Just Cause Island Chaos, One Grappling Hook

San Esperito is a huge tropical sandbox: mountains, jungles, beaches, cities and villages spread over more than 250,000 acres, generated so the world loads without pauses. You play Rico, an operative sent by a secret US agency to bring down a corrupt government suspected of stockpiling weapons. The island is already on the brink, with factions fighting for power, and your job is to nudge it over the edge: play the factions against each other, incite rebellion, and build alliances with rebel forces and drug cartels. Missions come in story, side and bonus flavours, and you can drop any of them at any moment to just fly around the archipelago instead.

The real game is movement. There are over 100 vehicles across land, sea and air, and the store of stunts is generous: jump from vehicle to vehicle, parasail, skydive, base jump. From the third story mission you also get a grappling gun, though in this first game it only attaches to vehicles and sits in a weapon slot like any gun. That still means you can latch onto a helicopter, ride it into position, then bail out and parachute onto a speedboat. Sheldon and Kane, your two agency handlers, drop vehicles and intel when you need them, and flying is the recommended way to see the island.