Just Cause 2 is the much-anticipated sequel to the widely-popular original Just Cause, released back in 2006. It seemed like a while to wait, but believe me the wait has been worth it. Just Cause 2 comes back with new vehicles, new weapons, new tools and new mission types. New vehicles include jet planes and ice cream trucks. The latest weapon/tool/your new best friend, the grappling hook, allows the action to go to new heights — literally. New missions can range between tearing down statues to picking up random drug drop-offs throughout the island.
gameplay
The game play in Just Cause 2 is straight up fantastic, unless you play games for the storyline. Since it's no where near important to the game, I'll quickly sum up the plot: Rico “Scorpio” Rodriguez returns again as a field-agent for US-based the “Agency,” this time to save a coworker and friend who the Agency is afraid may have been killed or gone rouge. At the same time, Rico is told to create chaos throughout the beautiful island of Panau, which is supposed to be somewhere in Asia, so the current dictator can be taken down. The story lacks importance for two reasons: one, the writing sucks, and two the storyline-based missions are rare and aren't nearly as cool as many of the other missions.
Creating chaos is what this game is about, and there's many ways to do it. The best way is to help the three rogue factions on the island beef up their presence. These missions typically include taking over government-run institutions, such as bases or power plants. Of course, there's always the occasional “hop in an attack helicopter and take out a snitch's plane before he gets away” mission as well. The faction missions are the best part of the game because they have the craziest scenarios, but they drag on the cut scenes. You can't always skip them, and it's always the same with your faction leader driving up, dropping off ammunition and driving away. It gets old after a while, but you won't be that disappointed if you go into the game knowing the story isn't the important part.
Notice that I said your faction leader drops off ammunition. They do this at the beginning of each mission because ammo is few and far between otherwise. Since it's such a huge game, it's rare that you'll stumble over one of the random ammo drops in the game. There's a black market that you can access at any time but it takes a while to unlock the good guns and vehicles. Even the guns that your enemies drop may have little or no ammo at all, which leaves you looking for new approaches to taking out the bad guys. Enter the grappling hook.
Rico's grappling hook is by far the coolest addition to the game since you can use it for anything you can think of. Need a lift? Hook on to a passing helicopter or plane. Snipers raining down bullets on you? Aim the grappling hook at them and fire to pull them from their watch towers (and then grab their rifles). It's also easy to aim at a wall by enemies, fly over to them and then melee them to death before the start shooting, which saves you ammo and gets you more in the process. You can have one two-handed weapon such as a sniper rifle, shotgun or assault riffle or two one-handed weapons like pistols, sawed-off shotguns and uzis. You can duel-wield the one-handed weapons, but it's better to keep one hand free for your grenades and C4.
Everything you can do in this game feels fresh, since everything is reachable and anything is usable thanks to the grappling hook. You can scale the highest buildings, kill enemies in creative ways, dangle from a helicopter and take people out with your weapon, and even pull down statues of Panau's dictator by attaching the grappling hook to a car which will piss off the militia. It's also convenient for when you're parachuting around the island since you can latch onto trees and buildings, which will whip you around and give you more momentum.
The biggest downside of the game play is the sheer number of enemies you'll encounter. This is a game where you will die multiple times each mission until you figure out the right way to approach a situation. It takes the right combination of explosives, guns, grappling hook and vehicles to complete each mission.
graphics
For a game that has such a vast area, you would think the graphics may suffer a bit when viewing things at a distance. Surprisingly, you'd be wrong if you thought this. I've never seen graphics like this in a game this big — GTA IV constantly had to load buildings that were just down the block, but Just Cause 2 shows anything you're looking at in great detail. It doesn't matter if you're on the ground looking up at the skyscrapers or a mile high in a helicopter looking down, the detail will be the same either way. As mentioned before, the cut scenes are pretty bad, but they're pretty to look at since they can be on mountaintops, on a boat or in the air and will always give you a different view of Panau.
sound
The writing is really bad, but the voice acting is ten times worse. Characters are played by actors using fake accents that seem like they've never done this kind of thing before. Their timing is off and it doesn't sound authentic at all. It's even obvious when two sound clips were spliced together, because the pause could be too long or the sentences could nearly be overlapping. Also, at times you'll just lose the sound all together. Conversations will just stop, and you'll be left squinting at the much too small captions.
Only after missions is it worth listening in to what's being said. There's usually a voice over of an official from Panau's state radio coming up with excuses for the ruckus you just caused. My favorite in the game is right after you attack a base on the top of a snow-capped mountain. The explosions and noise are blamed on volcanic activity, but scientists say not to look for the volcano because it disappeared after the eruption. It adds a bit of humor to the game but also emphasizes the hold that Panau's dictator has over the island.
replay value
Usually, a game with no online play has very little replay value but Just Cause 2 is the exception to the rule. The island of Panau is so big it seems impossible to cover the entire island, from its barren deserts to its steep mountains, its thick jungles to its miles of ocean. There are different incentives to search the island such as vehicle, weapon and armor parts, which will unlock new vehicles and guns and increase Rico's overall health. All told, there's more than 2000 different parts spread throughout the island. There's also more than 100 different cities and civilizations to visit and help purge the militia from. You could easily play this game for a few hours a day for a month straight and still not be done.
bottom line
If there is a part of you that enjoys any of the following: free roaming over 400 square miles of territory; blowing stuff up and killing the responding military; aiding anti-government factions in their struggles for supremacy; stopping off at an airport and having your choice between a jet or a military gunner helicopter; or base jumping, this is absolutely a must-play game. Don't rent it, buy it, otherwise you'll run out of time.
Review by: Matthew Waters
Posted: 06/05/2010
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Gameplay:
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9 |
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Graphics:
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10 |
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Sound:
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6 |
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Replay Value:
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9 |
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Bottom Line:
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8.5 |
