Just Cause Kenji said so.

Just Cause
Review by Kenji Urban.
Sound 7/10
Gameplay 8/10
Graphics 8.5/10
Story 6/10

I decided to review this game because when Just Cause came out it had next to zero advertising, and i still meet people who haven't played or heard of Just Cause in any kind of detail. For me it almost flew completely under the radar - the recent option to purchase a factory sealed disc for $20 is one of the main reasons for this review, other than it being a pretty damn cool game.

Get the fuck out of my plane.
Few games in my memory, can start, and pretty much immediately, effortlessly force you into displaying that unbreakable grin, as if you've just arrived in fantasy land, and everything just became crystal clear, everything is just prefect. No other game starts with a cool value as high as Just Cause. Sure, plenty of games have great action packed heart pumping thrill riding openings, that I'm sure are pretty 'cool' and 'awesome', but that's because you just shoved a tactical nuclear missile up the bad guys ass and hit the big red 'detonate' button. Now, Kenji Urban enjoys nuclear sodomy just as much as the next guy, but sometimes... just sometimes... its not all about rectal obliteration.


That is some incredible draw distance and some great graphics to match

To my surprise, pressing "Start" doesn't throw you into some stupidly long and mundane training level. Instead, you're thrown out the back of a transport plane, and left to free fall down into the fictional land of San Esperito , which described that way, probably doesn't grab you the way it should. You're free falling, parachuting, like no other game has let you do before. SURE! GTA San Andreas had parachutes, but it also had a height restriction same same as the height restriction for the kiddies Ferris wheel at your local fun fair. What even Stevie Wonder will notice straight away, is that you are really fucking high up in the sky, and free falling all the way to the ground, even in the 'pin drop' position, is gong to take a few minutes. The next thing you'll realize is the impressive scale of the game. You can clearly see how far the draw distance goes in this one, and go the distance it does. The map in this game is fucking huge. ITS MASSIVE. Usually, the rule is that the bigger the map, the better the game. In this instance, its a yes and no answer. The game boasts a playable area of 391 sq miles (approx) or 25,000 acres, which is a fairly substantial number, one that's isn't hard to believe once you see the map for yourself, but as with GTA San Andreas, a LAAAAARGE percentage of that area is pure jungle. Steep mountainous terrain, half of which is not even usable or accessible because of the steep incline or decline in the mountains .. Frustrating? Yes, Acceptable? I think so. Anyone who gets hung up on the fact that half of this fictional world is jungle that you don't use, needs to go play Beautiful Katamari and never, ever, return to San Esperito again.


This is the best pic i could find for the sky diving through Google Image Rip. No where near as high as it could be..


So thats the intro, best opening level for a sandbox type game, in quite a while, and i dare say ever? I don't remember doing anything even remotely close to this cool in the first level of GTA.. I seem to remember mashing that A button to peddle my bicycle..

Who am i, and why do i look and sound like Antonio Banderas stunt double?
You're Rico Rodriguez, the most unimaginatively named Latin American EVER. FUCk... "Rodriguez" is like "Lee" in the Chinese phone book, there is 68 billion of them. SO capital 0 originality there. Seriously though, what would we have preferred? Agent Brian Johnston? Agent John Smith? Agent Fox Mulder? Rico Rodriguez is a silly, silly name that i have no problem running with because it doesn't fucking matter. Its simply not one of those games where your name is of ANY most importance... Is it EVER important? In any game? Of course not. Everyone has heard ten thousand bland and useless american/british voice-overs, so this time we've been given a dose of some of the cool or suave, that Antonio Banderas would like you to think he actually possesses outside of movie land. A cool as ice, tough as nails wise-ass Latin American. You all know how it is. Is there any character development here? No. No there is not, and as i've said before, I usually have no interest in any cutscenes and as i've said before, I'm notorious for skipping all of them. This game however, has been given some praise for its cinematic cutscenes. You could do a hell of a lot worse.


Antonios stunt double.

I know I'm here to kick everyones ass, but why, exactly? (I forgot)
Like ALL of the latin american countries, San Esperito is terribly unstable, and open for government/regime changes at any moment, usually through military force, followed inevitably, by an uprising of the people, a revolution! So this is where or salsa soldier comes into play - we're here to help over throw the newly installed dictator. Did i say "over-throw"? I meant kill. and kill, you will, in a way you've never done before in a video game. Huge credit to the game devs for the final "boss" level, even if it was some what predictable.. But seriously, we're here to do the same as every single other game ever made, you're here to kill in mass volume, because quite simply, this a full on run and gun blau fest, with the assistance of the 'Agency' - your american contractor/supplier.

Hey Dad! Can i borrow the keys to the Dune Buggy/Jet Ski/Chopper/Trail Bike/Fighter Jet?
The vehicle selection in JC is also impressive. At first. Why do i say that? Because as much as i love this game, any vehicle apart from military ones, or your own 'agency' supplied vehicles, are pretty fucking awful. You'll find yourself avoiding using civilian cars at all costs.. in preference of your air-dropped Agency vehicles. Air Dropped? Yeah! Anyone who has played Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, will know what i mean. For those that don't, it means you can have a small selection of vehicles air dropped by helicopter, to your location, usually, where ever you are, provided you are not standing on the side of a steep mountain. You can even have a speedboat dropped into the water if by chance you've been shot out of the sky and into the water. The vehicles in the game are pretty cool, even if you do find yourself using the same ones repeatedly. Its just a shame that the Agency vehicles are limited to only four! FOUR!!!!!! I felt like that was a pretty stupid decision by the game devs, seeing as they've provided a massive environment to travel across... but limits aside, you're given vehicles to gain access to all points of the island - a Trail bike for pure off road cross county, a SUV complete with armor plating and top mounted dual machine guns, a super cool looking a rocket fast speed boat also with on board weapons, and lastly, the totally gay-ass inspector gadget style Gyro-Copter. Think mini chopper for one. Designed in the early 80s. Gyro-Copter. This link - http://huntbreaker.free.fr/just_cause/vehicles.php?lang=en - has a single page with an image of every single vehicle on the game (minus a few he states) Have a look at some at them! Pay no attention to any of the "Town vehicles" as they are particularly useless, but thats a fine assortment left to choose from! Half of which carry massive destructive capabilities.


Agency Speedboat


Agency Trailbike


Military Chopper


Military Anti Air


Civilian Chopper :)


One of the 5-10 fighter jets(!) in the game..


THE JET SKI!

Grapple from behind, then reach around and finish him from the front.
So vehicles are cool, but what about my guns guns guns? Yeah you've got some. You've got plenty. Sub-machine guns and assault rifles, also though you'll never work out which is which because every weapon in the game is the same. Except maybe for rate of fire and clip size.. Like other games, your default pistols, have unlimited ammo.. The real 'weapon' you have, isn't even capable of killing, its a grappling gun, that fires just like Batmans does, attaching itself to a moving object (helicopter!) and reeling in the user. Sounds... ok? Remember free fall parachuting into the game at the start? Well, combine the parachute, the grappling hook, and an over flying helicopter, passing car or boat and what have you got? In case you just smoked a bowl, it means a free ride. It means you can...


Reel yourself in..


or Reel out, relax.. and enjoy the fantastic ocean graphics.


Or again.. reel in and jack an over head helicopter!

While attached you can reel yourself in or out depending on what you want to do.. you might want to climb higher via the parachute getting pulled along, or you might want to reel in and hi-jack the vehicle.. Its all up to you and its all fun. The best aspect of the parachuting, is the chute is unlimited. As in, drop out of a plane and start free falling.. depoly chute and glide slowly and safely don to earth.. but wait.. its taking too long? cut the chute, go back into free fall, and then later when you feel like your about to get splattered, deploy again! Unlimited airborne fun.

GHOST RIDE THE WHIP
I've mentioned this because if i leave it out i feel like i'd be misleading you somehow.. Stunts! Yeah there are stunts, but not like you're expecting.. In Just Cause you can Ghost Ride your vehicles. Yes you read correctly, the craze sweeping across america is a pretty big feature of this game. Whatever the vehicle is your driving or flying, you can hit the "stunt" button, which ejects Rico out of the vehicle, and onto the roof of a car/truck, and out onto the wing of a chopper or jet. Again that doesn't sound like much on paper (or on screen) but you can be sure as fuck that it looks awesome in game. Does this actually serve a purpose? Yes it does, it allows you to drive a truck at top speed directly at an opposing force, then bail out at the last minute by flipping onto the roof, and THEN hitting your "deploy" button and using some fairly unrealistic physics, your chute is deployed and you are whisked off up into the sky.. Pretty cool to do, even cooler to see.



So now WTF?
Now, is time to actually start playing the story line.. Fly/drive out to this location and kill/steal/destroy something.. or go liberating the islands by demolishing the military installations located on them. Once liberating an island of all its oppressors, you're usually rewarded in some manner, whether it be weapons, vehicles, or the ever important safe house/save point, which at the beginning are few and far between, so doing all of the side missions first, is always a good idea.. but entirely repetitive. There is NO difference in action between liberating island #1 at the start of the game and island #99 right near the end of the game..
The real problem with this game is its flow - which i felt it had NONE of. Every time i did something it felt like all it did was open up the the next island to do exactly the same thing.. storm in and level the whole block. Rinse and Repeat.. which is pretty crap.. really. Considering all the awesome stuff thats gone into this game.
So with the exception of the final level, the game is strictly "been there and done that". WHICH i might add, is not a total fucking waste, as the game does genuinely provide an enjoyable experience, especially when you have the grappling hook action down to a fine art. Just don't expect a massive variety of missions.. Actually don't expect any variety at all.

The Potential
What Just Cause does have is massive, massive potential, on many levels. In the mouth of a volcano on one of the islands, is a club/bar, all looking very cool, VERY cool, except, not a patron in sight, a complete ghost town. Whats the point of it being there? I found these kind of things all over the map. Kool little finds that serve absolutely no purpose. Strange really, as if they pulled the plug on the final layer of the game.. all the interaction.. customization.. all the good shit!



What is Just Cause?
Just Cause is by NO MEANS a GTA contender, in ANY way shape or form. Sure there are elements from this game that i think are superior, but the massive amount of things simply missing from his game make its a fairly shallow ride. I feel like i'm unnecessarily making this game sound crap, when i'm trying to do exactly the opposite - I wouldn't spend this much time telliing you how shiiiiit something is.. So what is Just Cause? I class it as an incredibly well done "filler" (kill the time) action game, thats a pure blast fest. Play it the way it was meant to be played, leave your strict Grand Theft Auto rule book in the desk drawer and go base jumping in a tropical location.