Just Cause is a sandbox action game set on a dictator ruled island that was released in 2006 by Eidos. The basic premise is that you play as a special-ops agent who infiltrates a country in the Caribbean to overthrow the dictator who may have nuclear weapons.
One of the most impressive features of Just Cause is its size. The island you explore is 1024km², which means that if it were real, it would be the 51st smallest country in the world. The draw distance is incredible, and you can see the entire country from the air if you fly high enough, and surprisingly there is no slowdown. The geography of the island is believable as well, as most of the island is jungle with roads criss-crossing the terrain, and the country itself is made up of several large islands with several smaller islands surrounding them. The downside to this though, it that the island can seem far too big for its own good, as the main storyline only takes you to a very small part of the country, and crossing the country, even by plane, will take at least half an hour.
The graphics are fairly good, as the jungles look fairly realistic, although if you study them closely you will easily see that it is just the same few trees repeated endlessly. The few cities are fairly detailed, with cars constantly driving around them, look realistic, and the vehicles are detailed, although you will see the same vehicle repeated fairly often, but the character models look fairly blocky, with the exception of your character and a few others. Overall the graphics are fairly good.
The sound is a bit worse however as the music consists of the same few tracks repeated and the voice acting is fairly cheesy, although the weapons sound good and explosions sound realistic, although both are a bit quiet.
The story is fairly basic, and is that you, a secret agent called Rico Rodriguez, go to an archipelago in the Caribbean on a quest to assassinate the dictator. On the way you meet a few other secret agents who give you your missions, and a group of revolutionaries who help you to storm the country. The storyline is entirely linear, although it does include some amazing set pieces, which are reminiscent of several action movies.
The gameplay is a mixed bag. Getting around the massive country is easy, as you can hi-jack any vehicle you find, from bikes and cars to helicopters and jet fighters, and this is made even easier as you are given a grappling hook that you can use to climb onto any vehicle you find, and them parachute off of it, jump to another vehicle or steal it. You can also climb on top of your vehicle and do the same, which means that it is possible to hijack a car, drive it off the edge of a cliff and parachute off of it as it explodes below in a ball of fire. Gunfights are fun, however, although they are incredibly easy, as the AI is very inaccurate and stumble about trying to shoot you. You also have an insane amount of health and shooting enemies consists of running near them so the game locks you on to one of them, and then pulling the right trigger until they collapse to the ground and the lock-on shifts to another enemy. Bizarrely, though, when you are on foot helicopters will try to machine-gun you down, but as soon as you get into a vehicle you will be hit by several hundred rockets and die almost instantly. The story missions include some amazing set pieces, such as blowing up a missile silo and parachuting away from a massive fireball, assassinating two people at an airport and making your escape in a B-52, and shooting down missiles with an F-16 before jumping onto a plane and storming through it with an automatic shotgun. Taking over the country consists of taking over towns by shooting enemies until you can destroy a barricade, and repeating that two more times. After this, you can take side missions which are just the same few missions repeated endlessly.
Just Cause isn't a particularly long game, as the story can be completed in 5 or 6 hours, but taking over towns can be fun, and doing insane stunts never feels old. Overall, this is a good game to buy, as although it has its flaws like any other game, with the sole exception of Portal, it's great fun and feels like a playable action movie.
One of the most impressive features of Just Cause is its size. The island you explore is 1024km², which means that if it were real, it would be the 51st smallest country in the world. The draw distance is incredible, and you can see the entire country from the air if you fly high enough, and surprisingly there is no slowdown. The geography of the island is believable as well, as most of the island is jungle with roads criss-crossing the terrain, and the country itself is made up of several large islands with several smaller islands surrounding them. The downside to this though, it that the island can seem far too big for its own good, as the main storyline only takes you to a very small part of the country, and crossing the country, even by plane, will take at least half an hour.
The graphics are fairly good, as the jungles look fairly realistic, although if you study them closely you will easily see that it is just the same few trees repeated endlessly. The few cities are fairly detailed, with cars constantly driving around them, look realistic, and the vehicles are detailed, although you will see the same vehicle repeated fairly often, but the character models look fairly blocky, with the exception of your character and a few others. Overall the graphics are fairly good.
The sound is a bit worse however as the music consists of the same few tracks repeated and the voice acting is fairly cheesy, although the weapons sound good and explosions sound realistic, although both are a bit quiet.
The story is fairly basic, and is that you, a secret agent called Rico Rodriguez, go to an archipelago in the Caribbean on a quest to assassinate the dictator. On the way you meet a few other secret agents who give you your missions, and a group of revolutionaries who help you to storm the country. The storyline is entirely linear, although it does include some amazing set pieces, which are reminiscent of several action movies.
The gameplay is a mixed bag. Getting around the massive country is easy, as you can hi-jack any vehicle you find, from bikes and cars to helicopters and jet fighters, and this is made even easier as you are given a grappling hook that you can use to climb onto any vehicle you find, and them parachute off of it, jump to another vehicle or steal it. You can also climb on top of your vehicle and do the same, which means that it is possible to hijack a car, drive it off the edge of a cliff and parachute off of it as it explodes below in a ball of fire. Gunfights are fun, however, although they are incredibly easy, as the AI is very inaccurate and stumble about trying to shoot you. You also have an insane amount of health and shooting enemies consists of running near them so the game locks you on to one of them, and then pulling the right trigger until they collapse to the ground and the lock-on shifts to another enemy. Bizarrely, though, when you are on foot helicopters will try to machine-gun you down, but as soon as you get into a vehicle you will be hit by several hundred rockets and die almost instantly. The story missions include some amazing set pieces, such as blowing up a missile silo and parachuting away from a massive fireball, assassinating two people at an airport and making your escape in a B-52, and shooting down missiles with an F-16 before jumping onto a plane and storming through it with an automatic shotgun. Taking over the country consists of taking over towns by shooting enemies until you can destroy a barricade, and repeating that two more times. After this, you can take side missions which are just the same few missions repeated endlessly.
Just Cause isn't a particularly long game, as the story can be completed in 5 or 6 hours, but taking over towns can be fun, and doing insane stunts never feels old. Overall, this is a good game to buy, as although it has its flaws like any other game, with the sole exception of Portal, it's great fun and feels like a playable action movie.
