated playground wherein the laws of physics is just a phrase.
Just Cause 3 is now slated to launch across PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC in the holiday of 2015. Now that the sequel’s maiden trailer is out in the open, we can expect to learn much more about Avalanche’s latest shooter in the lead in to E3 in June.