Just Cause.

The first Just Cause arrived in 2006. Avalanche Studios describes it as the start of the series and an open-world action game starring Rico Rodriguez; Square Enix remembers the original for its mix of parasailing and explosions. That is a pretty good two-line summary of the pitch.

What makes the series interesting as a game-design idea is the emphasis on movement and improvisation. The map is not just scenery between missions: the fun is finding a route across it, then seeing what happens when a plan meets a helicopter, a cliff, or a very optimistic parachute landing. This is a release-history note, not a claim about a particular playthrough.

Sources: Avalanche Studios on the original game · Square Enix on the series’ first decade.