Just Cause

Just Cause is the type of game that is very popular with kids these days, and that is the so-called 'sandbox'-games. The goal of these type of games is usually to focus on the player's freedom to explore the world and do whatever he/she wants to. What shocked me is how well this game was received. If you've played the demo, you will notice the quotes of the many praise the game has gotten which the demo proudly shows you at the beginning. Personally, I always thought it looked like just another sandbox-game, but I never knew it was going to be even worse then that. In the time that I played this game I never noticed any significant storyline or at least something that is interesting enough to be mentioned.

The very first thing that bugged me when I started playing Just Cause was the horrible camera-control. Whenever you want to turn the camera to look around you, the screen does this stupid motion-blur that flatout completely ruins your vision. On top of that, the camera-control is highly sensitive, so you are going to get annoyed with this problem a lót. So after some time I hardly even used the camera.

Its not just the camera-control that is broken, your character Rico is the stiffest character I've played with in a long while. His animations are really poor (like most of the characters in this game), and he seems to lack the ability to run for some stupid reason which is very strange considering this is supposed to be a sandbox-game where moving from place to place is usually a crucial thing.

For what its worth, the graphics are at least okay. They set a nice atmosphere, although its nothing you've never seen before. The creators of Just Cause must have been aware of the broken controls, and thats why the game includes a auto-aim function. Basically this means that whenever a enemy is close to you and you aim anywhere near it you will get this big circle around him and from there you can just pull the trigger until he's dead. The funny thing is though that the targets you have to assassinate on some missions take longer to kill. Its obvious that the developers wanted to give the player more challenge, but the game gives no kind of explanation to whý those particular people can take so much more bullets then regular enemy's. This almost makes the game feel like an arcade-shooter, but the enemy AI is very laughable so its still pretty easy to take them out.

I never understood why gamemagazines and websites were stumbling all over each other to get a scoop of this game. Its just a very lackluster attempt at a sandbox-game that was probably rushed out the door which would explain the game's bad AI, crappy controls and overall technical flaws. My advice: stick to Mercenary's (2). Just Cause isn't worth your money and frustration.

Just Cause will find gamers immersed into a world of GTA but a little bit different. The GTA games are more fun and the world is larger while Just Cause will appeal to some gamers. The scenery is more breathtaking than GTA but it's repetitiveness make Just Cause a messed up and boring game. The game itself doesn't make this bad but the glitches which you will find on the PC version make it shi**ier than it already it is.

You play a agent called Rico Rodriguez and you goal in the game is to destroy President Mendoza and his army of corrupt politicians and thugs. You are helped by your two sidekicks and while you are trying to throw President Mendoza (Out the window), you also have to help two sides reclaim San Esperito, a fictional island which the whole game is set in.

The gun play in this game is very similar to James bond and sometimes you will find yourself quitting but one thing this game is perfect in, is the Scenery and the parachuting. Often you will find Rico parachuting from a helicopter with wind rushing in his face. Also during the game you have to complete side missions to increase your ranks within the two factions but they get repetitive and boring after a couple of missions.

Final thoughts: Just Cause is a very fun PC that will have you enjoying it more and more. The breathtaking scenery along with many other things will have you playing for hours without end. One thing that really bugged me was reaching the mission objectives. Sometimes they take for two hours or more. Nevertheless you will enjoy this game!

Things, as you might expect, are not looking well. Government is gradually moving towards totalitarianism, citizens are harassed for no good reason and other countries are worried it will go to war and cost many lives. But enough about the US. Things aren't much better in the fictional South American(and this gets and utilizes the possibilities and local flavor, tone, plentiful beaches, exotic babes, etc.) island state of San Esperito. The dictator, Mendoza(Tatasciore) has to be taken down. Of course, an invasion would risk international incident. And McBain is busy. So a small task-force is sent in. Sheldon(McGonagle), your boss, Kane(DeLisle) the saucy arms tech girl, and you - Rico(Downes).

Why pick this up rather than the Rockstar original? This takes the basic core of that, and builds a lot of awesomeness on top of it(keeping in mind that, overall, this is not as good as the series that inspires it). The focus? Going through them one by one: Extreme sports. If you jump off a cliff(!) or are moving fast(when the ambient music switches to the energetic score), you can activate a parachute(or free fall). From there, you can attack, get into a mode of transport, and obviously get away. No matter what situation you're in, you can "move", you can affect where you're going, how fast, etc. with the smooth, well-streamlined, responsive and intuitive controls(handling can be OK, and is seldom poor). Everything you steer is equally easy to start using. Sure, their weight, center of balance, acceleration and such vary, but you get a feel for those aspects immensely fast. And before someone says that being a pilot is tough, well, so is being an expert chauffeur. Here, that is acknowledged.

All types of vehicles, common, without you getting blase about their use, and tremendously useful, make up the next aspect. Cars and motorcycles go without saying. Add to that boats(a lot of water - it might be best to cross it directly), helicopters(there are a lot of steep hills, it'll save you time) and planes(want to get from one end to the other of the 1,012km2 there are for you to explore? Here you go. Do note that about 70% of those are the lifeless sea and fugly, "early 3D kind of plants" jungle). All of them have variations that come with a machinegun and/or a rocket(including ones that come at you... typically, use of the latter doesn't go for when you're on foot - so plan accordingly) that, in addition to being a helpful, toggle-allowing auto-aiming, allow you to focus properly on what you want to decimate in a 90 degree angle in front of you. You can bail out at any time, and commandeer them from anyone else, provided you come close enough to them. You know, with the Grappler, that lets you lengthening/shortening the line. And you can be hanging off it if you'd like.

Some jeeps(and some guardposts, yours and theirs) come with a mounted M60, albeit this won't do much for you, a lot of the time: you can't be sure your ally(who will target you in case of friendly fire... and they get trigger-happy in their unsolicited aid of you, being, at times, more dangerous than who they're trying to protect you from) will drive, you can't get on it unless he's already stopped(and if you disengage it while he's still moving, you may go flying through the air - and no, you can't request he stop for a second). The Agency will offer assistance - finite by virtue of you "not being supposed to be there". They'll drop a car, a gyrocopter, or, if you want it to take off *and* hold a small arsenal, a catamaran or a humvee. You can also ask them to Extract you to any Safe House you've unlocked. There, you can fully heal, pick up bullets, save progress, grab something to get you from A to B, and, fortunately, expand what weapons are currently at your disposal.

You always have melee and unlimited ammo dual revolvers. Three of your slots can be occupied by your two types of C4(on a 10 second timer, or triggered) and the detonator of the latter. From there, you choose your preferred pistol, SMG(or sawn-off, LAW), and, last but certainly not least, whether to carry an assault rifle, a sniper, a shotgun, a grenade launcher or a 3-round bazooka(!). All of this combines to provide fodder for the creative destroyer within you. Two thirds of the main missions(that I understand you can complete in 5 hours) indeed allow you to approach them in different ways. Outside of that, there are side objectives(randomly selected between about 20; like the story ones, they boil down to "go here, do something, come back/go there", with hardly any twists, compellingly designed and unique ones as they lack the ingenuity of GTA) and liberations(taking over a town/base of operations from the people in charge, or the Montano cartel, who are on their payroll).

This earns you rank points with that of the two groups you were working for at the time, the Guerillas and the Rioja drug-runners(!). They stock the earlier mentioned bases for you - and getting to the top as well as completing the "plot"(there's little continuity, and thus, sense of accomplishment, between them), took me about 33 hours, which isn't a bad length for this. Sadly, beyond that, there's little to do here. Collectibles that also tie into aforementioned, and six races that vary in challenge(note that this has no difficulty settings), although it doesn't tell you which it'll be beforehand. The prevalence of glitches and bugs, including semi-frequent crashing requiring a cold reboot, in this make it clear that it was rushed. The arcade style is a lot of fun, though it could have been better achieved. Points/cash would do a lot.

There is a lot of bloody violence and disturbing content in this. I recommend this to any fans of open-world action. 7/10

Some twelve years later, I am again using my Xbox One's backwards compatibility feature to play the 360 version of "Just Cause".

The game is a free roaming action adventure title, in the vein of "Grand Theft Auto" although the city landscape has been replaced by a series of islands that make up a fictional South/Central American country. You are Rico, sent in by some CIA-esque bosses to stir up trouble and inspire the locals to overthrow the countries dictator leader, Mendoza. It's an open world game that you can traverse as you see fit with the standard story missions, side missions and collectables to spend your time on. As per the GTA 3 model, all the vehicles around the island can be commandeered and used by you, though doing so will soon attract the attention of the Islands police force who are hilariously committed to your murder at that point, sending wave after wave of helicopter at your for even the most minor infraction. There is also an existing cartel on the island that the side missions have you replace with a friendlier one, stealing the wrong car - or invading the wrong town will also push up your wanted level with them.

Though the game world is truly massive, what it isn't is particularly interesting. The vast majority of it is uninhabited mountainous woodland. There is no wildlife living in it to avoid or hunt, so much of your time there can be a dull slog from one side to the other whilst hoping that at no point is it ever going to switch to a really steep hill that Rico can no longer ascend. Though it looks quite impressive from a distance, closer up you soon see that it's all the same grass and tree effect. The weather is nicely implemented though, and can get some nice visuals once you're up in a helicopter and seeing the sun set around a mountain.

The trouble with the game is how glitchy it is. There are a lot of moving parts, and from a game that's 12 years old now it's understandable, but it's still not fun to be caught in a vehicle that explodes for no reason, or gets stuck in a wall. Sometimes objectives disappear or were completed without me having anything to do with it. It also, doesn't help itself with its design choices sometimes, forcing you to redo 5 minutes of travel before retrying a mission or walking through the jungle for 10 minutes after a mission to get back to some arbitrary point on the map. There is also quite a big difficulty spike towards the end the game that meant that I gave up rather than completing the final missions and then plodding through the game to get the achievements and 100% total.

There's much to admire in "Just Cause" but the restrictions of the consoles at the time betrayed the grandiose dreams of the developers. I'm hoping I'll soon discover that the sequels have enhanced the experience to a more satisfying one.

In an island paradise archipelago full of brightly colored flora, vivacious inhabitants, countless villages, and even more vehicles to chose from than Burt Reynolds has wigs... this is the world of Just Cause.

You are placed in the footsteps of an agent working to overthrow a dictator in a fictional Latin country. Sounds good right? Not really...

The cast has about as much character depth as an Extra in a Paulie Shore film.

The game scripting is very buggy. Aiming is extremely difficult. The enemies can take a ridiculously large amount of bullets to the chest before they die. (example given- sniping a Boss character in the back, neck, etc takes health down but isn't an instant kill... the game is very arcade). The poor design allows AI that is so bad that, if you stand in the middle of an airport, you hear "Boom, boom, bang, boom" as the computer is much too stupid to fly, or land, any planes or helicopters- they just crash and immediately respawn above your head.

The game plot is far from linear (neither good nor bad) but at times it can be hard to remember why you are fighting in the first place- oh wait, you're an agent and its cool. That's right. That's why you are fighting. (Seriously, this is why you are set out on a slaughter campaign to liberate a country- because you're wearing black and have a gun, guess its your job *shrug*).

The plot is pretty much nonexistent.

Overall, the scenery is pretty. If you want to explore miles and miles of ocean and tropical paradise and see local villages with people harking their wares and gangs killing each other, this is the game for you. If you like to be entertained with good gameplay, a story, or anything resemblant of character development... this isn't for you.

This is a Grand Theft Auto clone containing both "theft" and "auto", but it is very far from "grand."