Renaissance Man
Standing on top of a snow-covered mountain, a ruined military base still smouldering behind me, my reward is a green smear on the horizon.
I explore in games. I’ll head off towards an interesting cluster of pixels to see what they resolve into. It’s a disappointing hobby, for sure, as games and developers rightly focus on the tangible awards. There’s usually not room to take into account curiosity.
Just Cause 2 is different. It’s full of little details: fly under a bridge in a plane and Rico will comment on how awesome you were. Manage to squeeze between bridge struts and an achievement pops up.
Just doing shit is how I found the object. I was in a plane, seeing how closely I could follow the ridge of a mountain, when I glimpsed a strange, segmented burst of colour below. I banked the plane and spun around, angling the camera to see below.
I smiled.
I looked at the map and memorised where to return to. The plane cost money, and abandoning it would be somewhat wasteful. Besides, this was an adventure for the daylight.
I decide to visit the next morning. You can just make out the marker, left of the sunset and the crosshair. 9 km away is the island with my goal. I figure if I start out now, using the parachute and grappling, I’d get there by sun-up. I also figured I’d accept any distraction, save for needless fighting, the game threw at me.
The sun recedes on the horizon. From up here, the full heft of the Just Cause 2 engine is on display. Shadows drip across the world below, the golden sun spilling a yellow bulge across the horizon. Something catches my eye.
An abandoned religious relic, stuffed in the trees away from the road. Just Cause 2 is clearly designed to be viewed from the air.
Night falls and the atmosphere changes. It’s more likely to rain at night, and the urban areas are easier to see. That glowing smudge is a city, probably big for most games, but it’s a tiny part of the Panau landscape. It feels close, but at gliding pace it’ll take a while to get there.
Wind turbines. There’s something I have to try.
Glurg. The grappling hook attaches Rico to any object in the game. The blades of the turbines are tricky to grab, but when you do you’re rewarded by a sickening merry-go-round ride.
The sun pops up. Do games need rewards other than a sight so spectacular it had me checking how many flight miles I had? Scores, numbers really, are too heartless. I don’t need to be +1 up; I just need to feel something.
The final approach. Over this hill, after 9km and a day/night/day cycle, the goal awaits. Excited? Nervous?
You can only yank your chute up so far before it the upward momentum is nommed by the god of gravity. Rico can easily climb, using his grappling hook to scale objects.
This is a game about regime change and explosions. You’ll fight a dictator, destroying huge buildings, killing innocents and the guilty alike. What could be down there?
A motherfucking hot air balloon.
Awesome!
Whee!
You prime the burners with “E”, and steer by running in the direction you want to go.
If you want to try, I’ve marked the location on the PDA.
