This is the story of a prequel game. This is a part of fiction by GMRE.
Another one of my old projects that I kept at my user blog at the Just Cause Wiki.
Plot[]
Introduction[]
How about a prequel game where we play as Tom Sheldon. Rico has only recently been recruited, so he's around, but makes stupid noob mistakes. He'd be in the comedy role of Mario. Maria would be an even newer recruit (on her first mission) and during this game they become close (as established during the early JC1 missions) to add even more character development to the already complex story...
Most of the game[]
So there's like this civil war (doesn't really matter what fictional nation it is) between confusingly many factions with possibly confusingly complex motivations and plans. At first the Agency is sent there to do some secret operations to try to contain the mess and help the pacifistic and weak republic. During this stage, the player gets to control each of the characters to do different sidemissions, but later they begin to specialize more and storyline missions allow the player to actively switch between them to utilize their unique skills in combat. At first it seems that peace could be achieved and the game is basically just about stunts and stealth missions, but as the story progresses, the war ramps up. The factions are obtaining increasingly powerful weapons from unknown foreign investors. This results in large battles with armored vehicles, helicopters and with massive artillery strikes and missiles that flatten whole towns. It becomes increasingly obvious that the Agency lacks the resources to fight a full war. Tom tries to call for backup multiple times, but instead, he's pressured by the higher ups that because the US military is still busy at Kuwait, they can't really afford two land wars at the time, especially because it looks like a full invasion of Iraq might just happen soon (at the time the world did really expect the US to conquer all of Iraq). At the same time, a large percentage of Agency... well agents... decide that because the cold war just ended and they know there's gonna be major budget cuts that would likely lay off most Agency members (if not even close the Agency), it would be better if they go rouge and into private business for themselves. They even invite Tom and his small crew to join their treacherous plot. It seems that all is lost with the former paradise nation now in a full war (with in-game active warzones at faction borders), the Agency mostly gone and with major budget cuts over the horizon, no hope for backup and Tom with his crew running very low on supplies. In a cut-scene Tom seems to be considering joining the traitors, but then he hears Rico and Maria discussing the situation. They're both inexperienced and naive rookies and still optimistic. Tom decides then to stay with Uncle Sam and suddenly takes matters into his own hands. Previously he got all orders strictly from above, but now he lies to the junior agents (the lying is only obvious to the players, the rookies suspect nothing) and makes up missions for them. The new plan is "officially" "to spare the local civilians and end the war". To do this, Tom looks at a map (rookies standing near him) and the player has to decide which faction to support. The idea is that which ever faction the player chooses, Tom would make up some reason why that faction is "clearly more righteous than the others" and why they should help them, because the republic government has by now been wiped out in the war. In the rest of the game Tom and co' would be doing missions to help the one faction win the war as soon as possible and doing diversions to minimize casualties. Like for example, blow up a bridge (with civilians still on it (yes, this would be a pretty dark game with this kind of choices)) to hinder the progress of an advancing army to stop them from entering a city that they plan to burn to the ground. By the way, as mentioned above, the civilian death toll is already high with multiple large settlements destroyed. Maybe we could also hear from the radio in some cut-scene that the UN has set up sanctions against the defunct dead government to make them minimize casualties and to call for peace. In the same shot the "camera" turns to the windows to show a massive battle with all types of vehicles and the whole settlement in ruins. This is to illustrate to the player that the UN is too slow and to help explain why the Agency is needed. Anyway, back to the story. Once the faction wins, there's a major military parade in the largest city (which is also damaged-looking) and the factions leader is thanking Tom for his aid. It's obvious to the player and to Tom that in order to save countless lives they just set up an oppressive dictatorship. Meanwhile Rico and Maria are still oblivious to any wrong-doing. They return home to Agency HQ.
Game over. Or is it?[]
They're greeted by someone who "brings them up to speed" about the Agency having lost most field agents and all communications equipment was sabotaged so they don't know what's going on. The Agency people also say that they thought Tom and co' had also gone rouge, or died in the war. It is at this point that Rico and Maria understand the situation, but they don't say anything. The Agency people continue to inform the crew that the government has decided to close the Agency for the epic fail and that the "higher ups" and their guards are already in the building to close the Agency and confiscate all assets. Rico and Maria begin to loudly argue with the Agency people to protest the situation, but are interrupted when the higher ups (never called anything more specific) walk in to tell them they're all fired and to turn in their stuff. Suddenly a guy runs in to inform of major bad news. Tom (and the player) already knew that the rouge agents are all in some common plot, but the "higher ups" (and the player) are only now notified that the traitors have started their own "sabotage and secret missions for hire" organization, which they call... dun dun dunn ...the Black Hand! The "higher ups" immediately label them "terrorists". (Up to now the game has only called them "traitors", or something.) In addition to that, there's news of a new nation in the world, run by a relatively evil dictator who they fear will be exactly the kind of guy to hire "those terrorists". At this point Tom quickly interrupts them and tells them that he had only just returned from a top secret Agency mission to that country and that him and his loyal crew had managed to do secret operations that minimized war casualties AND set up good relations with the dictator and that they could persuade him to choose Uncle Sam and the Agency over the Black Hand and maybe even to lighten up the regime. The "higher ups" are then like "Why didn't I know of this?! These Agency guys are not such fails at all." Then Tom continues to talk to them and negotiate more resources for the now reinstated Agency to help counter the Black Hand, because nobody knows those agents as well as him and the rest of the remaining Agency apparently and who else could counter them as effectively, knowing all their training? The "higher ups" mention that they do actually have a few trouble spots in the tropics and someone has to maintain the good relations with the secretive eDEN Corporation and other agencies are busy with other work... [At this point the camera begins to zoom out and fade out to the old Agency logo covering the screen.]
In this high detail the logo could have some additional inscriptions, like their moto and "Anno 1943", or something.
Roll credits.
Items seen in the game[]
- Scando Battle Tractor Mk.2 (comedic relief vehicle).