I play a lot of open worlds games. Something about them appeals to me, perhaps it’s because I love to get lost in a world. The genre is one that has only grown in popularity over the last few years and it’s one that has developed massively since Just Cause 2 was released over five and a half years ago. More importantly I played Mad Max from Avalanche, the same developers as those who created the Just Cause franchise. At the start of the year with both of these games scheduled for release relatively close together everyone picked Just Cause 3 as the star of the show and Mad Max was mostly ignored upon its release.
When Just Cause 3 was released it was almost universally (positively) reviewed on PC with console reviews coming later if at all. Some game review sites are transparent about the review platform others less so, but in this case it has become incredibly apparent why the console review copies for Just Cause 3 became available after the launch of the game.
Just Cause 3 is so plagued with technical problems on Xbox One that I feel I have to lead my review talking about them. Frame rates dip whenever an explosion occurs and stutters can happen at just about any time. Worse than that the load times are erratic and frustrating in the extreme. For some reason everything you do in Just Cause 3 is preceded by a load. If you do any mission or side activity within the open world you first have to be pulled from the world to then back load into it. It’s lazy and clumsy design and the load times make it unbearable.
You can be staring at the same repetitive and uninspired load screens from anywhere between ten seconds and five minutes. The worse thing is these protracted loads can affect any aspect of the game, be it a load into the open world or a load into a challenge course. Long loads for the challenge courses are particularly frustrating because you have to do them to unlock skills to further improve your various abilities. That means if you fail a challenge and restart it you have to load again and may be stuck waiting for four times the amount of time it actually takes to complete the challenge. It seems utterly random and it’s incredibly annoying.
One thing I did to try and combat the long initial load times were to keep the game running and only suspend it. This had the knock on effect of dramatically reducing the stability of the game and resulted in hard crashes to the dashboard. The spotty auto save system means that you can lose anything from minutes to hours of progress due to a hard crash. In addition to this I have also been unable to finish missions as they seem to have completely bugged out and the only solution is to quit the mission and ignore it completely. I will note that Avalanche has said they are going to try and address the problems present in Just Cause 3, though at the time of review nothing seems to have been fixed.
Just Cause 3 is a silly and slight experience even when it is running well. You play as Rico and you have gone home to Medici to depose an evil dictator and stop his nefarious plans. I didn’t expect much from the ‘story’ of Just Cause 3 and I got even less. The characters are all one note, the script is awful, the voice acting hammy and I just didn’t care what was happening, neither it would seem did Avalanche. Much has been said about the emergent fun to be had in Just Cause 2 and I think it’s fair to say Avalanche has lent heavily into this for it’s sequel, why bother with a story when they know no one cares about it.
So instead of a narrative we are given a sandbox. A beautiful and massive selection of Mediterranean islands. As someone who has spent quite some time in that part of the world I have to admit the authenticity and realism of the environment is breathtaking. I just wish there was more to do within it. What you can do is so barebones I found myself bored more often than not. There are basically three types of diversion in Just Cause 3. The story missions, the challenges (be it a wingsuit course, a gun range or other such menial and dull tasks) and the liberation or destruction of towns and enemy bases found throughout Medici.
None of these are particularly fun and the liberation/destruction crux of the open world is hampered with yet another form of frustration. Things you have to destroy are marked as red in the world, but they don’t show up on your map. This results in desperately trying to locate and destroy the last few targets in every location while under fire and often surrounded by explosions. This particular design choice kills the pace of the game and you have to wonder why some onscreen indicator wasn’t implemented to make the task quicker, simpler and a lot less tedious.
For the most part combat and traversal feel good in Just Cause 3, that is when they are not being severely hampered by the drops in framerate. Basic gun play can feel imprecise but really you should be relying on explosives most of the time. The weapons on offer feel standard and offer little excitement, the fun to be had in Just Cause 3 relies heavily on the excitement created via large explosions and the chain reactions they can create. Planning out an intricate series of tethers and explosives around a base can lead to some ridiculous and visually impressive detonations.
The addition of the wingsuit to the traversal mechanics of Just Cause 3 is a good idea. Combine that with your tether and parachute and you will be navigating the gorgeous world at speed. When it all comes together it can be breathtaking. Sadly the controls on offer are far from perfect and rely heavily on contextual prompts and precise timing. This can result in getting things disastrously wrong usually at the worst time resulting in a quick and painful death and then a long and boring load time. Sadly getting around in any vehicle feels poor due to overly sensitive controls. Trying to drive and shoot at the same time is particularly difficult. This coupled with the fun to be had with the wingsuit/grapple/parachute combo meant I rarely got in a vehicle of any kind.
Various things damn Just Cause 3 to be one of my biggest disappointments of the year. Creating a game so rooted in a design ethos that reminds me too much of it’s predecessor with little evolution and relying on players to find their own fun was a big mistake on Avalanches’ part. I have no problems with emergent game play, but it needs to happen naturally and not feel forced. Due to this Just Cause 3 has little story, few interesting things to do and brings nothing new to the genre. Without the myriad of catastrophic technical problems the game could have still been fun, but as it is it is to be avoided. Mad Max is the far superior experience and one of the hidden gems of the year. Go buy that instead.