Just Cause 4

Just Cause 4
Developer(s)	Avalanche Studios
Publisher(s)	Square Enix
Engine	Avalanche APEX
Resolutions	640x480 - 720x400 800x480 - 800x600 832x624 - 1024x600 1024x768 - 1152x872 1280x720 - 1280x768 1280x1024 - 1360x768 1366x768 - 1400x1050 1440x900 - 1600x900 1680x1050 - 1920x1080 Up to 4K
Platforms	PS4, Xbox One and PC (Steam and Epic Store)
Release Date(s)	Click to see full size. It was launched on the "Epic Store" in early 2020.
Genre(s)	Open world action sandbox
Mode(s)	Single player
Ratings	PEGI 18, ESRB M 17+
Media	Consoles: Downloads and disks. PC: Steam and Epic Store.
Input Methods	Controller / keyboard and mouse
Languages	English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Arabian, Brazilian, Portuguese, Russian, Korean (interface only), Chinese (simplified) (interface only), Chinese (traditional) (interface), Polish (interface only)

Just Cause 4 is the fourth game in the Just Cause game series.

Info summary

Quotes from the Square-Enix site:

"Welcome to Solis, a huge South American world home of conflict, oppression and extreme weather conditions.
Just Cause 4 sees rogue hero Rico Rodriguez land in Solis to hunt down the truth about his past, at any costs.
Strap into your wingsuit, equip your fully customizable grappling hook, and get ready to bring the thunder!"

"Soar through the skies with your wingsuit - Skydive, Base Jump and Free Dive with no limits!
Fight your enemies under extreme weather conditions, including treacherous tornadoes and tropical lightning storms, taking the iconic Just Cause action to insane new heights.
Use extreme weather events to your advantage thanks to never seen before in-game physics."

"Spearhead the rebellion and defeat the Black Hand, a hi-tech private military organization.
Face off against Gabriela Morales – your most fierce, capable, and unpredictable adversary yet.
Uncover the truth of Rico’s father’s past life on Solís’ and its extreme weather."

"Explore the remote South American country of Solís, home of conflict, secrets, and danger.
Enjoy 1024 square kilometers of exotic playground, from rainforest to desert, via snowy mountain peaks.
Discover a plethora of wonders as you explore the world of Solís from bustling cities to rural grasslands."

Quote about the Gold edition of the game from Amazon:

"Rogue agent Rico Rodriguez journeys to Solís, a huge South American world home of conflict, oppression, and extreme weather conditions. Strap into your wingsuit, equip your fully customizable grappling hook and get ready to bring the thunder! Gold Edition Includes: just cause 4 - full game; neon racer Pack which Includes the following DLC items - neon racer Supercar: blitz around in your very own modified Supercar with boost Valve on tap. You'll be the fastest thing in Solís; neon racer wingsuit: race across the skies with this unique neon design; neon racer parachute: drift over the Clouds at speed with this unique neon design; expansion pass - unlock access to each of the three expansions upon their release. More details on the expansion episodes will become available when the game is released; Golden Gear Pack - contains the coveted Golden Gear shotgun Featuring ricochet tracer secondary fire, plus the Golden Gear wingsuit and Golden Gear parachute; digital Deluxe content - fight back against the Black hand with their own technology! Includes special Black hand DLC weaponry: Black hand stealth micro JET: special aircraft with retractable wings and experimental stealth Optic camouflage; Black hand prototype weaponized wingsuits: the Black hand's secret weapon - this prototype wingsuit features boost technology and enhanced Missile weaponry. 24Hr early access - enjoy just cause 4 before everyone else does!."

Just Cause 4 was officially announced by Square Enix at the Xbox E3 conference on June 10th. The game was released on December 4th, 2018.

This is the sequel to Just Cause 3, released in 2015, three years and three days prior to the release of this game.

Should there be a Just Cause 5, that game would likely be the sequel to this game.

Setting and plot

The new nation is Solís and it's located in South America. The game takes place after the events of Just Cause 3.

Rico travels to Solís to discover the truth about the circumstances of his father's death. Rico's mother was from Medici and his father was from Solís.

Solís is the homeland of the Black Hand, and as such, they rule Solís with a very militaristic regime. The Black Hand has also become an even more powerful enemy as they have obtained advanced weather-manipulation technology from the eDEN Corporation (Downloadable content for Just Cause 3) and continued to develop it themselves.

See this for anything achievement related.

Having arrived at Solís, Rico will start his own rebellion, called the Army of Chaos, to overthrow the Espinosa Dynasty rule and to fight the Black hand and start the Solino Civil War. The Black Hand itself is commanded by Gabriela Morales, who believes herself to be similar to Rico and that Rico is dangerous because of their similarity.

Rico helps an archaeologist named Javi Huerta uncover the truth about the history of Solís and about the Espinosa Dynasty (who have been a central part of the history of Solís). There's evidence of many crimes and cover-ups.

It has also been explained in the "Just Cause 4: All About Narrative [ESRB]" trailer that the storyline is now more broken up and less dependent on missions. The player is no longer expected to get all mission/story information from cut-scenes. Instead, the player learns a lot of the story information from exploring the environment and piecing the information together. Also, this time it won't be completely clear who is "good" and "bad", because of the layered intentions of the factions. See the Category: Just Cause 4 Missions for a list of all missions.

The plot thickens a lot as The Agency becomes a new enemy by the end. Details would be a major spoiler (see missions Operation Thunderbarge and Operation Illapa) and this will be expanded upon in one of the expansion packs later. At the end of the storyline Rico and Tom Sheldon team up to take down The Agency.

Returning things and new game features

General gameplay:

• Rico Rodriguez is making his 4th return.
• The Black Hand is back, this time as the main antagonist.
• The Agency returns to be spoken of in several missions and will make an appearance in the third and final DLC, known as "Danger Rising".
• Enemy AI is noticeably more intelligent.
• The heat system is back, except without an obvious heat level.
• Like previous games, very little weapons (or sources of damage) can 1-hit-kill Rico, most notably the RG-PBA 9 Railgun, large explosions from sphere tanks or large missiles and lightning strikes. Wingsuiting into a wall or falling still kills him.
• Chaos points or at least some kind of a chaos-based progress system will return. The player will need to cause chaos to make people admire him, to make them join his cause - the Army of Chaos.
• There are 4 types of storms that affect aircraft and destroy things on the ground - Tornado, Sandstorm, Thunderstorm and Blizzard/snowstorm (that also has lightning strikes).
• The game does not have loot boxes or microtransactions.
• See also:
  • Just Cause 4 100% completion list.
  • Just Cause 4 General gameplay tips.

Equipment:

• His arsenal like his grappler, parachute and wingsuit will be returning.
• The grappler now has a lot more features and is customizable. All these can be customized to lift, pull, or push as hard as the player wants.
  • The rocket boosters will make a return, but in the form as a mod for Rico's grappling hook. Previously a feature of the GE-64.
  • A new feature that comes into the game is Airlifters. They are balloons that are attached to any tether to the grappler and have different settings like inflating and float above 15 meters, 20 meters, follow where you're pointing or have it follow the character.
• Freely walking on top of vehicles returns. It seems like Rico's movement on vehicles is not as limited as they were previously, so the player can now basically grapple on to almost every part of a vehicle (e.g. hanging off the side of a plane).
• Weapons now have this new ability called Secondary Fire, as an alternative way of how the weapon handles and fires.
• See also: Category: Just Cause 4 Weapons.

Mission structure:

• Bigger storyline missions are called "operations". Each "biome" (climate zone) has its own set of storms and main missions about investigating them. It's possible to do these missions parallel to each other, without having to finish one region first. Each set of operation missions tells a part of the story and they all work towards the same story conclusion.
• There are also "region strikes" that are mainly about destroying or taking over key areas.
• There are sidemissions as well. Completing them will unlock mods for the grappler.
• Random Encounters are back.

Vehicles:

• See Category: Just Cause 4 Vehicles.

Game editions and DLC

Main article: Downloadable content for Just Cause 4.

There were several editions available for pre-order.

Unlike with JC3, there didn't seem to be a disk edition of the PC version. Looking hard enough, it was possible to find at least 1 site that lists a PC DVD version, but all other sites have JC4 listed as a "download", or as a "Steam code". The console versions, however, were pictured as the box/disk version at most online stores.

See the Downloadable content for Just Cause 4 article for a full list of pre-order bonuses and other minor DLCs. Most pre-order items have been released as separate DLC.

Expansion Pass

The game will have 3 expansion packs (similarly to Just Cause 3 expansions) called "Dare Devils of Destruction", "Los Demonios" and "Danger Rising".

See Downloadable content for Just Cause 4 for full info about the expansion packs.

PC system requirements

Originally Steam listed the DirectX as 11.1, but this was later changed to just 11. At the same time, they removed 4K requirements completely.

Minimum

• OS: Windows 7 SP1 with Platform Update for Windows 7 (64-bit versions only) As of 2020.04.20 this was changed to Windows 10.
• CPU: Intel Core i5-2400 @ 3.1 GHz | AMD FX-6300 @ 3.5 GHz or better
• RAM: 8 GB
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 (2GB VRAM or better) | AMD R9 270 (2GB VRAM or better)
• DirectX: 11
• HDD/SSD: 59 GB

Recommended

• OS: Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)
• CPU: Intel Core i7-4770 @ 3.4 GHz | AMD Ryzen 5 1600 @ 3.2 GHz or equivalent
• RAM: 16 GB
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (6GB VRAM or better) | AMD Vega 56 (6GB VRAM or better)
• DirectX: 11
• HDD/SSD: 59 GB

4K requirements (outdated)

• OS: Windows 10 (64-bit Fall Creators update)
• CPU: Intel Core i7-7700 (3.6 GHz or higher) | AMD Ryzen 5 1600X (3.6 GHz or higher)
• RAM: 16 GB Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
• DirectX: 11
• HDD/SSD: TBC

Glitches and patches

Main articles: Just Cause 4 Bugs and glitches and Just Cause 4 Patch history.

Trivia

• This game has many firsts for the game series as a whole:
  • This game has more languages (voice acting and subtitles) than any other Just Cause so far.
  • This game is the first game in the series to not have standalone grenades and pistols.
  • With approximately 108 missions including DLC, this game features the most missions in any Just Cause game, with more missions than the previous three games combined.
  • This game is the first to not have an obvious heat system.
• Several of the Vehicles in Just Cause 4 are nearly identical to their Just Cause 3 counterparts, but they've been renamed.
• Some several rumors and leaks indicated that JC4 was in development several years before the official announcement on June 10, 2018. See the Archive of Just Cause 4 news about them.
• Robert Meyer, a developer for JC4, revealed in an interview in November 2018 that he had been working on JC4 for 3 years.
• One of the writers for the story is Nick Giovannetti.
• It has been reported that the Xbox One version of the game is about 45 GB. The PC system requirements list it as 59 GB. Downloading the gold edition from Steam takes 50.2 GB for the initial download and possibly more for the additional content.
• It's unclear if a retail (disk) version exists for the PC. The PC disk version is at this point a myth.
  • Originally promotional materials that showed the game boxes showed boxes for all 3 versions. Oddly the "box" of the PC version has "Steam" written on it, confirming that the PC version only comes on Steam. These 3 boxes were just CGI.
  • In later trailers, the end scene was changed to only showing boxes for the console versions. Steam was normally marked at the bottom of the page, below the boxes.
  • All official sources for where to buy the PC version only direct to Steam.
  • Then on 2018.11.14, there was a confusing post on the official Just Cause Facebook page that had a picture of a stack of game boxes of each version, including a PC DVD.
  • All internet searches for a Just Cause 4 retail version only show options for a "CD key" for Steam.
  • There is 1 online store in India that seems to be selling a PC DVD version of JC4 and they even show a box cover. However, that box cover seems more CGI rather than a photo of a physical box.
• As explained in one of the below videos dedicated to this subject, the developers are aware of how poorly Just Cause 3 performed at first (reported here and here), until several patches improved it. This time they've reworked how the game stresses the CPU and are confident that it'll run better.
• The PC version of the game has been improved importantly: The game now safely minimizes when pressing the Windows logo key. JC2 and JC3 don't want to minimize and when JC3 is forced to minimize, it can become glitchy when maximized again. JC1 is fine to minimize on XP but refuses to do so on W7.
• It is almost impossible to get through the game without dying once.
  • There was once a glitch in Aeropuerto Scramble where at the end of the mission, you spontaneously die even if no damage is taken. This glitch seems to have been fixed in some patch.
  • The heat system in this game is significantly harder compared to previous games, and now that the heat has been updated as of some patch, it is extremely difficult for Rico not to die in combat.
• Similar to Just Cause 3, this game either does not have a dynamic day-night cycle or if it does than days are very long and the game always starts at a day. A few missions automatically set the time to night.
• While probably not intentional, this game and its theme of extreme weather are extremely similar to a movie called Geostorm, which also deals with extreme weather. In that movie, there is also a villain that wishes to harness extreme weather to make the United States the dominant superpower in the world.
• The game doesn't have a normal day/night cycle. Reportedly, days last about 2.5 hours and nights for about 20 minutes. This has resulted in some players never having seen an in-game night during their play sessions, outside of a few missions that reset the game time to night. The vast majority of missions are set at day and starting the game also resets time to day. This is something that the developers have addressed in a patch in August 2019. The patch makes nights longer and adds chairs where the player may sit to force the game to pass it's in-universe time faster.

Gallery

Artworks and other

Notice the ancient temple and the distant city.

Same but with out Rico.

As seen on Steam in June of 2018.

Concept art.

JC4 map with all locations.png

Map at the start of the game, after discovering all locations. Later the front adds a system of red and blue lines all over it.

This means that the developers have finished their work and the game is ready.

An about 60x80cm paper version was seen in the background of one developer interview.

Stack of game boxes.

End of an earlier trailer (3 boxes).

End of a medium trailer (2 boxes).

End of a later trailer (3 boxes again).

Does this actually exist? (Mythical PC DVD.)

Full-body motion capture.

Motion capture for Gabriela Morales.

1960s style poster.

1970s style poster.

1980s style poster.

1990s style poster.

2000s style poster.

2010s style poster.

Rico deaths statistic, published by the Just Cause official twitter on 2019.12.07.

Happy Holidays card from the Just Cause Team, posted on Facebook on December 24th, 2019.

<brclear=all/>

Screenshots

Rico escaping a jet on a motorcycle.

El Abismo - A settlement built into a bridge, giving a whole other meaning to the term "under a bridge".

Rico fighting helicopters in a jungle.

Soldier with heavy bodyarmor, similar to the Colonels and Black Hand titans from JC2 and JC3 respectively.

Wingsuiting over a military base.

Muscle car driving close to a tornado.

And she just had to blink at the exact moment the jets flew over her.

Note that the jets wings appear to be folded back, similarly to the F-14.

Some sort of snowmobile.

The closeup of a license plate on a muscle car seen in a Xbox E3 reveal trailer. Note the "4VA LNCH" license plate, meaning this could be a easter egg.

Rico's face.

Trains and railroads will be back again.

Quya city and the Moon.

Functional amusement park.

<brclear=all/>

Videos