Developer: Avalanche Studios
Publisher: Eidos Interactive
Release Date: September 2006
Format: PS2, XBOX 360 (version played), PC
Genre Keywords: Sandbox, Third Person, Shooter, Action, Vehicles
Just Cause is Avalanche Studios' first outing into the world of
next-gen drive-and-shoot, and a prime example that a game can make it
on mind-blowing statistics alone. The statistic in this game is
acreage: spanning 400 sq. km. of tropical real estate - all of which
is reachable, drivable, flyable or glideable - the tropical island
chain of fictional San Esperito is a fantastic playground of freeform
gaming, with some of the most horrible gameplay mechanics ever put into
digital form. If you don't take it seriously however, the game can
still provide a lot of fun.
Bring on the cheese
You are Rico Rodriguez, a pistol-toting, parachute-equipped Latino version of James Bond (tres
Antonio Banderas, even the voice actor is a soundalike), aiding
the US government in liberating the isles of San Esperito from its
corrupt dictatorship. Part of the liberation also involves taking over
the coca plantations from one drug cartel to another, Uncle
Sam-approved one. These two trivial bits of plot serve as the focus of
the entire game - you will spend it using your ample arsenal, lots of
land, sea and air vehicles and lots and lots of explosives to stir up
trouble in San Esperito over the course of 21 fairly predictable (but
still enjoyable) chase-and-destroy missions. The missions are given
to you by a veritable Jack Wade wannabe (even sounds like him) and
his lovely butch assistant; this is done through
barely tolerable cutscenes saved only by surprisingly decent voice
acting (not Rico's though). These missions open up territories to be
liberated via patient takeover of multiple population centers, a
successful attempt to inject ludicrous gobs of content to pad out the
game's length.
Huge Tracts of Land
See, the game is rather like an insanely
attractive but thoroughly unimaginative partner. It puts every other
game out there to shame with sheer high-profile looks, boasting 400 km
sq. of fully explorable terrain: you can start at one end, get in a
helicopter, fly to 6,000 feet, get out, pop the parachute and glide
across the island in a slow, controlled descent; you can even attempt
to catch another ride as you parachute down. Once you land, you can
then get in a car, motorcycle or boat or any available conveyance (or
just use your grappling hook to latch on to a passing car and
paraglide from standstill) and spend hours driving back on the fully
realized rural, paved and even highway systems. No pausing, no loading,
no clipping, no hitches and only a bare minimum of popup as the flora LOD system kicks in. All of this with
fully realized cloud systems, colorful and detailed time-of-day
systems, unique landmarks, constant and thick flora, and driving,
flying and walking AI routines going on around you all the time. From a
god's eye view to walking amongst the mortals in under a minute's worth
of a HALO jump; it's enough to make you believe the next-gen hype.
What the game gives you
Unfortunately the fun you will have with the game is left entirely up to you. The game's story is
insipid, the missions static and mostly uninteresting, the ~60 or so
liberation missions consist of about 2 cookie-cutter types (but hey,
you can repeat each 30 times!), the animations stiff and unnatural and
the combat model atrocious, consisting solely of holding down the fire
button and pointing in the general vicinity of the bad guys. There is
no verve, no zest, no zip or zowie - unless you create your own or
simply enjoy boggling at the sheer scale and beauty of the game.
The only mission worth nothing is the set of city liberations. Due
to size (again, tech specs to the rescue) of the city you can get an
entire city's worth of soldiers, jeeps, armored cars, choppers all
duking it out with guerrillas until one side or the other gains an
advantage. It's quite an impressive spectacle and one of the more challenging and
open objectives that the game provides due to the amount of explosives
present (Rico is nearly bulletproof due to the astonishing shittiness
of the combat system (I figure the designers couldn't figure out any
decent way to do it, so they made you nearly invulnerable instead -
there is also no death penalty whatsoever; just hit continue and
respawn back at the nearest base) but he is not rocketproof so you
actually have to use all your skills to win these objectives). As far
as the Story Missions go, the less said the better - really. Most
missions consist of going from A to carefully prepared B and blowing it
up.
D- for effort, but ...
Despite the lack of redeeming features, it is still quite an
astonishing feat of engineering that propels Just Cause, and it's worth
picking up (at the now-bargain price of 15 bucks or less) Just For
That. As long as you don't take any of its hastily assembled "game"
parts seriously, you have a heck of an open-world sandbox to play in at
a low, low price. If, like me, you can't help but be fascinated by
simply having a world (with ample air, land and sea vehicles at your disposal instantly) at the command of your XBox360 On button, you owe
it to yourself to check this one out. Note about the demo: the mission in the demo is timed; most of the missions in the game are not.
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