Here’s some Steam Deck news that should make couch chaos fans smile: Just Cause 2 now has a free local 2-player split-screen mod, and the author has already playtested it on Steam Deck as well as PC. The V1.0 release dropped on 5 November 2026 from GitHub user TheSplitScreenGuy, and it lets a second player drop into Panau with their own Rico, camera and controls on the same machine.
I spotted it via u/Supamanly on r/SteamDeck, who shared the release with the community. Credit to them for surfacing it, and to the Deck crowd for keeping old open-world toys interesting. This is not a review of Just Cause 2 itself — it’s news about the mod, based on the GitHub README and that Reddit thread rather than my own hands-on session.
What the Just Cause 2 split-screen mod does
The project is TheSplitScreenGuy/JustCause2SplitScreen, with the V1.0 zip on the GitHub Releases page. It targets the Steam build of Just Cause 2 (app 8190) — Avalanche Studios / Square Enix, out since March 2010, full controller support, about $14.99 on Steam right now. GOG and retail disc builds are not supported.
Player 2 gets their own Rico in the bottom half of the screen, with their own camera, health, HUD and button prompts. They can run, shoot, grapple, parachute, drive, fly, hijack and use stunt positions. The world, terrain, roads and vehicles load around each player even when you are kilometres apart, and each half shows a distance marker to the other player. Pause, map, cutscenes and race intros go full-screen, then the split comes back. Player 2 can start and finish races alone. If Player 2 dies they respawn next to Player 1; if Player 1 dies, the game ends as usual. Missions, money, upgrades and progress stay on Player 1’s save — Player 2 is along for the chaos with Player 1’s gear.
Steam Deck news: install steps and a second pad
One download covers Windows and Steam Deck. On Deck you switch to Desktop Mode, browse to the Just Cause 2 install folder next to JustCause2.exe, and copy in dinput8.dll plus jc2ss.ini. Then set this launch option so Proton loads the mod instead of its own dinput8:
WINEDLLOVERRIDES="dinput8=n,b" %command%
Back in Gaming Mode, the Deck’s built-in controls are Player 1. Connect a second XInput pad for Player 2, load a save, wait for the “P2: press Start to join” hint, then hit Start on the second pad. Back + Start makes Player 2 leave. Without the second player joined, the game behaves like a normal single-player session.
Just Cause 2 is rated Verified on Steam Deck and Verified on Steam Machine in Valve’s compatibility report. Steam Frame has no rating yet, so I am not claiming Frame support. Deck’s report still notes that external controllers are not supported as the primary player — that lines up with this mod’s design, where the handheld itself is P1 and the spare pad is P2.
Steam Machine couch fit, half FPS, and known quirks
On a Steam Machine under the TV this is an obvious living-room pitch: a Verified sandbox action game, a free fan mod, and two pads on the sofa. It sits nicely next to other local multiplayer notes we have covered lately, like Tricky Madness getting 4-player split-screen and the broader Steam Deck news on community aspect-ratio mods. For another social pick on Deck and Machine, see Vibe Together’s multiplayer music sandbox.
Be honest about the cost of the split: each half draws every other frame, so a solid 60 FPS run becomes about 30 FPS per player. The README also asks you to use a fresh save, or one you do not mind messing up, because the mod changes a lot about how the game runs. Keep your main playthrough safe.
Known issues from the author include road pieces stretching into the sky (usually fixed by having Player 2 leave and rejoin), missing collision if you teleport the players far apart during a mission (reload the checkpoint), stray tree leaves for Player 2, infinite ammo on some P2 weapons, occasional inverted stunt controls, quieter traffic around Player 2 when you are far apart, and rare crashes after big explosions. F8 toggles a status bar; F5/F6/F9 are ammo refill, swap places and a cash cheat aimed at testing.
Who built it, and where to get it
The README is upfront that the DLL, reverse engineering and tools were written with Claude Code, Anthropic’s coding agent, while TheSplitScreenGuy directed the project and playtested every feature on PC and Steam Deck. That is how the author describes it — not a knock, just useful context for a V1.0 community mod. It is MIT-licensed for the mod code only, unaffiliated with Square Enix, Eidos, Avalanche or Anthropic, and you still need your own Steam copy of the game.
If you already own Just Cause 2 and have a spare controller, grab JC2Splitscreen.zip from the V1.0 release, back up a save, and try a short co-op hop around Panau. Report problems on the repo Issues tab with jc2ss.log attached. Store page for the base game: Just Cause 2 on Steam.
