Remember how the makers of Grand Theft Auto IV boasted a realistic, living city, a classic American-dream storyline and believable, realistic action? Well, Eidos, the company behind Just Cause 2, did the exact opposite. It created an over-the-top, action-packed and downright ridiculous third-person adventure that emphasizes the crazy rather than the realistic.
Within a short period of time, you may go from sabotaging a desert military base to hijacking a commercial airliner to skydiving out of that plane over a communications outpost deep in the mountains.
The basic structure of Just Cause 2 revolves around an overblown, James Bond-style story. You are sent to the fictional island of Panau to track down a fellow secret agent, whom some believe has gone rogue. This snowballs into an absurd story regarding an evil dictator and his lust for power, though in reality the story merely serves as a vehicle to the true point of the game: causing chaos.
Chaos is your currency in unlocking missions, story or otherwise, and it is acquired by doing almost anything. Crash a car into an explosive barrel? Chaos points are awarded. Shoot down some enemy helicopters? Chaos. Blow up some military fuel depots? You get the point. In earning chaos points, not only do you unlock missions but new black-market weapons and vehicles also become available.
The incentive to blow stuff up is strong and surprisingly, never gets boring. This is the largest persistent game world ever created for the Xbox 360, with more than 300 locations to discover and varying environments, including dense jungles, desert plains and snowy mountaintops. Just discovering the world of Panau is a blast, not to mention blowing half of it up.
To complement such a large world, there are more than 100 vehicles, including airplanes and boats in addition to the requisite helicopters and cars. However, in a true stroke of genius, the developers combined a grappling hook and parachute to create the most badass method of travel of all time.
While pulling yourself along with a grappling hook, throw the parachute and effectively slingshot yourself into the air. Continuing to grapple the ground to keep pulling along results in a similar feel to the classic Spider-Man 2 game. Both of these items are available from the start and integral to the success of the game because with them, no location is too far away and no platform is unreachable. The world is truly yours to explore.
On a technical level, this game has some flaws but overcomes them with an awe-inspiring sense of scale. At times, characters may involuntarily stutter their lines, like a broken record, and at others, protagonist Rico Rodriguez is caught in a wall. When you fly a helicopter to the game’s unbelievably high virtual ceiling, get a good look at the entire island and then fly down to the miniscule details of a village, though, such trivial flaws are forgotten.
On the other hand, there are some less-than-trivial flaws that can hinder the experience. The voice acting is terrible and borderline racist. The simple task of picking up a weapon is complicated to the point of annoying. And though the gunplay isn’t broken, it surely doesn’t make waves in innovation. The ability to wield two smaller guns at once is a nice touch, but again, nothing new.
Driving a boat is usually a bore since, in contradiction to the other vehicles in the game, the boats are fairly realistic, meaning they are slow and sluggish. Why not include Jet Skis when you can take a military fighter into the air? It seems like a missed opportunity, with the game world being an island and all.
One other complaint is the lack of multiplayer, cooperative or competitive modes. For some reason, the notion of playing chicken between expensive military aircraft and jet airliners with a buddy seems exhilarating to say the least. Cooperative play could extend the life of this game, though having beaten the story mode after 20 hours and discovering only half of the locations, there is more than enough single-player content to justify the $60 price tag.
Despite some weird design decisions and a couple glitches, the thrill of skydiving, grappling and blowing shit up makes Just Cause 2 a long-lasting and fulfilling single-player experience. Endless amounts of content make this a must-buy or at the very least, a must-rent.
diversions@umdbk.com
RATING: 4 stars out of 5
