It's no secret that Just Cause 3 is a massive game. From a purely statistical standpoint, it's one of the largest virtual worlds ever created - but numbers are just the start. Medici isn't just big, but it's filled with so many different pieces of destructible scenery that it's hard to calculate just how many different versions of the map could possibly exist.
Then again, every game has its limits - even virtual worlds can't go on forever. Just Cause 3 is no different...but, with a world as massive as Medici, players probably won't be running into the edges of the map anytime soon. Even so, we wanted to put Just Cause 3′s massive map through its paces - the world of Just Cause 2 seemingly went on forever, and with the power of next-generation hardware, it only makes sense that Just Cause 3 would feature an even larger world.
Long story short, we wanted to test the vertical and horizontal boundaries of the map: in other words, how tall and how wide the world map is. While we knew that the game world would have to come to an end at some point, what we found at the edges of Just Cause 3 was a genuine surprise:
Vertical Height
Anyone who played Just Cause 2 will remember how tall the world of Panau was. It was entirely possible to fly straight up for minutes at a time, until the islands looked like ants. Sure, there was no real reason to fly that high, but the fact that players could was still impressive.
From a purely vertical standpoint, Just Cause 3 can't really compete with its predecessor: players will hit the 'roof' of the world after roughly three kilometers, just a fraction of what was possible in Just Cause 2. Even when flying above the highest point in Medici, the world stops at a surprisingly short height: don't expect to get any extra room to maneuver just because you're flying over a mountaintop.
Granted, it makes sense that Avalanche Studios wouldn't want to spend any extra resources on something that players would likely never see or use - and Just Cause 3 still towers over just about every other game on the market today.
Horizontal Boundaries
If Just Cause 3′s vertical boundaries have left you disappointed, try flying in any cardinal direction. In all honesty, the 'horizontal' size of Medici is ridiculous: sure, you'll be staring at nothing but blue ocean and the occasional boat on your way to the edge of the world, but the fact that it's possible to fly for minutes on end before even getting close to the border is amazing.
As you can see in the video above, flying from the southern-most point on the map to the edge of the world in a high-speed helicopter took more than six minutes - compare that to Fallout 4, where it's possible to walk across much of the world map in roughly 20 minutes (if you don't stop to fight or explore, that is).
And while it's not as flashy (or horribly terrifying) as Grand Theft Auto V's shark-based kill-box, the sudden explosion at the edge of Just Cause 3's world is the perfect sendoff for anyone willing to make the trip.
After seeing the sheer size and scale of Just Cause 3, it's hard to imagine that games could get much bigger. Sure, MMO worlds feature full-on continents, but that's usually only after a few expansions - compared to more traditional open-world games, Just Cause 3 is gargantuan.
For more on Just Cause 3, take a look at our early hands-on impressions with the game!
