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Just Cause 4 Has Physics Like You’ve Never Seen Before
Avalanche didn’t just dial it up to 11. They rewrote the dial.
Just Cause 4 reminds me of Tim Allen’s old standup act, where he’d complain about a power tool in his yard or garage not having enough power, and then the punchline would be, “So I rewired it” with that animalistic grunt for a chaser. Just Cause has always been a potent sandbox -- a power tool in its own right -- rife with possibility for players to wreak untold havoc and destruction. But Just Cause 4 doesn’t just offer more ways to wreck shop. Instead, developer Avalanche Studios rewired the whole damn thing.
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There’s even a tornado!
And by that I mean they threw away their old game engine, which had been added on and upgraded to for years, and installed the bespoke APEX engine -- complete with physics-based rendering, actual wind, and a totally new animation system. And though I didn’t get to play it myself, I did see the team’s most recent build running in real-time on a PC, and it is no joke. When I sat down to see Just Cause 4, I expected more of the playground of destruction that the series is known for. But I honestly wasn’t expecting Avalanche to have taken it this far. There’s even a tornado! (More on that shortly.)
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A Metal Gear Solid-esque device that lets you stick balloons to your targets, which inflate shortly after impact, lifting giant shipping crates, cars, or yes, individual bad guys into the air.
After expertly parachuting and wingsuit-ing his way around Just Cause 4’s new fictional South American country of Solis to show off the beautiful, variety-laced setting, narrative director Omar Shakir perched atop a mountain. Flecks of pollen floated in the wind, the rising sun glinting off of it. The breeze then carried Shakir, playing of course as beloved Just Cause hero Rico Rodriguez, gently towards a bridge when he hopped off the mountaintop and opened his chute. Then the real fun began.
Just Cause 4 now has mods you can attach to your grappling hook. The Pulse mod, for instance, adds an electrically charged explosion when you stick your Retractor to things (the Retractor being the toy that lets you stick two things with a wire and then smash them together). How about attaching booster rockets to people so that they go spinning wildly into the air before exploding? There’s also the Air Lifter, a Metal Gear Solid-esque device that lets you stick balloons to your targets, which inflate shortly after impact, lifting giant shipping crates, cars, or yes, individual bad guys into the air. At which point, by the way, they are physics objects and can be grappled onto or otherwise toyed with.
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Just Cause 4 might have the most impressive large-scale physics system I’ve ever seen.
Shakir then took off and wingsuited his way behind a frontline -- basically, enemy territory. Avalanche wasn’t saying much about the story, other than it revolving around Gabriella, the leader of the Black Hand organization. Things get absolutely nuts behind the frontline, with fire coming from every which way, dozens of soldiers firing away at you at a given time, etc. Next came the grand finale of the demo: the tornado.
These massive weather events -- blizzards, sandstorms, and lightning storms are apparently also in Just Cause 4 -- are comprised of actual physics. So yes, things get sucked up into the tornado as they should, from random debris to cars to passenger jetliners. It’s a hell of a sight to behold, honestly. I’ve seen many games tout their physics in the past -- some of them even doing so impressively -- but I think Just Cause 4 might have the most impressive large-scale physics system I’ve ever seen. The Black Hand is evidently trying to keep the tornado from getting to the capital city, and for some reason Rico wants that to happen, so Shakir went around destroying several wind cannons that were keeping the twister at bay.
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It’s hard to overstate how impressive the tornado’s path of destruction is.
He could only do this, mind you, after doing a little stormchasing in the yellow armored vehicle known, fittingly, as the Stormchaser, which is the one vehicle you’re safe in near the storm. It’s hard to overstate how impressive the tornado’s path of destruction is. It ripped away parts of bridges, sent the rockets Shakir fired into it spiraling up into it and out the top, and seriously, watching it vacuum up 737s was pretty damn cool. It’s rare that we see a sequel in a well-known franchise throw out its tech, especially in the middle of a hardware generation.
I asked game director Francesco Antolini about it, and he told me, “We want to make our players happy. We didn't want to come to market with the same shortcomings that we did with Just Cause 3. We wanted to have something new.” I asked if the shortcomings of the console versions of the last game compared to the PC version helped seal the decision, and they acknowledged that it was one of their motivating factors.
The decision seems to be paying off handsomely in Just Cause 4’s initial showing, and the December 4 release date means we don’t have to wait too long. Tim Allen would approve.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews and Xbox Guru-in-Chief. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.