Just Cause 2 Review

8.0

Review Score:

I’m going to be honest; I was very sceptical about Just Cause 2. Not because what I had seen looked bad, I just didn’t enjoy the first Just Cause game. Square Enix promised us an explosive third-person shooter and they gave us just that, quite literally. Just Cause 2 is all about explosions and creating havoc; so much so that to progress through the game a sufficient amount of chaos must be caused. Just Cause 2 provides a fun manic experience from start to finish; the map is huge and you have an arsenal of every weapon you could imagine, although you’ll probably spend more time with your grapple hook than any gun.

You play as the same protagonist from the first game, Rico Rodrigeuz; only he’s a little bit crisper this time but he’s still working for “The Agency”. Just Cause 2 sees Rico head to Panau, Southeast Asia to find his friend, Tom Sheldon, who has been reported missing. Its Rico’s task to find him, dead or alive – along the way Rico must cause as much damage to Panau as possible to overthrow the current dictator, Rico aids three local criminal factions to help with this, causing chaos and earning money at the same time.

And I'm free... free fallin'

Now onto the good stuff! As you may have already guessed, the story isn’t the game’s biggest appeal; it serves its purpose well enough however. You may think that Just Cause 2 is just your standard open-world third-person shooter, however what separates it from the likes of Grand Theft Auto IV is the lack of being able to take itself seriously, and this becomes apparent when you’re attacked by machine gun wielding ninjas. The game also features two unique game mechanics that separate it from other games in the genre; the grapple hook and stunt parachute. The grapple hook can be used freely whenever and wherever you choose, it allows you to attach yourself to any surface and “zip” to it. You can also attach it to any objects and even enemies allowing you to pull any objects or enemies to you. The grapple hook also allows you to tether two objects or enemies together; thus providing you with a million and one ways to take an enemy down, one of my favourite of which, was attaching an enemy to a rocket and then shooting the rocket and watching them soar, the best bit about the grapple hook is it’s so damn easy to use, you get used to so much that you start to miss it in other games. The other unique mechanic in Just Cause 2 is Rico’s stunt parachute; it can be used when falling or mid-grapple. It gives you the ability to safely float to the ground level or to just cover terrain from the air, it gives you an added level of freedom as you can safely jump off any mountain or building and know you can open your parachute on the way down. While floating with your parachute open, you can use the grapple hook on the ground to regain momentum and pull yourself further along and stay airborne. Both of these features really add a huge amount to the fun factor of the game.

As I said before, the main appeal of the game is the complete freedom given to the player, you can move around and kill enemies in any way you see fit meaning that every time you’re doing a mission, you can do it anyway you please. The game also features over 100 unique vehicles including motorbikes, cars, jeeps, boats, helicopters and jet planes, again providing the player with even more choice as to how they get around.  Quite a few of the faction missions are fairly repetitive,  however this is often balanced by the variation in how you can complete a mission, the game generally plays out by you completing faction missions in order to build chaos to unlock the next agency mission, these serve as the “main missions” of the game. What really sold the game to me was how fantastic everything you did looks, missions will have you planting C4 then free-falling from a building as it detonates in the background, one mission also had me jumping off a bridge onto a convoy of jeeps, jumping from jeep to jeep taking out the drivers and then finally hijacking the vehicle and kidnapping the V.I.P. – and yes, it’s as awesome as it sounds.

One of the main downsides I found to the game was the unreliable checkpoint system, I found at points I’d be getting a checkpoint every few minutes but then I’d complete a hard task during a mission but receive no checkpoint. With the sheer amount of explosions constantly happening within the game, it’s inevitable that you’ll end up dyeing a fair amount of times during a mission so this can become a serious downer. The voice acting in the game is also extremely poor but this goes hand-in-hand with the weak storyline and again, makes very little difference to the gameplay that you’ll love.

There was one thing that I would have loved to have seen implemented into Just Cause 2 however, and that was multiplayer, specifically, co-operative. I think the addition of another player in your world could really enhance the fun you get from Just Cause 2; many vehicles even have an extra seat with a mounted gun attached. I am aware that there are various PC mods being worked on to add multiplayer support but I just felt that it could have been a great supported feature.

In conclusion, I had more fun with Just Cause 2 than I have with any open-world game in a long time and I highly recommend it to anybody that enjoys open-world games. As with any game, it’s not perfect but it is closer than many others have ever come and is definitely a must-play of 2010.

NXT Score: 8/10

Pros:

• Hours and hours of fun
• Every explosion looks, sounds and feels great
• Complete freedom as to how you travel, kill and complete missions

Cons:

• Unreliable save and checkpoint system
• Extremely poor voice acting

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