Name: Just Cause 2
Developer: Avalanche Studios
Publisher: Square Enix
Release Date: March 23rd, 2010
Platforms: PC (Reviewed), 360, PS3
DRM: Steam
Just Cause 2 stars Rico Rodriguez, the US agent from the first Just Cause, who is dropped into the fictional island nation located in Southeast Asia called Panau. Your goal as Rico is to oust the new dictator of Panau from office, Baby Panay, who has squandered all ties to the nation's former ally, America. Your means of achieving this are by causing chaos in any way possible to instigate a revolution from the Panau people. That could be destroying statues of Baby Panay's likeness, blowing up government owned gas stations, or sabotaging Panau military bases among dozens of other things. During your mission, you will ally with three different faction leaders in optional missions. Each with their own, but not conflicting agendas. You will meet The Ular Boys who are trying to remove any foreign influence from Panau and give rule back to the natives, The Roaches who are attempting to remove all government control from trade in Panau, and The Reapers who wish to create a communist revolution of the people. The story goes deeper than this, but trying to understand the admittedly poorly written plot delivered to players with bad dialog and
cringe-worthy voice acting is a lost cause. Let it be known that this game, like a summer action blockbuster, is not something you go to for moving dialog.
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I'll get this out of the way quickly, because when you play this game it's the first think you will notice. Panau is gorgeous. It is absolutely beautiful and has some of the best realized vistas in any game. It is no exaggeration when I say your mouth will be agape for the first three hours of the game, at least. By the time I was done playing, I had amassed 3.24GB of screenshots, most of which felt like little works of art. This game will challenge you to not stop and stare at the scenery. There are four main kinds of environments players will see throughout Panau. This includes large cities filled with skyscrapers and bridges, dense forests with tropical beaches and small villages, incredibly tall ice-capped mountains that loom in the distance from every point in Panau, and vast desert plains and valleys. Flying low through a valley with dense rolling fog penetrated by sunlight, or standing on top of the highest icy mountain and witnessing a sunrise that is splayed across the ocean and dense forests are amazing experiences. Truly, Just Cause 2's greatest achievement is in the creation of the island of Panau. Added to this is how well it runs. This game manages to pump out very smooth frames for the image quality it is producing. You should be able to fully experience Panua on even moderate rigs.
Clearly, this game is a visual gem, but it isn't one without blemishes. The island of Panau with it's massive scope and brilliance is a visual spectacle, but bringing a magnifying glass to the game shows that the visuals do not deliver on all scales. Civilians, props, shacks, and some other assets that dot the landscape when seen up close certainly contrast with the beauty of the rest of the game, but this is understandable given the sheer size of the world and the technical limitations that come with it. Besides, players will find themselves usually hundreds of feet in the sky, or speeding at 80MPH on the highway and won't notice.
Avalanche Studios wanted the gameplay to do justice to the openness of the island and the idea of causing chaos in the most ridiculous ways possible. The main gimmicks are your grappling hook and parachute. Rico can cast out a grappling hook and latch on to any surface within about 50 feet and quickly zip around the ground or up a building. He is also capable of pulling himself onto moving vehicles and riding on the top of cars or under helicopters. You can even link any two objects together with grappling hooks. Tie a boulder to a helicopter and play wrecking ball, attach a military vehicle in your pursuit to the ground to stall it until the grapple breaks, or tie an enemy to the back of your motorcycle to finish him off. The second most important tool in Rico's arsenal is his parachute which is helpful in a game where verticality plays such an important role. Players can use these two tools in conjunction with each other to fly for as long as they want by pulling themselves along the ground with the grappling hook and hovering to another location with the parachute. These mechanics, though simple, are the real meat and potatoes of the gameplay and players will find plenty of creative ways to use them after experimenting with the gameplay mechanics.
The combat is another key aspect of Just Cause 2. Gunplay isn't the best in this game. On ground firefights generally boil down to walking behind something and peeking out occasionally to take out the nearest three guards. The game employs heavy autoaim, mostly because it is expected that you will be firing at targets from a fast moving object. This is useful in some situations, but can also be very annoying if when trying to aim at a certain enemy within a cluster. This aspect of the game can get much more interesting if players utilize the grappling hook to manipulate the environment or the enemy in hilarious ways by pulling objects or enemies into the air.
Just Cause 2 is a massive playground full of interesting things to try and use, but like any playground, the player needs to take the initiative to use everything. It is entirely possible to make it through the whole game by using simple run and gun techniques only, but the joy of this game is in trying to complete your goal in the coolest way possible. During my playthrough, the majority of my deaths were caused by doing something stupid and unnecessary, but totally awesome. That's how Avalanche Studios expects players to play. At no point is it absolutely required to fly a jet and crash it into a colonel right after ejecting and raining a hailstorm of bullets from the sky as you slowly parachute into a smoldering base, but you can. Players can be even more creative than this, or they can simply run in, shoot the guy, and run out. It all boils down to how much fun you want to make the game.
One of this game's strengths is the freedom to accomplish a goal in your own way. However, I made the mistake of playing this game at a high difficulty. Do not go in thinking that this is the funnest way to play. I had fantastic fun until near the middle of the game. After traveling from location to location, leaving a trail of chaos in my wake, increasing amounts of military men were sent to ruin my fun. There were times when I just wanted to sit back and blow some shit up, but I couldn't even bump into another car without getting a little, ruthless army on my tale until I was either dead, or had to escape into a secluded area to sulk around for about a minute. It is hard to fully understand why the developers made the soldiers as numerous and annoying as they did in a game that is supposed to be rewarding my stupid tricks.
The music and sound in Just Cause 2 all come together nicely, aside from the voice acting. When players swoop hundreds of feet above the desert with their parachute, a short, soothing guitar riff plays that compliments the amazing views nicely. The music is light and unobtrusive, but generally heightens the excitement in chase scenes or action sets. Guns sound like guns, vehicles sound like vehicles, and the ambient sounds all fit in place with the world. Nothing is especially amazing, but most sounds that are there serve a purpose well.
Just Cause 2 is one of the best quirky open world games available right now, and though it is plagued by a few problems, it is a real diamond in the rough well worth the attention of anybody looking to have a big, stupid, action movie blast. Not only will you find the action and absurdity of the game well worth the price, you will be awestruck by the immense size, detail, and beauty of the little island nation that Avalanche Studios has made for you to explore.
