I'll be frank. The original Just Cause was extremely advanced for the time, allowing for vertical gameplay, an absolutely MASSIVE world map, capture-the-territory regime change mechanics, car stunts and a politicized CIA story archetype which is pretty distinctive in its conceptualization by Avalanche Studios. I originally played this game for the Xbox 360 at a friend's house and was completely blown away by the freedom the game afforded, its solid controls and its then-gorgeous graphical detail.
The PC port does it a disservice by being so janky. I personally believe it's almost impossible to advance in the game because the vehicular and combat controls were originally designed for the 360 version and were then effectively rebound to a mouse and keyboard as the only change... this makes the entire game feel stiff and hard-to-adapt-to when you're actually playing it.
Combine this with numerous graphical, AI, UI and other kinds of issues (Regular crashes to desktop? Really?) and you have, without hyperbole, what is one of the worst PC ports I have ever seen. I would gladly recommend you play this game, just not this version of it. It's overpriced at $6.99 unless you really don't care about it being playable and only want to collect it.
If you loved Just Cause 2 and want to harken back to the genesis of the franchise, go do yourself a favor and pick up the Xbox 360 version. Maybe that's mostly nostalgia talking (I have yet to have bought the 360 copy for myself after all this time), but you have a far greater chance of beating what is an ultimately good game hampered by an awful port.
Oh yeah, and you can't do 16:9 in this game either. Yep. At least the PS2 version (also flawed, but much easier to play) had an excuse, being a last-gen port.
Originally written January 22, 2015 on Steam