User Review : Just Cause

"Jesus, Rico. What did that island do to you?"

This is the highest score I have ever given. I desperately wanted to give my first 90%+ review to Just Cause. It may seem hard to believe, but I actually do have somewhat of a scoring policy which I hold to as best I can, even for my favourite games.

Just Cause sets you on the South American island of San Espirito, which has everything from beaches, to dense jungles, to massive cities and is said to encompass over 1000 square kilometers.

You are Rico Rodriquez, a CIA operative brought in to take down the dictator of San Espirito, who is said to be in control Weapons of Mass Destruction. Armed with your pistol, parachute and grapple, it is your job to save the tiny island and the world from obliteration.

Just Cause is an open world, sandbox style game, viewed from the third-person perspective. It dwarfs the competition in so many ways; I say April 29th brings the attack of the clones.

I love this game, but it is far from perfect. I’m not going to try to pretty this game up and make it seem like an advertisement, so I’ll do what I do best and rip into this game the best that I can.

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The first glaring issue is how realistic the game fails to be. The vast majority of the game clearly aims to be realistic, but some parts just seem like lazy development. Rico, wearing nothing but his collared black shirt, and tight black pants seems to be an impenetrable bullet force. A rocket to the chest or a grenade in your pocket rarely kills you. A hail of bullets won’t stop you, and the only thing that may be of an obstacle would be a missile fired directly at your helicopter. You’re also able to deploy, repack, and deploy your parachute at any given moment while in free fall.

Physics are at times, non-existent, as you’re able to hop in, out, and back in again of any vehicle at your pleasure, be it a slow moving car or a super sonic jet. And some minor glitches can become quite the nuisance, such as loading issues with characters and vehicles, which sometimes load only half the object.

After playing through Just Cause, it is clear that Auto-aim is the death of console shooters. You’re able to use a different view as an alternative, but no real other option is given to turn off Auto-aim. Along with your forced living, Auto-aim can sometimes make this game incredibly easy.

Being an open world game, I can understand why there would be no co-operative mode…even having no online co-operative mode is acceptable. But having no multiplayer whatsoever disgusts me (this being the 21st century and all). Having no multiplayer in regards to the story mode would make sense, but some side missions are just begging to be used for multiplayer. Things such as races, stunts, and surviving the longest while being Most Wanted, all would have made for great online play.

A short unoriginal story mode, accompanied with everlasting, repetitive side missions, is the final point of the negative factors found in Just Cause.

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I hope I didn’t lose anyone there, and I really hope I didn’t turn anyone off from the game because this review is no where near finished.

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In San Espirito, two separate drug cartels and a dictator rule the island with no sympathy, and abiding no laws. Just Cause throws you into the action as soon as you pop the game in, as you’ll quickly find yourself falling through the air at an unimaginable speed. And as soon as you figure out how to use your parachute, you get the chance to look around. Spread out in front of you is an island, draped with huge mountains, massive valleys, a giant metropolis, and white sandy beaches.

For such scale, Just Cause is the most beautiful game I have ever played, seen, or read about. Along with the above mentioned graphical features, the game features great character models and hundreds of different, awesome looking vehicles. Whether you’re 3000 feet in the air observing the passing clouds, or on the ground, mesmerized by the changing sunset and the massive shadows being cast, Just Cause does it all. I simply cannot say enough about the graphics that make up the environment. From swiftly separating the clouds with the blades of your helicopter, to landing softly in the surrounding water, watching the ripples hit your drifting boat, individually the graphics may not seem like all that much, but together they are a true work of art.

You may not find Spanish style guitar or random techno beats on my iPod, but in Just Cause they compliment the game flawlessly. A thrilling police chase can only be made better by perfectly timed and perfectly tuned music. And the same goes for liberating a settlement. Storming an enemy stronghold is fun on its own, but with sick background music? Few games can compete with the audio content that comes with Just Cause.

I think that being an open world game, an ‘options’ category should be added. The vehicles are plentiful with motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, tanks, boats, helicopters, airplanes, and jumbo jets. Weapons are pretty standard in this game; examples are pistols, shotguns, and rocket launchers.

But there are three ‘options’ that pull this game ahead of any in this particular genre.

Jumping out of an aircraft no longer means immediate death with Free Fall, as the quickest way to get down is usually by just dropping straight down. Your able to control your speed in a limited way, but whatever you do you’re still going down fast. And when I say fast I mean fast. There’s nothing better when playing your favourite game than to be able to cut through the air at incredible speeds by using only gravity.

In direct association with Free Fall, your Parachute gives you the chance to safely land, all the while being able to observe your surroundings while drifting along San Espirito.

In direct association with your parachute, your Grapple can be used while using your parachute to hook on to almost any object. This allows players to land on a car roof, then steal the car, or string yourself on to a boat for some parasailing.

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I think I looked at both negative and positive sides equally with obvious emphasis of one over the over. You’ll notice a vast difference in review structure because this is an open world game, something I’ve avoided until now.

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Just Cause was the first game I earned all 1000 achievement points in. They are the most fun achievements I have ever experienced and they easily doubled the longevity of this game for me. They vary in difficulty from completing a race to base jumping 1000 meters (this is greatest single achievement I’ve ever had the pleasure of earning).

Because this game has achievements like no other, I think a one time policy change is in order. For being a singleplayer only game, I will deduct 0.5 off of the final score instead of the usual 1.

Therefore, if you are one who values singleplayer only games as much as completed games, consider this game a 9.4.