No multiplayer for Just Cause 2

Just Cause 2 lead designer Peter Johansson has revealed that the game will launch without multiplayer.

Instead, Avalanche Studios will focus on offering the best single-player experience it can and think about adding the ability to shoot your friends in the future.

"It would have been simple to just jump onto the multiplayer bandwagon, but in the end we decided on designing Just Cause 2 with the focus of delivering the best single-player free roaming experience," Johansson told Play.tm.

"It's likely that Just Cause will have multiplayer in the future but only when we believe we can deliver something truly new and exciting to the multiplayer community while retaining all the core values of the game."

Then again, the original made do without multiplayer and had no real need for it, and games like BioShock did the same. And Johansson is confident there will be enough to keep you occupied that you shouldn't need any other ways to elongate your game time.

"The game world is about 6400 square miles," continued Johansson. "We've concentrated on making the world full of fun, meaningful, and rewarding content.

"The time it takes you to complete the game will vary a lot since the game is so non-linear - it depends on what you choose to do to cause Chaos."

Chaos, if you remember, has been introduced instead of side missions. It underlines everything you do now and is caused by doing activities like killing important military officials or just making an explosive mess. Often these activities can help complete a larger goal, such as a mission to provoke a reaction from a rival faction.

Completing all 1000 or so of these activities should keep those of you after all the Achievements playing for a while, and Johansson is confident these will be fun and exciting.

Other key areas of Just Cause 2 are much more intelligent enemies and a cover-based combat system, and you should find your grappling hook and parachute much more useful this time around.

"The grappling hook is now integrated into an arm mounted gadget and both this and the parachute are always available at the press of a button," adds Johansson. "This means they are much more accessible and integrated into your basic movement and combat and play a central role in the missions."

Just Cause 2 is also only in development for new hardware, which has let developer Avalance let loose on visuals and physics and that sort of stuff.

It's due out sometime this year and is shaping up to be the adventure the original promised in 2006.

Head over to our Just Cause 2 gallery to see its brushed up graphics.