Review: Just Cause 2

[onemileperhour]

too bad greg couldn't learn how to use the black market. i mean, all you have to do is look at the ground, but to some that proves a little tricky. some of his other complaints seem to be based on a misunderstanding of how the game works, or trivial nitpicks (time it take to die? come on. it's not instant, but it only takes a few seconds). it's a real shame, because the game is really fun

 

[Rusty Bucket]

Not to insult your intelligence, but you died ten times in the first parachuting tutorial? I had no problem figuring out how to maneuver while gliding, nor did I have any trouble calling in for an extraction. maybe these "frustrating" features are only so because you didn't get the hang of them?

Yeah, I'm a touch confused at that as well. When you first get out of the chopper, you're catching up to a falling dead guy. As soon as you get within about 50 metres of him, a cutscene starts. Then it tells you to land on the side of this mountain. A big tip comes up at the bottom telling you which button to press to get the parachute out, then a cut scene comes up when you get close to the landing point. What the hell were you doing? Ignoring the parachute and nose diving straight down to slam Rico's face into a mountain?

 

[Silk_Sk]

LOL at the Black/white market comment. Hooray for unapologetic racism!

 

[cainx10a]

So this game is like Mercenaries 2, except it's not broken. I like!

 

[Xvito]

"Perhaps that's why it's the black market and not the white market... It's a pain in the ass on purpose." - Greg Tito, March 30th 2010

I love you guys.

 

[Scobie]

DELETED

 

[Pills_Here]

I'm liking Greg Titos reviews, more concise than other reviewers.

 

[Popcicle42]

All in all, this was a very entertaining game... for about an hour. With the storyline and voice acting so bad, I wasn't all that impressed. But it is alot of fun running around, blowing things up and playing with all the toys that you can get.

Oh, and there are some really touching moments:

 

[Mr Snuffles]

I find it incredibly immersive, sometimes I just plot a destination to the furthest point on the map and just ride in a motorbike enjoying the great graphics.

 

[Brandon237]

It doesn't run on XP so that is the cut-off for me. I now wish for the death of the entire dev team. I played JC 1 and loved it. I was waiting for this game for MONTHS. but it doesn't run on DX9. *sobs and presses "tactical nuke button" followed by "blizzard studios" button. The best explosion the game ever caused...*

 

[dududf]

I guess I'm the only one who has absolutely no problem with the Blackmarket thing?

You're not, I'm playing it on PC and the whole process to the item screen takes tops 2 seconds.

 

[Steady Drain]

Hey I dont think this game is an experiment. Its a sequel to a super fun game. I understand its a bit repetitive, but its more about going crazy and exploring. You also didnt mention the beautiful vistas, clouds, lighting effects, or the sheer number and variety of vehicles to wreak havoc with. Um I think you missed on this review.

 

[Void(null)]

This review really feels like Greg never bothered to RTFM.

I never experienced any off the issues Greg speaks of.

Opening drop sequence was smooth and fun, I wasn't even aware that you could die on the opening. The Black Market Beacons worked just fine, I saw the red reticule, figured I needed a flat track of land and boom... it dropped just fine.

My only problem with Just cause 2 was the terribly bad voice acting and gawd awful script... but thats also what I love about the game, so much so that I have taken to calling Rico "Dangeresque." [http://hrwiki.org/wiki/Dangeresque_%28character%29]

 

[mokes310]

Is it better or worse than the first one? I have the first but never finished it. I did like it but after a while repetition set in and I couldnt get back in to it.

Both. The overall gameplay is better, but the missions and overall "take-over-ability" of Panau feels a little stale. If you're a die hard, buy it, otherwise, follow the reviewer's suggestion and rent it. My take, rent it on Gamefly: That way you can keep it until you're finished and don't feel rushed into exploring or finishing the story mode.

 

[TruthMan]

i have a question how many hours could you put into this game and still have fun/complete all missions. trying to decide if i should just rent it for 2 weeks or buy it

 

[Therumancer]

Hmmm, decent review except for the crack on "WASP Heroes". Let's keep the racism or implied racism (in either direciton) out of things please.

That said it sounds kind of cool, not sure when I'll pick it up, but I probably will eventually. I'm not exactly drowning in cash at the moment. Despite my RPG addiction I do enjoy sandbox action games even if I'm not all that good at it. This seems a lot like the game Mercenaries 2 should have been.

I will mention however that setting up checkpoints and such is a touchy subject with games. To be honest few games have done it perfectly. The typical problem is that if respawning is too easy and conveinent people will complain that it makes the game too easy since you can just do a one man zerg rush, and it removes any real sense of risk from the game. Bioshock which had Vita Chambers almost everywhere, is a key example of this type of complaint.

They need to make dying meaningful, and in an action game like this, I'm not entirely sure how else they can do it.

 

[DoW Lowen]

Greg Tito would like to apologize to all of the innocent citizens of Panau for jumping onto their cars and tossing them out.

Yeah but you don't mean it.

OT: I just recently played Saint's Row 2 for the first time. Based on what I'm reading it looks like SR2 still holds the championship belt for best sand box game.

Actually, I thought Fallout 3 took the throne but that was more of an rpg.
I loved Saints Row 2 (it was the perfect thing at the time to wash the stale after-taste of gta4) and I think you got your perspective a little off.

They are very different games. Imagine if they guys who made Saints Row 2 said, "hey, we ripped off gta and made it better in the process. Let's do the same with Mercenaries." This would be the result.

It's not a perfect game but it's just fun and it gives you a hell of a lot of possibilities.

Saint's Row 2 was the most ridiculously fun game I ever played. I really found it hilarious that certain reviews bashed it for being "immature" and "unable to grow up". It's like bashing The Waterboy for being unable to make you cry.

There's something about Just Cause 2 that I don't like.

It takes the best aspect of all the good sandbox games and tries to incorporate it together. Prototype, Saint's Row, Crack Down, Mercenaries - it's all in there.

But it looks like it's spreading itself too thin. It all seems to be bones and no flesh.

Don't think I'm going to play it.

 

[Yokai]

Yeah, that's pretty accurate.

But no mention of the truly atrocious voice acting?

Sure, bad voice acting is practically a video game tradition but this is the only game that forced me to turn on subtitles and hit the mute button every time a character opened his or her mouth.

It wasn't bad voice acting, per se, just so incredibly cheesy it was rather cringe-inducing. I thought the VAs got into their characters quite well, and the issue was the hamtastic writing and ludicrous-to-the-point-of-offensive accents. Still a great game, although every time Sheldon opens his mouth I bang my head against the keyboard.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

This review was...wrong. I thing you fucked around too much.

I never had to drive 2 miles to the start of a mission after dying. Because you're not supposed to fight anything until you get to the place. And then a checkpoint kicks in.

And the beacon was not confusing AT ALL.

I used it the first time they mentioned it.