Just Cause
Publisher: Square Enix Developer: Avalanche Studios Platform: PC Release: 2006 Players: 1 Genre: Third-Person Shooter / Sandbox Rating: 7.2 \ 10.0: Good
Above is Rico in a speedy, motion-blurry pursuit with the policia.
Just Cause has become a series renowned for its massive open worlds and explosive action that would leave Micheal Bay impressed. The developers, Avalanche Studios, have become full on triple-A developers thanks to their series of summer blockbuster simulators, but they had humble beginnings.
Anyone familiar with this franchise will not be surprised by the plot; The tyrannical Salvador Mendoza, a man believed to be in possession of weapons of mass destruction, has taken over the fictional South American island nation of San Esperito. Because of this, Rico Rodriguez, who has now become a staple of the series, is sent to the country to aid the rebels who reside there in overthrowing Mendoza and to take out the president's corrupt government officials. This gives the title of the game an often overlooked double meaning, as "Just Cause" can be interpreted as Rico's actions being honorable or as a shortened version of "Just because", the perfect answer as to why you a do any of the over-the-top things the game allows you to.
Those who have played later games in the series but not this one may take while to adjust to the gameplay. Many of the major elements of games to come are still present -- the massive game map is littered with races, side-quests, and villages to liberate. However, the game itself plays much differently, mostly due to the less fleshed-out stunt system. This game's grappling hook is still fun to use, but it can only latch onto vehicles, meaning that travelling by using the parachute and hook as many players did in JC2 is not possible. Thankfully, you're able to request a vehicle drop at your location whenever you're not in a pursuit. As you liberate more villages and bases, more vehicles become unlocked. My biggest issue with the unarmed vehicles in the game is that you can't use weapons while you're riding on top of them, making on-road vehicular combat needlessly frustrating. While in pursuits, I often had to abandon my car every several minutes and climb into a police or military one due to taking significant damage because I was unable to defend myself without heavily reducing my mobility.
Liberating settlements also works quite differently then it did in later games. You start a liberation by speaking to the rebel or gang member outside the settlement, and both sides will immediately begin to call in reinforcements. There are three barricades that must be destroyed in every settlement (that are really easy to get around and could hardly be considered barricades, but "logic" and Just Cause are an oxymoron), and the enemies will suddenly disappear once you either capture the flag or take out a gang leader depending on which type of settlement you're overthrowing. These battles feel incredibly intense due to the large number of NPCs. I was frequently getting hit by bullets I had no hope of avoiding, but this was never too much of an issue since enemies will occasionally drop medkits upon defeat. The scale of these shootouts is impressive, and the number of weapons dropped by combatants on the ground that I would see in the aftermath of liberations never failed to impress me. This game was released before the open-world shooter formula was refined, and the game can sometimes feel even more repetitious than modern Ubisoft titles, and if you don't enjoy those types of games, you certainly won't enjoy this one. However, I don't mind very much when the repetitious activities are so entertaining.
It's difficult to notice that this game's AI opponents don't live up to the "intelligence" part of the acronym when you're fighting them on foot in large groups, but things get ugly when vehicles are involved. You'll often see massive pileups of cars in the middle of villages after liberating them, and the enemies are just as reckless on the open road. They would frequently ram me off of cliffs and took themselves down with me, and would also often run into lampposts and trees. The enemies don't cease their stupidity while airborne, either; the helicopter pilots may be able to shoot you from incredible distances even through thick trees and vegetation, but they usually stay still and will never attempt to avoid your gunfire when you're on foot, making them incredibly easy targets if you've got a rocket launcher equipped.
As for the campaign missions, they're okay, but mostly forgettable. There are a few fairly fun moments I can recall, but what I most remember are the numerous glitches I came across and frustrations that arose from them and the ludicrous saving system. Some of the more notable bugs I ran into were when tanks tumbled around uncontrollably when I drove them, triggered explosives bouncing across the ground when I deployed them, objective items disappearing upon retrying levels, and the game instantly crashing on PC if the game was in anyway minimized. I once accidentally pressed the Windows key while piloting a helicopter when I meant to lower the vehicle by holding the nearby CTRL key. As a result, the game crashed and I lost nearly half an hour of progress. (This apparently doesn't affect Windows XP users, but if you own a PC running an operating system from 2001, it's probably factory-built and has no hope of smoothly running this game) "Why didn't you just manually save?" you might be asking. Well, the only way to save your progress in Just Cause is via prompts that appear when you complete a campaign mission or if you use a control panel at one of the safehouses you unlock as you liberate San Esperito. This combined with the inability to start the game up from mission checkpoints caused me to become stuck for long periods of time on some segments of the game.
Just Cause is one of the most polarizing games I've played in awhile. The gameplay has thrilling highs and extremely frustrating lows; the islands are densely packed with well-detailed vegetation and foliage, but the FMV cutscenes are grainy and ugly; the flamenco soundtrack does wonders to accentuate the action, but the voice acting is hilariously bad. The game may have many shortcomings, but they are ultimately overshadowed by the often entertaining action. It's far from a masterpiece, but it's worth checking out if you want to kill time with some open-world silliness.
Anyone familiar with this franchise will not be surprised by the plot; The tyrannical Salvador Mendoza, a man believed to be in possession of weapons of mass destruction, has taken over the fictional South American island nation of San Esperito. Because of this, Rico Rodriguez, who has now become a staple of the series, is sent to the country to aid the rebels who reside there in overthrowing Mendoza and to take out the president's corrupt government officials. This gives the title of the game an often overlooked double meaning, as "Just Cause" can be interpreted as Rico's actions being honorable or as a shortened version of "Just because", the perfect answer as to why you a do any of the over-the-top things the game allows you to.
Those who have played later games in the series but not this one may take while to adjust to the gameplay. Many of the major elements of games to come are still present -- the massive game map is littered with races, side-quests, and villages to liberate. However, the game itself plays much differently, mostly due to the less fleshed-out stunt system. This game's grappling hook is still fun to use, but it can only latch onto vehicles, meaning that travelling by using the parachute and hook as many players did in JC2 is not possible. Thankfully, you're able to request a vehicle drop at your location whenever you're not in a pursuit. As you liberate more villages and bases, more vehicles become unlocked. My biggest issue with the unarmed vehicles in the game is that you can't use weapons while you're riding on top of them, making on-road vehicular combat needlessly frustrating. While in pursuits, I often had to abandon my car every several minutes and climb into a police or military one due to taking significant damage because I was unable to defend myself without heavily reducing my mobility.
Liberating settlements also works quite differently then it did in later games. You start a liberation by speaking to the rebel or gang member outside the settlement, and both sides will immediately begin to call in reinforcements. There are three barricades that must be destroyed in every settlement (that are really easy to get around and could hardly be considered barricades, but "logic" and Just Cause are an oxymoron), and the enemies will suddenly disappear once you either capture the flag or take out a gang leader depending on which type of settlement you're overthrowing. These battles feel incredibly intense due to the large number of NPCs. I was frequently getting hit by bullets I had no hope of avoiding, but this was never too much of an issue since enemies will occasionally drop medkits upon defeat. The scale of these shootouts is impressive, and the number of weapons dropped by combatants on the ground that I would see in the aftermath of liberations never failed to impress me. This game was released before the open-world shooter formula was refined, and the game can sometimes feel even more repetitious than modern Ubisoft titles, and if you don't enjoy those types of games, you certainly won't enjoy this one. However, I don't mind very much when the repetitious activities are so entertaining.
It's difficult to notice that this game's AI opponents don't live up to the "intelligence" part of the acronym when you're fighting them on foot in large groups, but things get ugly when vehicles are involved. You'll often see massive pileups of cars in the middle of villages after liberating them, and the enemies are just as reckless on the open road. They would frequently ram me off of cliffs and took themselves down with me, and would also often run into lampposts and trees. The enemies don't cease their stupidity while airborne, either; the helicopter pilots may be able to shoot you from incredible distances even through thick trees and vegetation, but they usually stay still and will never attempt to avoid your gunfire when you're on foot, making them incredibly easy targets if you've got a rocket launcher equipped.
As for the campaign missions, they're okay, but mostly forgettable. There are a few fairly fun moments I can recall, but what I most remember are the numerous glitches I came across and frustrations that arose from them and the ludicrous saving system. Some of the more notable bugs I ran into were when tanks tumbled around uncontrollably when I drove them, triggered explosives bouncing across the ground when I deployed them, objective items disappearing upon retrying levels, and the game instantly crashing on PC if the game was in anyway minimized. I once accidentally pressed the Windows key while piloting a helicopter when I meant to lower the vehicle by holding the nearby CTRL key. As a result, the game crashed and I lost nearly half an hour of progress. (This apparently doesn't affect Windows XP users, but if you own a PC running an operating system from 2001, it's probably factory-built and has no hope of smoothly running this game) "Why didn't you just manually save?" you might be asking. Well, the only way to save your progress in Just Cause is via prompts that appear when you complete a campaign mission or if you use a control panel at one of the safehouses you unlock as you liberate San Esperito. This combined with the inability to start the game up from mission checkpoints caused me to become stuck for long periods of time on some segments of the game.
Just Cause is one of the most polarizing games I've played in awhile. The gameplay has thrilling highs and extremely frustrating lows; the islands are densely packed with well-detailed vegetation and foliage, but the FMV cutscenes are grainy and ugly; the flamenco soundtrack does wonders to accentuate the action, but the voice acting is hilariously bad. The game may have many shortcomings, but they are ultimately overshadowed by the often entertaining action. It's far from a masterpiece, but it's worth checking out if you want to kill time with some open-world silliness.
Ups
Impressively large-scale battles
Beautiful visuals (for the time)
Fantastic flamenco soundtrack
Clever title
Hilariously idiotic A.I
Downs
Horrible cut-scenes and voice acting
Repetitive tasks
Frustrating save system and glitches
Hilariously idiotic A.I.
Also available on Xbox, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 2
ESRB: M (PARENTAL WARNING: This game contains intense violence, suggestive content, some swearing, and drug references) Content: Blood, Drug Reference, Language, Intense Violence, and Suggestive Content Price: $6.99 (Retail / Download)
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