Review – Just Cause 2 (PC, PS3, X360)

“I hate ninjas.” A bizarre phrase from the lips of any man. But Rico Rodriguez, an Agency operative and protagonist of Just Cause 2, is not any man. Just Cause 2 is a game that revels in its lack of symmetry. It has a leviathan world to explore with much to do, and purposely disposes of the story, thus making it more of a plaything than a literary experience. It is a massive toy to play with to your heart’s content.

Chaos is a currency in this game in addition to money. Explosions, destruction of government property, and murder are examples of things that will give Chaos bonuses. This Chaos can be turned in to unlock new missions and races. Chaos drives the game forward, and due to the sheer potential amount of it, you’re never at a want for something to do. The instant reward mentality of the game is very refreshing and makes it approachable. You can also call in a Black-Market contact who, aside from extracting you, also provides upgradeable weapons and vehicles to the player for a fee. If you find yourself low on cash at any time (the later weapons and vehicles can suck a lot out of you), simply track down one of the various types of races for some quick cash. They come in a variety of forms, from cars and boats to base jumping challenges and bridge-limbo flight challenges.

The controls are tight enough if you can get past strange collision detection and an argumentative lock-on system, which sometimes focuses on the wrong person while dangling off of a helicopter. There is no cover system to speak of, but the inventive use of the grapple and parachute more than makes up for it. They are also cheap and useful ways to travel around the massive 200 square kilometres of the island. One welcome addition that was left out of the first game is the ability to travel to any location discovered. This makes it much easier to travel from place to place than other free roaming games. There is also a plentiful checkpoint system and forgiving AI, but the player has to be prepared to handle the onslaught of several angry choppers firing rockets at them if they get up to alert level 5.

The sound design is done well enough to provide cues to different gameplay interactions, such as a rise in heat level. The guns in particular are massively improved from the bland, quiet puffs of the first game. The shotgun has an audible kick to it, as do the revolvers, missiles and other ordinance. The music cuts out during high altitude free-falls or parachute rides, creating a blissful sort of escapism as you plummet down to earth at several hundred miles per hour. The voice acting is laughable as always, attaining a thankfully “camp” status instead of just remaining horrible, because the rest of the game is presented with so much tongue-in-cheek.  Rico’s Latino accent returns and so does Sheldon, your handler from the first game, who rivals Zeke from Infamous in terms of caricature-of-accent.

The stereotypes present in this game are more prevalent than the first with so many rice farmer hats. The eclectic mix of Asian and Latino accents, especially the accent of the “apparently” attractive Bolo Santosi, causes the characters to be taken less seriously. I can’t say if this is intentional.  Anyone who tells you that “Backup will be waiting for you at the drop-off point” is supposed to be thinly veiled sexual tension is nuts, and to hear Rico reply, “I like what you say, and I like the way you say it, Lady,” is more likely to make you raise a eyebrow or groan than nod and agree.

In the first Just Cause, you are dropped onto a beach on the furthest northeast corner of the island world of San Esperito. This only affords a short view of the full scope of the world, and even then, you don’t gain a true appreciation for it. The area serves as more of a tutorial island, which feels fairly big to the player initially, until they travel to the later few islands, and see the proportion of the islands on the in game map.  Just Cause 2 drops you to the highest point in Panau right off the bat, landing you on a mountain satellite base, and giving you a 360 degree panoramic view of all the land for you to explore – and destroy.  After descending down the mountain, you begin the second story mission, and then are given full freedom after completing both. This was well implemented and a great change.

One thing I recommend is to not pursue the story missions rigorously, as there are only about seven in the whole game. That’s right, seven.  They are long, fun missions, but at the same time, they can rapidly kill off the story of the game for you, and partaking in the side missions while the main plot is still underway feels more true to the game. Not that it matters.

What does matter is the sheer breadth of things to do. There are about 300 villages, towns, airports, cities and military bases spread throughout the massive land in Panau. Each village has a weapon or armour upgrade case to collect, or a water tower, gas tank or statue to collapse. The clever inclusion of certain destruction elements that require a “hands-on” touch, in the form of hacking the controls to overload the objective, is an important facet of the gameplay. Without the need to jog up to gas line pressure valve platforms and manually hack the controls, or a bio-weapon containment silo submerged a few levels underground, all of the combat could be done using brute force, such as with helicopters or planes.  By forcing a player to infiltrate a silo riddled with steel support beams and lots of angry guard stereotypes, they have to be a smidgen more inventive.

The vehicles are an improvement as well, as the first game featured only a few cars that could be classified as easy on the eyes. The second game is riddled with pretty things to smash into walls and government employees, from yachts to jets and fighter planes, and from convertibles to beautiful motorbikes. One bike in particular that I fell in love with was the Hamaya Y250S, which looks more muscled than the crotch-rockets and scooters that shared the motorcycle category of the game.

Inventiveness is a key trait of some of the things in this game, such as the dual-tether grapple gun, allowing you to tie two objects together at the push of a button. This can create simple scenarios mid-mission, like one of a few where you are tasked to carry off a statue’s head with a helicopter, or more interesting diversions, such as a friend’s test of weight with a Tuk Tuk and a fast moving sedan. [MILD SPOILER WARNING] Rico would leap onto the roof of the first car (this stunt position is something he is prone to doing, from which you can transition to other cars, open fire on the surrounding area, or hijack the car you’re surfing) and attach a hook to that roof, then wait for a smaller car to ride by. Several seconds later, a Tuk Tuk, the clown of the automotive world, would putter by, and he would attach a second grapple to that, wait until the ropes hit their limit and watch the poor car be flipped over onto its head.

Inventiveness had combat implications as well. Being chased along a bridge? Introduce them to the railing! The link would stretch to its limit almost instantly and make the car flip rather majestically over the edge of the bridge. The sight of that never gets old, and I can almost hear a certain Star Fox character shouting about the virtues of barrel-shaped aerial tumbles in my head whenever I do it.

Just Cause 2 is an investment more than a game. It’s something you pick up because you want to unwind and have fun for weeks at a time, without the added commitment of an actual plot or narrative to worry about. There is no forced role play here, no dialogue trees, and no decisions to reshape the very future of mankind.  You are but one man tasked time and time again with blowing the crap out of whatever you can see that belongs to the government of this country.

You can even make recordings of said destruction with an innovative video capture feature which can be set to either automatically capture or manually record and stop. From there, you can either save these directly to your hard drive or upload them directly to YouTube. It is important to note that currently this is only integrated in the PS3 version. The XBOX 360 is currently lacking it, possibly because of a system-wide video capture program to be installed at a later date. This makes it fun to get down to ridiculous shenanigans, record the events, and share it with friends.   The game is 100% worth a rental, though I would encourage just buying it due to the amount of stuff to do. If you put this game down after a week and consider yourself done with it, give it time. This game comes back in waves, where you’ll be sitting around in a drought, looking for something to do, and then you will find yourself brushing off the package, popping the disk in, and making mayhem in all new ways – and relishing it.