Just Cause 2 Review

Posted by TWHR in Articles, Console, Featured, Microsoft, PC, Reviews, Sony | 6 comments

Swedish Developer Avalanche Studios brings us Just Cause 2. A gutsy move from the Swedes who’s previous game was met with the loudest Meh a human lips could part with. So why is their follow up JC2 being awarded high review scores and critical praise(ish)? Because it deserves it.

Built using the Avalanche engine 2.0 the first thing you notice is the engines lush, opulent, warm visuals. The game looks fantastic, for a sandbox game this big (and I mean BIG) the level of detail in the world is outstanding. Without a stutter or a load screen the engine not only allows you to –  it begs you to –  fly from snow laden mountain tops to tropical oceans and dust bowel deserts in one round trip. Even more impressive is that these aren’t just environmental changes, the whole atmosphere will change as you move from location to location. If you’re in the mountains the weather will change between light snow fall and full blown winter blizzard; meanwhile on the other end of the island tropical thunder storms and majestic Riviera sunshine is the norm. Climbing  a thousand feet in a jet liner until you can see space in the near distance is pretty breath taking, that is until you decide to jump out and take a Birdseye look at the stunning playground that is Avalanches Panau Island. Its not all perfect though, I’m pretty sure you can count the amount of enemy and civilian models on one hand and the lip syncing in the cut scenes is appalling but none of that really matters as you surf towards a military harbour inches above the water, using a jumbo jet as a surf board.

The gameplay is you’re standard open world scattered mission structure with a twist. You play as Rico Rodriguez who looks like he watched too many Robert Rodriguez movies since last time we saw him. As the game begins you’re told you need to upset the corrupt president of Panau by helping the three main criminal factions at work on the Island to grow, in the hope that the chaos that will ensue will distract said mad Dictator long enough to pop a cap in his ass. I know what you’re thinking, it makes no sense but again it doesn’t really matter in fact if you’re buying this game just pretend ‘doesn’t have a story’ is one of the back of the box features. The main thing is that these mission are pretty rewarding to play through and often end in over the top climaxes that help you forget all about the awful cut scenes that came before them. To progress the story further the player has to unlock ‘Agency Missions’ and this is the best part, how do you unlock these missions? You have fun. Every single time you blow something up, be it a propaganda van spouting rubbish out of a loud speaker, a Government facility, a gas station or even a vehicle you get awarded Chaos Points that go toward unlocking these missions as well as instant access to vehicles, weapons and missions that you can use anytime you want by a handy portable shop. Most points get awarded via the faction missions so there is always the incentive to at least go back to the story to see what the game has in store for you next.

How your approach missions is where the fun really starts, helped in no small part by the tools as Rico’s disposal. Hitting L1 fires Rico’s grappling hook in any direction. Once attached to any surface Rico will go hurdling towards it, pres X before hitting the end and he will open his branded parachute  catapulting his leather clad ass into the sky. Firing the the hook while airborne allows you to ‘row’ Rico in the air keeping him floating for pretty much as long as you want. It’s a brilliant way to get around and apart from jet fighter is the most fun way to get around Panau. It kind of reminds me of how it felt using the swinging mechanic in Spiderman 2 except instead of being the games main feature Just Cause 2 has much more to offer. The sheer amount of option at you’re disposable is pretty dizzying and when you get rewarded at every single turn for having this much fun its really hard to not sink hour upon hour into the game. One forum user mentioned he put 45hrs into the game without even completing much of the main story! Now If that’s not value for money I don’t know what is. Along with collecting Chaos points the game has several other collectibles hidden around the world, some in a nod to Crackdown give Rico access to points that level up his armour others let you select specific weapons and vehicles that you can upgrade. Presentation wise the upgrade system is far from slick but it easy to use and add an extra incentive to exploration. Each Faction also has their own collectible boxes, the collection of which will reward you with some of the games harder to acquire vehicles.

Gun Combat is pretty solid with a huge variety of weapons at you’re disposal but it wont win any awards for intuitivism mind, visually it can look a little stiff – especially when dual wielding. On the other hand using the grapple hook during combat is frequently hilarious, at one point I was defending a technician while he hacked onto a terminal only to be set upon by a group of soldiers who brought their big helicopter friend for back up. You see holding L1 after firing Ricos grappling hook allows you to select a second target, when you let go the two targets become attached, yes (again) I know it makes no sense but its brilliant. So as the the helicopter attacked I used the grappling hook to hang some soldier of it before I blew it up. It then spun the soldier around and launched him into a fuel tank blowing every thing in a ten mile radius to kingdom come. Naturally I survived only to hear the men I was tasked with protecting chanting my name out into the sky. My only regret is that the game didn’t tell me I could I video my accomplishments and put them on YouTube via the pause menu! I found the option by accident while taking a break to pet my dog and yes that is a euphemism. Listen carefully developers(they all read my reviews) this feature should be in every game, not only can you upload to YouTube you can save them to you’re consoles HD. Brilliant (check out my YouTube debut below)

The hud is constantly updating you with useless information like how long you have been playing , how many people you have killed in the last 60 seconds, how much damaged you have caused etc etc etc. It’s not going to give the likes of Heavy Rain any competition in terms of narrative but when it comes to that sensory overload players want from an open world title few can claim to give you as much as JC2. At every step of the way Just Cause 2 rewards you for playing it and not just with the pleasure of playing the game you paid for – with actual rewards that enhance the game play experience in enumerable ways. For me that’s about as next generation as you can get.

In a lot of ways Just Cause 2 is the GTA game people who loved San Andreas wanted next (without the brilliant story and  gangster humor) if you were one of those folks then maybe you should  take the leap.

Its an achievement in itself to say Just Cause 2 still manages to shine in probably the best Q1 of the last 10 years. Go get.