Just Cause 4

What happened?

Big fan of the franchise because of the over the top destructible bases that you are required to destroy to capture new settlements for your allies, which has been a core mechanic since JC2 but Just Cause 4 does not implement this!!! To capture new bases you have to complete missions from Sargento, your militia coordinator which just feels boring. While there are still all the massive generators and propane tanks that you can still blow up, it just feels empty and pointless. Also the new grapple attachments are weird but that's a whole other can of worms. Stay in Medici, Just Cause 3 is better.

As a fan of Just Cause 2 I actually enjoyed playing this. It was great to finally be able to explore a more diverse set of biomes again, especially since I was super bored of Medici by the end of JC3. The strongest aspect of the game has to be what they did with the grapple hook tho. All these modifications are just so much fun to f around with. I don't remember how often I built myself a flying tank to solve a mission objective instead of playing it "the normal way" (Which I guess was the point of the game to begin with).

As much fun as I had, it would be unfair not to aknowledge the games short comings though. The guns are alright at best, the missions are often unimaginative and a massive missed opportunity considering what gameplay options you have and the vehicles, especially cars and boats are actually super clunky, which, sure... they always were in Just Cause Games, but this has to be a new low. The story on the other hand is taking itself a bit too serious for what it is. Just Cause 2 was self-aware and a parody of its genre but this game tries to be a bit more dramatic in it's presentation and falls flat doing so. Luckily Just Cause is one of those games you really don't play for the story, so it didn't bother me much. The game is also not well optimized and prone to crash on weaker machines, so if you plan to play this on PC be aware.

Overall mixed feelings about the execution of what is essentially a really fun game. I'd give 6.5 stars if I could. If you don't care about all the problems I just named, I'm sure you'll have a great time with this. ...and for the price of 7,99 euros on MMOGA you really can't complain all that much.

In short: the game is too easy. Just run from one pointer to the next, push a button, rinse and repeat.

Sure, you gun down a few enemies on the way but they're just a little nuisance.

A big milestone of the JC series is the destruction of the "red" objectives, and it used to be you had to clear all of them to advance in you conquest, all the while enemies occupied that area. Now they're just there, you can destroy them but you don't really need to, after a certain point they can be completely ignored because they don have any purpose anymore: they give you troops for occupying areas, but you need 6 troops at most, after thet you just keep on accruing allies but never use them.

The weapons are quite uninspired, just use whatever the enemies drop. There are (a lot of) weapon crates around the world, but they always contain the usual useless weapons, so it's quicker just picking up whatever you find, at least you know you'll get ammo refills from the enemies.

The story could simply not be there. It's not a huge selling point for this game, but at least in JC3 you could care for the characters that talked to you and get a bit of a laugh here and there, now it would be better if they didn't exist at all.

The graphics are not that good, and I mean the overall effect they achieve is not pleasing to the eye. Especially water and hair are so bad you just can't help but being shot out of the immersion of the game.

The SSAO option simply makes the game black, there are no differences in the illumination, just a layer of black painted over the screen. In broad daylight, as soon as you enter a covered space, it becomes night. You literally cannot see 5 meter ahead of you. That would be OK if there was some kind of transition period during which your eyes get accustomed to the new lighting, but that's not the case, you are in the dark forever.

To take over a base you download data from a terminal and fight off the enemies while it's downloading, compared to the others where you destroy all fuel tanks, satellites, etc. I'm 35 hours into it and it doesn't feel like I've done anything

Personally, this game isn't that bad. There are more vehicles than jc3, and I actually prefer the graphics now, but I understand how people don't like it. Why this doesn't get 9/10 is the liberation/missions-not enough. Once, I I drove 10 cars in water and liberated the entire region. If it worked more like jc3 with destroying red objects, then liberating bases then when you liberate all bases you liberate a region. Maybe then you unlock the missions to finally liberate the region. Also, the tornadoes always end up in the same place, However I haven't checked the new update

Also, they could add missions for the front line - for example, you have to go and defend otherwise you lose a small area of front line, so it feals real.