Once again, I jumped on
this game during a Steam sale... and it sat on my hard drive for 4
months before I got around to playing it. As I work through a backlog of
games I've bought, but haven't yet played, I can definitely say Just
Cause 2 stands out as something pretty spectacular. This is one of the
most - if not THE most - over the top games I have ever played. But
before I get into my reasoning, I'd better start with the basics.
When I said spectacular in the above paragraph, I wasn't kidding
Just
Cause 2 is an open world action game that shares some similarities with
Grand Theft Auto, or the Mercenaries series. The basic premise is that
you are an agent, named Rico, sent to the island dictatorship of Panau
to perform a mission for the US government. This means you need to
destabilize the Panauan dictatorship (complete with a Kim Jong-Il stand
in) by destroying as much of their property as possible and allowing
local factions to gain strength. I'll say this now, the storyline is
probably the weakest part of this game. The characters aren't very
interesting, believable, or even very well acted. The plot is slightly
better, if only because it's so utterly bad and crazy that you can't help but laugh at it. That said, I didn't find it particularly funny for that reason either...
Panau is huge, very huge; there's a lot of area to explore
Just
Cause 2 is a game that tries to evoke classic action movies from the
eighties. This might begin with having a ridiculous plot but it
continues with the setting and abilities you're granted. Rico is your
standard action hero, complete with regenerating health and the ability
to take a ton of bullets before dying. Rico can even survive dropping
multiple stories as though nothing happened. Where this becomes unique,
however, is how he gets around Panau. At any time you can use a
grappling line to grab onto pretty much anything and pull yourself
towards it. You can also, at any time, deploy a parachute to slow you
down if you're falling. These two tools seem simple but they work in
fantastical ways that, more often than not, completely defy the laws of
physics and allow for some hilariously awesome action to ensue. You can
even use the grappling hook to attach two different objects to each
other; for example, during a car chase you could attach an enemy vehicle
to the road and watch it flip out.
Getting around is as easy as hijacking the nearest, in-flight helicopter
The
grappling hook also allows you to latch onto other vehicles and ride
them by doing something called a stunt jump. Although completely
unrealistic, these crazy stunt poses are fun to use and cement the
game's feel as an utterly over-the-top 80's action extravaganza. The
game world itself, Panau, is a gigantic group of islands that is
approximately fifty kilometers from end to end. Although it's mostly
tropical (Ah, Commando) it also has some snow areas, deserts (Rambo
III), cities, and a lot of water. Within these areas are military
installations; ports, airfields, bases, and even offshore oil rigs are
all controlled by the military and are there for you to destroy. And
destroy you shall; in order to drive the story forward, you'll need to
earn 'chaos' simply by blowing up as many things as you possibly can
around Panau.
The action moves from base to base, with the occasional village or town in between
Because
the game's focus is set on destruction, the weak story becomes less of
an issue. You can carry 1 large weapon and 2 small ones around at a
time, and dual-wielding submachine guns is a fun option to have when
mowing down enemy troops. Driving full-force into a military base,
getting into a gunfight while totally outnumbered, planting explosives
everywhere, and blowing up fuel tanks is the core experience of Just
Cause 2; it works great. The number of options at your disposal, from a
straight up shootout to hijacking a fighter aircraft, allows for some
very creative ways to wreak havoc on your enemies. The controls to do
all this are fairly good, although flying aircraft and taking cover
aren't very precise and stand out as weak points when using a mouse and
keyboard. Missions themselves tend to be a bit bland in actual design,
and often repeat in terms of objectives, but most of the time you're
just blowing things up anyway and this flaw - although present - becomes
largely inconsequential.
If your computer can handle it, Just Cause 2 is one of the best looking games out today
Visually,
Just Cause 2 is nothing short of amazing. Although it's pretty taxing
when maxed, getting up into the sky will reward you with a pretty
incredible panoramic view of Panau. Jungles are really well detailed and
mountainsides look appropriately rugged. Water, both from above and
below, looks great as well. The vehicles aren't intricately textured but
they do have a simple, clean look that really works with the rest of
the game. They also exhibit a lot of external damage and are capable of
deforming after crashes or explosions, which as you expect happens a lot
in this game. NPC models are a little bit simpler still, with civilians
looking especially basic, but they work well enough to suit the game
and not stand out. Effects, and I'm mostly talking about explosions
here, are satisfyingly big and sound great. The rest of the sound
effects are serviceable, if a little basic, and most of the music is
pretty dull with a couple decent ambient tracks when exploring or
traveling.
The game's three factions all offer missions and allow
the opportunity for you to take over new strongholds for them. Agency
missions, which are how to complete the game, require a set amount of
chaos to be accumulated before they're available. Just doing the faction
missions won't be enough to unlock the next Agency mission, so causing
chaos on your own time becomes a pretty big part of the game. Going from
base to base and destroying stuff will not only earn you chaos, but
money as well. There's a black market (accessible anywhere out of
combat) that allows for the purchase of weapons, vehicles, or
site-to-site transport for a fee. Upgrades, found in crates around the
game world, can be redeemed in the black market for vehicles and weapons
to make you a bit more powerful as the game moves along.
Like the chicken and the egg, how this fighter jet got here will ever remain a mystery
In
the end, this game is basically a kind of action sandbox for the
player. There is no multiplayer whatsoever, which could be a turnoff for
some players. There is a story to follow, and there are "objectives" to
fulfill, but these are clearly secondary to the sheer act of
destruction and mayhem you know you want to cause. To this end, you're
empowered to perform ridiculous, mind-bendingly unrealistic stunts with
ease and inhabit a world where physics are pretty much on vacation.
You'll see a truck roll down a five-hundred foot hill and still drive
when it reaches the bottom. You'll see helicopters knock over trees and
keep on flying. And best of all, the enemy AI is so hellbent on your
destruction that you'll see them perform suicidal deeds such as driving
off cliffs or crashing head-on into civilian traffic.
This sense
of freedom, combined with the incredibly liberal and action-oriented
nature of the world, is the biggest strength the game offers. It's
something that makes it a very strong competitor in it's genre, despite
being derivative of other games in a lot of other areas. The size of the
world, the abilities of the player, and the sheer amount of havoc you
can create makes up for Just Cause 2's shortcomings and creates a very
memorable experience that justifies it's price. Even though it's
strictly a single-player game, it has a lot of content; I got just over
twenty hours of gameplay from my first play though, and apparently only
got 24% on overall completion rate. Just don't expect this game to be a
realistic experience, and if you do...
... take a look at the first screenshot again.
