Just Cause 2

[Steven W]

Please refer to the sticky thread before you post in this thread.

This is your chance to tell us your opinion on Just Cause 2. Our review should be going live on Monday.

Reviews will be published on the main gaming channel. We'll let you know in this thread when they go live.

Thanks!

[jim]

Just Cause 2. A game inspired by Grand Theft Auto, Far Cry, and Rambo on LSD. Rarely does a game stand up with such panache and say “Sod convention, go mental”, as secret agent Rico “Scorpion” Rodriguez is parachuted into Panau, a fictional south-east Asian nation that had the temerity to oust its pro-US president.

It’s far from perfect... in fact, it’s inconsistency, bizarreness and bugs rolled into one and then personified. Running over one person is fine, running over two people attracts attention, but running over three people is definitely illegal. Crashing into and destroying road signs is illegal, but carjacking is fine. The physics engine means that pedestrians will walk into each other and then fly off in opposite directions, and whilst gunshots to the chest have little effect, headshots make people move as though they have an Exocet inserted up their backsides. Pedestrians fatally impale themselves on fence-posts mid-stride, and occasionally you’ll drive past a military vehicle that spontaneously pirouettes on the spot until it explodes.

You can mercilessly gun down your hapless gang-member friends, but because the stats screen says you’re allies, they don’t mind. In fact, after you’ve machine-gunned all of his friends, the last guy still sounds like a kid on Christmas morning as he unwittingly and excitedly cries “Scorpio, you’re here to save us! Get in!” Equally, before starting Agency missions, you can gun down your agent friends, and they’ll oblige by ragdolling all over the place until you choose to talk to them.

Then there’s “the Agency”. Early on, it’s revealed that they don’t do briefing, as Rico – with only minutes before they reach the Landing Zone – vacantly asks “Isn’t Panau US-friendly?” Presumably the media didn’t notice the coup. And as “secret” agents go, his insistence on blowing up everything in sight makes him one of the less discreet examples. Luckily though, the Agency’s resources are limitless – in one mission, you’re provided with a military attack helicopter to assault a base, but after spending 20 minutes attacking ground targets with rockets to little effect, you twig that you were actually meant to ditch it and parachute in. Maybe attack helicopters are ten-a-penny in this alternate reality.

So it’s filled with bugs, the story is inconsistent, and the characters are ridiculous. Oh, and most of the missions are rubbish. Nearly all of them boil down to car chases, or working your way through an array of inept soldiers, occasionally having to keep a “technician” alive for extra challenge. The Agency strand of missions is by far the most imaginative and best designed, but there are only about six or seven proper missions, spread sparsely through the game.

For once though, I find it difficult to care that much – primarily because Just Cause 2 embraces its failings and doesn’t take itself that seriously. As you start racking up mini-achievements for destroying over 10 objects in 60 seconds, for driving each and every vehicle, and for needlessly destroying assets of the armed forces, you realise that this is what Just Cause 2 was made for. The whole story and gameplay is geared towards taking insane routes across the jungle with the parachute and grappling hook combination, detonating enormous explosive fuel tanks, and attaching soldiers with the grappling hook to gas canisters, before shooting until the canister ignites and rockets several hundred feet into the air. And credit to Square Enix, it’s a formula that works. The graphics are stunning at times, with fantastic panoramas across sunset-illuminated bays, glowing city-scapes, and immensely-detailed jungles, and you’re never far away from the action.

If you get bored of shooting people with pistols, you can parachute into a military base and steal a helicopter, a minigun, or a tank, and obliterate them with those instead. Or you could steal a jet and just destroy everything. There are easter-eggs aplenty, miles and miles of vastly different environments to explore, and innumerable objects to collect and targets to destroy, so you’ll never run out of things to do. They might lack some variety, but there are just so many ways you can approach and attack the targets that it takes a very long time to get old – and enormous explosions are always satisfying.

The vast majority of the game is utterly forgettable, and it certainly won’t win any awards for its game engines, its storyline, or indeed its storytelling. But if you’re looking for a game where you can kick back and relax, roam around an enormous open space and do whatever your heart desires, causing mayhem wherever you go, there’s very little out there to rival Just Cause 2.

7.4 / 10

[Jasp]

Good review, pretty much nails the game on the head.

[Steven W]

Just Cause 2. A game inspired by Grand Theft Auto, Far Cry, and Rambo on LSD. Rarely does a game stand up with such panache and say “Sod convention, go mental”, as secret agent Rico “Scorpion” Rodriguez is parachuted into Panau, a fictional south-east Asian nation that had the temerity to oust its pro-US president.

It’s far from perfect... in fact, it’s inconsistency, bizarreness and bugs rolled into one and then personified. Running over one person is fine, running over two people attracts attention, but running over three people is definitely illegal. Crashing into and destroying road signs is illegal, but carjacking is fine. The physics engine means that pedestrians will walk into each other and then fly off in opposite directions, and whilst gunshots to the chest have little effect, headshots make people move as though they have an Exocet inserted up their backsides. Pedestrians fatally impale themselves on fence-posts mid-stride, and occasionally you’ll drive past a military vehicle that spontaneously pirouettes on the spot until it explodes.

You can mercilessly gun down your hapless gang-member friends, but because the stats screen says you’re allies, they don’t mind. In fact, after you’ve machine-gunned all of his friends, the last guy still sounds like a kid on Christmas morning as he unwittingly and excitedly cries “Scorpio, you’re here to save us! Get in!” Equally, before starting Agency missions, you can gun down your agent friends, and they’ll oblige by ragdolling all over the place until you choose to talk to them.

Then there’s “the Agency”. Early on, it’s revealed that they don’t do briefing, as Rico – with only minutes before they reach the Landing Zone – vacantly asks “Isn’t Panau US-friendly?” Presumably the media didn’t notice the coup. And as “secret” agents go, his insistence on blowing up everything in sight makes him one of the less discreet examples. Luckily though, the Agency’s resources are limitless – in one mission, you’re provided with a military attack helicopter to assault a base, but after spending 20 minutes attacking ground targets with rockets to little effect, you twig that you were actually meant to ditch it and parachute in. Maybe attack helicopters are ten-a-penny in this alternate reality.

So it’s filled with bugs, the story is inconsistent, and the characters are ridiculous. Oh, and most of the missions are rubbish. Nearly all of them boil down to car chases, or working your way through an array of inept soldiers, occasionally having to keep a “technician” alive for extra challenge. The Agency strand of missions is by far the most imaginative and best designed, but there are only about six or seven proper missions, spread sparsely through the game.

For once though, I find it difficult to care that much – primarily because Just Cause 2 embraces its failings and doesn’t take itself that seriously. As you start racking up mini-achievements for destroying over 10 objects in 60 seconds, for driving each and every vehicle, and for needlessly destroying assets of the armed forces, you realise that this is what Just Cause 2 was made for. The whole story and gameplay is geared towards taking insane routes across the jungle with the parachute and grappling hook combination, detonating enormous explosive fuel tanks, and attaching soldiers with the grappling hook to gas canisters, before shooting until the canister ignites and rockets several hundred feet into the air. And credit to Square Enix, it’s a formula that works. The graphics are stunning at times, with fantastic panoramas across sunset-illuminated bays, glowing city-scapes, and immensely-detailed jungles, and you’re never far away from the action.

If you get bored of shooting people with pistols, you can parachute into a military base and steal a helicopter, a minigun, or a tank, and obliterate them with those instead. Or you could steal a jet and just destroy everything. There are easter-eggs aplenty, miles and miles of vastly different environments to explore, and innumerable objects to collect and targets to destroy, so you’ll never run out of things to do. They might lack some variety, but there are just so many ways you can approach and attack the targets that it takes a very long time to get old – and enormous explosions are always satisfying.

The vast majority of the game is utterly forgettable, and it certainly won’t win any awards for its game engines, its storyline, or indeed its storytelling. But if you’re looking for a game where you can kick back and relax, roam around an enormous open space and do whatever your heart desires, causing mayhem wherever you go, there’s very little out there to rival Just Cause 2.

7.4 / 10

Which version is that Jim?

[jim]

Which version is that Jim?

Oops

PC

[Steven W]

Great review as usual Jim. Will get this up on the site shortly along with your Napoleon review.

[Disturbedguy]

Spot on review Jim, I completed this game, having spent most of my time randomly going around destroying stuff and making sure there was a nice big explosion.

Oh and going extremely high in a chopper or Jet, then jumping out and see how close I could get to the floor before pulling my chute and just about surviving.

I think I enjoyed doing..nothing of any importance in the game.