Just Cause 3

Rico Rodriguez has his hands full in Just Cause 3, between taking down General Di Ravello and protecting his friends from the tyrant’s forces. That doesn’t mean that Rico is all work and no play, however. In addition to tackling the campaign and causing unscripted mayhem in the open world, players can also check out a variety of challenges. If you’re into upgrades, you’ll find they’re worth your time.

Rico is a powerful force when he arrives in his homeland of Medici. The island nation is under the control of a dictator, and it seems as though Rico offers the only real hope for salvation. As strong as he is, Rico can still stand to improve. One of the ways he can do so is related to rewards that can be unlocked by participating in challenges. I was able to check out four such challenges at Gamescom today, and I’m confident that my version of Rico is going to be all right.

Challenges have their own associated leaderboards, which let you rub your victories in your friends’ faces. A more tangible reward comes in the form of gears, the game’s upgrade currency. The better you perform a task, the more gears you earn, up to a maximum of five per individual challenge. From there, you can unlock a variety of upgrades, which act like mods. For example, you might earn the ability to put nitrous boosts in any available road vehicle – or even spring-like jumps. Rico himself can earn capabilities like a speedier reel-in time with his grapple, or steadier hands that let him fire a weapon while grappling. These can be toggled on and off instantly, so you’re not necessarily locked into tricked-out buses if you decide you don’t want them for whatever reason.

Two of the challenges were based on Rico’s wingsuit, which allows him to glide long distances at a respectable clip. Starting from a chopper, I had to fly through a long string of rings. It was my first time playing the game, and I was a bit apprehensive about the controls at first. I’ve played enough games with a similar gliding mechanic to know that they typically handle like dreams or nightmares. Fortunately for me, and my score, gliding was incredibly intuitive and responsive. You’re constrained by gravity (or at least Just Cause 3’s generous version of it), so you can’t dart around like a missile in flight. If I overshot or understeered a ring, particularly the high-scoring center ring, I couldn’t instantly recover. After flying for a few seconds, however, I had a sense of the controls to the point where I was able to get 4/5 gears. If I had a friend who managed to get five gears, I could import her ghost into the game and play alongside it, so I could see just how exactly she was able to pull off such an impressive score.

Flying through rings doesn’t sound like the most imaginative challenge, but the addition of combo chains and rewards for accuracy and flying low to the ground provided some much-needed urgency to keep it interesting. There are also multiple paths in the gliding challenges, which could give players a reason to come back to those mission types. Perhaps a different route would have let me earn that additional gear.

Continue on to page two for info on more destructive activities.

Gliding is fine, but I’d reckon that most Just Cause 3 players are in it for the destruction. I was able to try a pair of challenges out that were designed with one thing in mind: giving Rico props based on how much property he could destroy within a time limit. Sold.

The first one I tried started me out near a compound within a few steps away from a tank. Hopping inside, I rolled toward the structures, waiting for the perfect time to start my rampage. Once I fired the first shot, the clock started. Time stalled when I kept my combo meter going, but I found that easier said than done. There was a bounty of targets in the beginning, but those resources proved to be scarce. With only so much to blow up in this challenge, success depends on knowing the map and chaining together your shots as effectively as possible. I can blame the tank controls, which were quite clunky, my unfamiliarity with the map, or some other external force, but ultimately I know it’s my fault I was only able to scrape together 2/5 gears after several tries. 

I did much better in my final test, thanks in large part to some inside info from a helpful developer. The other destruction-based challenge in the demo placed Rico at the top of a satellite tower, surrounded by antennas and other communications equipment. I was lucky to have an RPG with unlimited ammo, and I took a stop-and-pop approach as I made my way around the tower’s railing. It worked – the radio antennas collapsed with a satisfying groan after a few shots – but I ran out of targets after the big ones were downed.

I jumped down and activated my chute, hoping to pick off a few things I couldn’t see from my previous vantage point. I was able to find a few such targets, but I also smacked into the side of a cliff and wasted the rest of the time that round trying to get back to a serviceable vantage position. That’s when the helpful dev told me that I should start my next attempt with an eye toward grabbing a helicopter. I did, and she said not to waste my time picking things apart with the minigun. Instead, I flew to the center of the massive shooting gallery and used one of Rico’s fancy new moves – a grip where Rico hangs from beneath a chopper’s belly like a sleeping bat. 

From my new position, I had a steady platform for firing rockets, with an obstruction-free view of my surroundings. Compared to my previous attempt, this strategy made success an absolute breeze. Four out of the five gears were mine when it was over. I’d complain about getting ripped off, but it’s nice to have something to aim for when I get the game home.

You can check out more on Just Cause 3 in our coverage hub. The game is headed to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on December 1.