Just Cause 4 | Releases December 4, 2018

Just Cause 4 is an upcoming action-adventure game developed by Avalanche Studios and published by Square Enix. It is the fourth game in the Just Cause series and the sequel to 2015's Just Cause 3 and is scheduled to be released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on December 4, 2018.

Just Cause is an action-adventure video game series created by Avalanche Studios. The series consists of Just Cause, Just Cause 2 and Just Cause 3, with Just Cause 4 being announced at E3 2018. The games are open world and take place in tropical environments.

The series draws its name from the real-life United States invasion of Panama, code-named "Operation Just Cause".

Just Cause 4 is a third-person action-adventure game set in an open world environment. The player assumes the role of series protagonist Rico Rodriguez.

The game is set in a fictional South American country called Solis. Rico Rodriguez takes on the recurring paramilitary group the Black Hand, run by a woman named Gabriela.

Just Cause 4 is being developed by Avalanche Studios and published by Square Enix. The game is being developed with a new version of Avalanche's Apex game engine. The new technology allows the game to have diverse and extreme weather effects including blizzards, sandstorms, tornadoes and more. Developers of the game noted that improvements had been made to the game's artificial intelligence over Just Cause 3. These changes were intended to make non-player characters smarter so that they behave more tactically and pose more of a threat to the player. Other improvements to the game engine include physics-based rendering and a new animation system.

Just Cause 4 promises the thrill of wingsuiting through a tornado strong enough to pick up large aircraft, but it also allows us to reconsider what project the game’s gleeful destruction aims to fulfill. Put otherwise, what does it mean for a series that has always been about reclaiming territory from tyranny and rampant industrialization to come into conversation with trends in global climate change? How does blowing up red barrels take on a particular significance in the age of extreme climate disasters?

Just Cause 4 hasn't just thrown the violence of climate change into sharp relief in its handful of trailers and gameplay features – it’s shoved the cataclysmic reality of extreme weather in our faces with characteristic bombast. Whether or not Avalanche’s ambitious weather systems signal a new wave of similarly climate-oriented games remains to be seen. But the spectacular violence of climate change (real or simulated) is abundantly clear, and like the title of Naomi Klein’s recent book on climate change and global capitalism – this changes everything.