Just Cause 2

10 Review to this product

• 

  S. C. Smith
  March 24th, 2010 on 9:47 pm

  Rating

  Man, how nice to be away from reality. IRS, Bills, Responsibilities, nasty politics and more are reality. I’ll leave them behind and grapple to a heli, grapple the passenger to his falling death next with the pilot and then take it over and then blow the hell out of a thug-run criminal gas station with my heli’s built in rockets, parachute down and then motorcycle to a drug king pen’s villa and blow the snot out of him and his goons and its not even 6:00am in the morning yet. Am I a Marine? Nope, I don’t command that respect but I play Just Cause 2. Been playing it for addictively for 16 hours now and not even 8% through the main game yet. Here is the original review – a few gripes after.

  Well, I’ve never really enjoyed “sandbox” games. Tried GTA and just didn’t get into it. Maybe I didn’t try it long enough. But this game just got started and its an absolute blast and I think its just going to get even better. Watched many videos and read some reviews and watched one of the developers play and man this game is just plain insane fun! The diverse things you get to do and blow up are just amazing. Creating chaos and destroying cities to piss off the government! If only! Well, here we get to do it and the light story motivates you to kick some tail. The controls take time to get used to and are a bit difficult for older gamers like me, but its so much fun its worth it. Glitches??? I’m having way too much fun to even notice, nor do I give a …. Man, grappling to a huge heli, blowing it up OR taking it over then latching on to a building and ‘chuting down, so many options. For less talented gamers such as myself, it does get a bit difficult with all of the controls and fast action though. I’ll just have to keep practicing. As far as value for a game? I can’t imagine how long and how many great hours you could put into this game. I think there are almost 400 locations to explore and infiltrate and I’m just getting started and thats not even mentioning the side missions which I haven’t reached yet. Fun factor and replayability give this game 9.5 out of 10(haven’t found a 10 yet) if you like to blow stuff up, shoot thugs, drive vehicles – planes, boats, helis, hummers and who knows what else…..this game is absolutely for you. If you pick apart games for reality, well give this one a pass. Once I get way further into it, I’ll update this review.

  Some gripes: Save points! I wish there was an option to go exactly back to the place where you died. It seems that the game sticks you back into an old conquest and you have to fly/ride/run back to the other place or “transport” from your black market contact to a previous conquest that is close by to where you want to be. Not sure why, but thats the way they did it. Maybe there is another way but I don’t know it. The vehicles can be difficult at first, but after you get used to them they are a complete blast. This game is still one of the most fun games I have ever played and there is so much more. Its one of the first games the I want to complete each mission at 100% and that can be fairly time consuming. The heli’s are so much fun. I don’t know why the put the vehicle purchase option in the game when you can just steal and aquire them in the game. Maybe there is a reason, but I don’t know it yet. I bought a couple but it was just a waste of cash when I crashed them and stole another. I’ll stand by my 5 star and 9.5 out of 10 review, or ok, 9.25 out of 10. A complete consuming blast, and still I’m only a small way in the game.
• 

  kidtiger75
  March 25th, 2010 on 9:16 am

  Rating

  I was not going to buy this game or give it a chance but Im glad I did. Don’t base the game on the demo, Its kind of like the Batman demo, which was not good but the game rocks. The world is HUGE, the action is non stop, and its challenging at the same time. The biggest knock on this game has been the story, which is not that bad. Plus I could care less about the story if the game play is amazing (which it is). It takes a minute to figure out the steps to open missions. Which is cause enough chaos in the towns and villages unlock new missions. With all the great games coming out soon ( Red Dead, Alan Wake, Splinter Cell) I was on the ropes about spending the money on another game, but Im glad I did. Everyone who is a fan of action/sandbox games should give it a spin, It will put a smile on your face.
• 

  MARK DESANTO
  March 26th, 2010 on 10:51 am

  Rating

  Having a grapple hook, a parachute and a beautiful open-world like the one here is essentially a dream come true. To sweeten the pot this open-world goes out of its way to pat you on the back, for the destruction you cause, with Chaos points. These points allow you to unlock faster and more destructive vehicles, bigger weapons–from the Black Market–and additional missions to cause even more chaos and rack up points. This is Just Cause 2 and–though it has some issues–is a rather fun and wacky game.

  We should immediately get one thing out of the way here: The story is boring. If you’re even slightly interested in a proper narrative in this game then you’re going to be disappointed. The protagonist–Rico Rodriguez–is paper thin and frankly not very interesting–but who cares!? To me he’s essentially a 3D-model in a video game holding a grapple hook and parachute for me. I know that sounds a bit harsh but I honestly take no issue with it because Just Cause 2 isn’t about character development or pushing a narrative–it’s about having fun. It’s essentially a baseball bat and glove. It’s a bucket and shovel at the beach. It’s having access to these extremely fun mechanics in a game that encouragingly gives a swat on the tush saying, “Have fun kid!” Don’t over think it.

  Avalanche was wise to make the grapple and parachute available from the get-go, and with it you can latch on to anything! It’s great because it forces you to be as creative as you can with attacks–over all I found it to be a wonderful experience. You can pull many of the (well placed) explosive barrels onto or closer to your enemies to shoot, or attack them from above by grappling to a nearby building to lob grenades. No vehicles around? Just ‘slingshot’ yourself across the land, a feat which involves grappling onto something in the distance and engaging the parachute once you hit the air. How about plucking snipers from their far off nest, pulling guys over ledges to their death or even slinging yourself to a location behind your enemy. It really is an insane amount of fun and totally worth the price of entry–the mechanic just feels right. I do think that the game could’ve benefited from a Crackdown type of lock on feature since firefights can feel a little clumsy, especially when enemies are coming from different directions. The grapple mechanic could have been taken a bit further with some kind of upgrade system too. Perhaps the ability to upgrade it’s distance, damage levels to enemies (like a shock feature) or even the speed of the pull. Though the game has a decent cover mechanic I think the ability to switch from left-handed to right-handed in regards to the protagonists on-screen location would’ve been appreciated by most.

  Rico seems to have the absolute slowest running speed ever in a video game. No seriously–it’s pathetically verging on unusable. Though the grapple is a really great way to get around there were times I found myself in desperate situations where I needed to quickly run for cover. To make the controls more awkward Rico cannot grab on to any ledges sans grapple. For instance when attempting to navigate anything in close proximity, like a nearby crate, it a hassle while under fire. It just feels slightly antiquated and annoying in times of desperation.

  The game has a GPS system in place that allows you to drop a way-point down on the map at any time. It will even throw down some 3D arrows on the streets so you know where exactly to go. Off in the horizon lies a nice little quest marker telling you were to go in terms of direction so if you want to cut across the desert you can feel free. Unfortunately there were times when this little marker got in the way visually. It’s not transparent and never changes size (even though it’s relatively small) so when a destination is far off in the distance it’s completely covered by it–it’s strange.

  The mission’s tends to be your standard open-world gaming fare. The most enjoyable being the military base attacks where you side with one of the local factions–who’s interest lie in taking back their island–to liberate it. These missions involved escorting a technician along with several guerrillas into the heart of the base. Once there you must defend them from an onslaught of enemies, while the hacker goes to work, which usually concludes with an attacking helicopter. They’re relatively short missions and yield a lot of money and Chaos points. The bases are designed differently enough to not appear to be cookie-cutter out the climactic battles don’t ever seem to change. Once completing these missions you fill 4 meters with gain a large amount of Chaos points: Agency Mission, Stronghold, Faction Mission, & Black Market Item. Once these meters are filled they unlock the next item that’s relative to the meter. The nice thing about completing the military base missions is that you can sometimes get access to attack choppers and vehicles with turrets at no cost. The Chaos, after roughly 10-15 hours into the game went from outrageously fun to fun. It never ever hit a dull level but it did get a little long in the tooth eventually. Perhaps if the cities, landmarks or general populace were a little more interesting.

  Side missions unlock as you spread out the different factions influence and this is done by gathering more Chaos points. The missions are reasonably plentiful but not the most memorable. Missions include venturing out specific places to destroy a complex, assassinate a guy, seek out a caravan of cars via chopper to take them down, stealing vehicles and more of what you would expect. Every once in a while, though, the game throws something at you that’s relatively different. For instance at one point in the game someone required me to blow up a gigantic statue of the islands brutal dictator, tether his head to my tank and then drag it all the way back to his base. It was fun but unfortunately these unique missions are few and far between. For a diversion–and to earn cash–there are race missions involving cars, planes, jets and boats.

  One of the more amusing things outside of the gameplay is the Propaganda that’s blurted out to the islands via new radio once you’ve overtaken a military complex or liberated a city. At one point in the game I completely secured a base 100%–which involves finding all the hidden cash drops, vehicle parts, gun parts and destroying all the government equipment–and immediately the radio spit out “Hello! The explosions recently heard near the blah blah mountain range were caused by volcanic eruption. Everything is fine now thanks!” It’s unsuspectingly amusing.

  Speaking of the Black Market, it can be accessed anytime when there is no heat from the police. This is where you can upgrade weapons and vehicles or fast travel to any place you’ve already visited. Upgrading weapons is done by collecting weapon parts that’re sprinkled throughout the game and using them here. Vehicles are upgraded in a similar fashion, but with vehicle parts. Like Crackdown’s orb/noise system the game offers assistance in finding these items: They will sparkle from a distance, the signal strength of a meter located in the upper left-hand corner of the GUI grows as you get closer and once within close range a icon visible through walls pops up–in short, they’re not hard to find.

  Unfortunately–pushing the structure from average to mundane–the missions always begin with essentially the same exact in-game, canned cutscene: A boss drives up in vehicle, kicks an ammo crate off while spiting out your mission’s details and then drives off. Sometimes they get really crazy and escort you personally via helicopter so you can just drop down into a base (don’t be fooled it usually looks the same every boss, just a different palette/texture swap). Early on in the game I found all of this to be sort of amusing and figured it was leading up to some kind of a joke. “Hey” I thought, “This game is going be ironic and will make fun of itself!” but unfortunately that never happened. A few hours into the game you will just skip these boring cutscenes.

  There is a decent save game system in place with the best part being the checkpoints system. It usually works often enough to avoid frustration–even mid-mission hooray! What’s annoyingly missing is the ability to save anywhere at anytime. To be clear, you can initiate a manual save at any time but it performs a save state that warping you to the nearest town when loaded. It’s not really that big of a deal since it just provides you with another excuse to purchase another vehicle from the Black Market or just hi-jack something nearby.

  In some parts of the game there are Quick Time Events (QTEs) and unfortunately they’re seemingly unnecessary even though they’re attached to tense scenarios. For instance, in one section of the game I needed to open a gate to let my guys in and–while under fire–I was required to nail 5 buttons in a specific order. Another time I needed to hijack an attacking chopper and in order to commandeer the vehicles for my own use I had to successfully complete a QTE. Not hitting the right buttons forced me to start over.

  The physics in the game feels just about right, but driving can be a mixed bag at times. It sits somewhere in between GTA4 and Saints Row 2 in terms of controls and feel. Plus the camera does this weird thing where it sits a little too close to the vehicle and shakes around, when going off-road, in relation to the vehicle. It makes off-roading slightly nauseating, but perhaps the point. There a various cars to buy, steal, grapple, jump on and drive off of cliffs–the same goes for flying. The variety feels good and plentiful and, of course, some handle better than others. The most fun I had was with flying. It’s a gorgeous experience, especially during sunset.

  I’ve played the demo and the full game on the PC and it appears that Avalanche has slightly optimized the game with the final retail release. I should also mention that once I turned Vertical Sync off I was able to run the game with most of the settings maxed out running at a smooth frame rate at a 1680×1050 resolution. I have a Q6600 (over-clocked to 3Ghz), 4GB RAM and a 4890 1GB video card. I do have an Xbox 360 copy and it looks strikingly good, runs well and looks great. Any version will make you happy.

  I can see how this review could be easily construed a negative take on the game but honestly half of the issues I mentioned are trivial. Who cares about the voice acting, the narrative, Rico’s pork grease laden hair–this game is fun fun fun. Get and get out there and have fun kid!

  More at:[...].
• 

  al the don
  March 28th, 2010 on 1:52 pm

  Rating

  pretty awesome game, i personally loved the first one (even though it was way under rated, even though it was a beauty) SAME HERE!! there is sooo much to do and the graphics just leave you breathless (i actually like just watched a beach from the backyard of a house for like 5 minutes) i wont go into deep detail but its a very fun game, where else can you ghost ride a boeing 747?, lol but i must say it was rather short, it took me 3 days to complete the story, but there is still much to do after, from discovering to taking towns and cities from the government, so if you liked the 1st you’ll love this one, and if you haven’t played the first its still worth buying, so much freedom and fun, one other thing that kinda sucks is the voiceover like i dont know if they meant to do it like that or what but they bomb with there one liners and i dont know its not that good, but thankfully the cut scenes arent that long so that really doesnt matter too much, also the music? WTH there isnt much music to listen to, but again not really a problem compared to how much fun you’ll have.

  my score 9/10…should have been longer
• 

  N. Johnson
  March 29th, 2010 on 9:43 am

  Rating

  I was going to actually cancel my order on this, since I have a ton of games to play at the moment. I am glad I did not. For reference I bought the Xbox 360 version.

  Graphics: 5/5 The world they created for this game looks amazing. It’s one of the biggest open world games I’ve played, and it shines from the water, to the vegetation, to the snow on the mountains. There is little to no pop-in, and the frame rate stays solid throughout everything that is going on! And the explosions just look fantastic.

  Controls: 5/5 The controls take a little while to get used to, but once you get the hang of the Grappling hook and the parachute there are some pretty amazing stunts you can pull off. Everything else is pretty standard shooter controls (Right trigger shoot, left trigger granades, ect).

  Story: 1/5 I’ll be the first to admit, this game has virtually no story. It has “factions” that you do missions for, and they are pretty straight forward and typical for an open world game. But once you get into the action you won’t even care that there is no story in this game.

  Sound: 3/5 The voice acting is terrible. At times you will feel like your little brother Jimmy or Grandpa Lou can do a better job. But aside from that everything else sounds great.

  Other: Enemy AI isn’t the best I’ve seen, but it isn’t the worst. There is a “wanted level” of sorts that increases as you cause more chaos. Their aim is pretty precise on the high difficaulties.

  Overall this game is a must buy. In my opinion this game is a mix between Mercenaries 2 and The Saboteur. Do not pass this up.
• 

  Ozzy518
  April 2nd, 2010 on 3:22 am

  Rating

  This game is a blast! grappling hook and parachute just never gets old. the graphics and explosions are fantastic. Exploration is always rewarded and the playground Avalanche has created is HUGE! The story is standard and the dialogue is pretty terrible but thankfully take a backseat to the chaos and excitement. In my opinion this is the new standard for sandbox gaming. If you think you’ll enjoy some over the top action and love just having fun this is the game for you.
• 

  Fani
  April 8th, 2010 on 12:41 pm

  Rating

  Just Cause 2 is truly one of the best sandbox games I’ve played. The last game which gave me this much fun in an open world was Crackdown and GTA:San Andreas. I love just driving around in JC2 or just fly around in a chopper or a fast fighter jet or just go to the top of a mountain and basejump down or cause general mayhem tethering baddies in their cars to bridges or roads via the grapple hook. That part is especially fun – cause chaos, await baddies on a bridge, tether their car to the bridge when they approach you. Watch in glee as they get caught on the grapple hook and get yanked back and fly off the bridge.

  Or hook up bad guys to the tops of tall buildings and dangle them from the top and watch as they fall down to their doom while cursing and bellowing in cheesy accents.

  Fun times.

  This game is worth a purchase.
• 

  John Hathaway
  April 8th, 2010 on 2:10 pm

  Rating

  Just Cause 2 is one of the best (if not the best) games I have ever played. The graphics are stunning, with snowy mountains, arid deserts, tropical beaches and jungles, and beautiful sunrises and sunsets, all very realistic. I’ve played this game for hours and just beat the story mode, which I must say was rather short. I’m still not tired of playing on mercenary mode (which is simply open world sandbox fun, after the story mode), in fact I don’t know if I ever will be. The only things wrong with this game are very minor, and shouldn’t hinder you from buying (or at least renting) this game. First, the dialogue can get choppy in this game, and some of the characters in this game were voiced poorly. Another thing is that when driving land vehicles, it can be difficult sometimes to control the way you are steering, especially in a race challenge. Other than those two minor downfalls, I highly recommend this game for anyone who enjoys driving, shooting, flying, or free roam games.
• 

  John Bailey Barksdale
  April 8th, 2010 on 11:08 pm

  Rating

  First off let me say that if you are looking for an amazing story or deep characters avoid this game, just buy a copy of Final Fantasy or Dragon Age. However, if you want to play something just to have fun and cause a little Chaos do not hesitate to buy this game. This game is great, from the cheesy action movie dialogue, to the fast paced gameplay that will have you driving down a city street one minute and basing jumping off a mountain the next.

  I thoroughly enjoy strategy games and RPGs, but every now and then I want to play something that requires a little less brain power. Just Cause 2 fits that bill perfectly and I have a feeling it will not be leaving my Xbox for some time.
• 

  Matthew Grise
  April 19th, 2010 on 9:01 am

  Rating

  This game has such a vast world to explore that literally flying in a jet going 500MPH from one corner of the map to the other will take 10 minutes. The game is on such a massive scale and scope that you will never get bored with things to do. There are are awesome tricks you can do with the grappling hook, easter eggs to find (Lost Island), endless vehicle choices and more, I would say that it has over 50 hours of gameplay to offer.

  If your a fan of sandbox style games, epic explosions and great gameplay I recommend you try this game for sure.