The game stars Rico Rodriguez, one of the Agency's main operatives, who arrives at Panau, a fictional dystopian island nation in Maritime Southeast Asia, with the goal of overthrowing the evil dictator Pandak "Baby" Panay and confront his former mentor, Tom Sheldon. The game's gameplay revolves Rico fighting against hostile militants with guns, as well as the use of the grappling hook, which gives players the ability to tether objects to each other and slingshot into the air with a parachute. The game introduced the Chaos System, in which players must complete missions, and destroy government properties in different parts of Panau to gain Chaos points.
The game was developed as the team thought that the first game is a missed opportunity, and wanted to improve it. The team analyzed various parts of it and worked to refine them. As a result, mission design, artificial intelligence, and most core gameplay mechanics were overhauled. The world of Panau was inspired by places like Hawaii and New Zealand, and was considered as an excellent location for an action game by the team. The team worked with Square Enix London Studios while developing the game.
Announced in 2007, the team released a demo for the game, which attracts 2 million players. Upon release, the game received generally positive reviews with players. Critics praised the game's gameplay, open-ended nature, stunts, world design and graphics, while criticizing the game's story, gunplay and mission design. The game's sales exceeded its original projection, selling 6 million copies worldwide. The game was supported with downloadable content upon release, and a multiplayer fan project that was eventually approved as an official add-on. A sequel, Just Cause 3, was released in late 2015.
