18th Nov 2009
I've been looking at Just Cause for a while. It reminded me a bit of Tropico for the PC, which I thoroughly enjoyed, but I was put off by the negative reviews. I shouldn't have been. I finally bought it on special here, and haven't regretted it. Like an action movie, it starts out hard and heavy and doesn't let up. You're Rico Rodriguez—an undercover CIA operative specializing in regime change,and you've been called into San Esperito to do what you do best- take out the corrupt Generalissimo and help the revolution succeed.
The gameplay is spot-on, in a GTA-inspired manner that allows you to pull off outrageous stunts. It's all about style, as you don't get too bogged down in the firefights, inspiring you to pull off outrageous moves while gunning down foes in the best action movie style. Along the way, you perform missions to destabilize the region that you're in as you move along a board to claim territories for the revolution. Sometimes it's causing a drug war to stretch the government's forces, and sometimes you have to get down and dirty and take out the forces in the area. You're also building up your reputation with the cartel and the revolution to get access to better weaponry and devices.
The stunt system is a hilarious addition to spice up the GTA formula a bit- you can take over just about any vehicle, and take to the skies with your every useable parachute, sailing above your enemies, grappling to them and taking over their vehicles. It might not be realistic, but it's cinematic, and fun!
It's not perfect, and its for sure not politically correct, and it certainly doesn't pay heed to physics in the stunt system. Notice I said in the stunt system, because the driving is spot on, and there are a lot of little touches- from the music to the acting- that drive it over the top. I'd definitely recommend it!
7th Jun 2009
Just Cause is yet another sandbox game that takes a lot of hints from the immensely popular and far better GTA-series.
On the surface the game actually looks full of potential but unfortunately it delivers very little.
On the plus side you do get to wreak lots of mayhem as a secret agent in a tropical paradise and most of the action is completely over the top in the best way.
You’re free to use a variety of vehicles including cars, motorbikes, tanks and even helicopters – and with your unlimited supply of parachutes (somewhat curious but very practical) you get to basejump of every bridge or mountain you come across.
The missions in the game are pretty repetitive though (destroy X camps or Y roadblocks) and they get boring pretty fast.
But what really keeps Just Cause from being even a somewhat moderately enjoyable run-of-the-mill shooter is the insane amount of bugs. This is by far one of the worst PC ports I’ve ever tried!
Seriously, I keep getting stuck in environments over and over – which is even more annoying since you’re only allowed to save at save points.
Also the draw distance on vehicles and environments is horrible – they just pop out from out of nowhere. Shadows and lighting effects look glitchy and the “motion blur” effect looks like the screen is experiencing some kind of weird static interference.
On top of this the car handling is terrible – we’re talking “Alone in the dark”-bad!
I never really expected much of the game in the first place but I was still amazed to find out it had this many issues.
In many ways Just Cause reminds me of Total Overdose which was another (sort of) GTA-clone with a Latin flavor but with a much more focused gameplay. This game simply tries to much and achieves to little. Or maybe it was just yet another rushed release. Either way I personally wouldn’t recommend anyone buying it.
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