In March 23, 2010, game developer Avalanche Studios, released one huge game titled Just Cause 2, an open-world game where you play as Rico Rodriguez, a master of the art of “removing” dictators. The game was fairly simple, create chaos, use your grappling hook and parachute, enjoy the view, cause more chaos that generate into huge explosions, fast-forward five years from now and here they are again with the release of Just Cause 3 last December 1, 2015.
In terms of story, the Just Cause franchise has never been too serious, just like Grand Theft Auto, yet not that whimsical or comedic as Saints Row, either way, most players of the older games, do not get Just Cause 3 for the story but rather the game-play, which I will be highlighting the most. Once again you play as Rico Rodriguez, returning to his home of the fictional city of Medici, that is currently being ruled by dictator General Sebastiano Di Ravello (who freaking looks like GENERAL LUNA!), and it is up to you to liberate your city and rid it of the oppressive dictator by causing mayhem and chaos.
Gameplay-wise and most important of all is that the environments are prone to explosions (materials to create explosions, a ton of them, you have), from the unlimited (but you can only put 3-5 maximum active charges) C4s to basic guns, to bomb-planted vehicles, to you piloting an aircraft and crashing it to the ground level. This game not just encourages you to blow stuff up, but it wants you to at least, be creative about it. Same as before, you get to destroy MOST of the environments (some regenerate like bridges), while some don’t, which in turn creates chaos, that bumps up your score that will be uploaded to the official leaderboards. The game offers you “Challenges” that grant you upgrades to your current gear like putting nitrous into all cars, etc.
As with the tradition of Just Cause, you will be equipped with an unlimited supply of parachutes, an upgraded grappling hook (which can now be used to tether 2 or more depending on your upgrades), a slightly better “delivery” system (JC2 used a Black Market system that could deplete your money which got me sad and limited my options 🙁 ), and the ultra bad-ass wingsuit (that will probably kill you the first few minutes you use it). Traversing the whole map (yes it is one BIG-A** map) is now faster and easier thanks to this good additions, while driving vehicles is still an option, not that I recommend it as the “road” driving in this game is totally weird, for some reason, it makes you feel like you don’t know how to drive. The graphics look a bit dated for the consoles (I played on the PS4) while the PC version has the liberty to adjust settings, not that it would matter as I could just blame it on the engine they used. You may probably feel that the game gets repetitive though as you keep liberating and destroying outpost after outpost, bases after bases, cities after cities, but that is how simple this game is, liberate and complete, nothing more, nothing less.
The game suffers from a ton of technical issues as of this writing though, this has got to be the first game in which I experienced the loading screen to give me time to make coffee and take a sip, the loading times in this game are just too long, not just that, but it is also really prone to frame rate drops (and I’m hearing that the PC version has got it worse though, regardless if you got a fancy top gaming rig or not.). The game just released though and hopefully it does get patched. Also the ever popular “MULTIPLAYER” mode was not included, despite being one of the main reasons players got so excited to know more about this game (JC2 had a mod that allowed multiplayer.), but instead in this game we get leaderboards. Sometimes, I do get confused at the controls as well, could be better as some keys are mapped to one button (Press X to get on top of vehicle, Hold X to parachute out of vehicle.). Gameplay-wise, I have yet to see major gameplay issues in the game besides that the AI is usually not smart enough to sense you even when you’re behind them and that ammo is still a bit scarce when you are in the thick of the action.
Over-all Avalanche Studios did a great job doing the sequel, with more welcome additions available at the player’s arsenal. With very minimal game-breaking bugs, this launch has been smoother than most titles have gone so far, while not Game of the Year material, it sure is worth it sinking in some hours just to blow stuff up, now only if it wasn’t repetitive and patched, Just Cause 3 could have had gotten a proper chance to add more to the franchise.
3 Comments
Just Cause 3 Minimum Requirements
Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz/Phenom II X6 1075T
GeForce GTX 670/Radeon HD 7870
6GB RAM
54GB free space
My PC
Core 2 Quad Q8300
r7 240 1GB GDDR5
4GB DDR2 RAM
32.5GB free space
rip
I know the feeling bro, that is why I got the PS4 version, I didn’t want to bother myself with the hardware of my PC.
This game finally cured my Fallout 4 addiction! The game is beautiful to look at especially when you start blowing it up. The story is the only downside but I didn’t buy this game for the story, I bought it to relax and have fun at the same time. Nearly as good as Just Cause 2 but this game still gets a 9/10 from me!