Just cause 2 pc game review

Do I hijack this villager's slick motorcycle and get there in style? Do I just parachute my way down the cliff? Or do I hang from the bottom of a passing helicopter and enjoy the sights along the way?

It's all up to the player. The freedom to approach gameplay in whatever manner you choose is certainly one of Just Cause 2's selling points, but the game does one thing extremely well: creating mind-bending action set pieces like you'd see in a top-dollar Hollywood production. Some missions will task Rico with diving off a bridge to catch a passing convoy, while others will force him to sprint off a cliff as missiles explode around him.

Not all the missions are as intense as these, but some of them really are fantastic. But Just Cause 2 isn't all fun and games The controls certainly take some getting used to, and the in-mission checkpoints can be extremely frustrating.

This is the kind of game where you die often, and when currently engaged in a mission, that means you'll be starting over just as often there are checkpoints in the longer missions, but they're not as frequent as I'd like.

When you couple this disappointing save structure with the overwhelming odds tossed against Rico when he's on foot, this can lead to a lot of vein-popping curse words. Just Cause 2 also lacks polish in certain areas. There are a number of audio glitches that pop up throughout, included stuttering lines of background chatter and characters not finishing their sentences during cutscenes.

This is surprising, considering the game's otherwise impressive scope and scale. Verdict I haven't had this much fun with an open-world game in years. Just Cause 2 is over-the-top and insanely fun.

There are some issues in the game's presentation and the checkpoint system is far from perfect, but Just Cause 2 is otherwise a must-play for adrenaline junkies. Rico Rodriguez might just be my new hero. Was this article informative? YES NO. In This Article. Rico returns to action in the sequel to Avalanche Studios' gargantuan action game. Release Date.

A race in a speedboat, for example, might send you over a thin stretch of land. This could lead to a superfun sequence of tumbles and spins before you zoom away on the other side. But it could also lead to a frustrating sequence of tumbles and spins that deposits you directly on the beach and keeps you from completing the challenge.

Aircraft challenges can also be exasperating because you don't have the ability to yaw that is, move from side to side , and the relaxed controls make it easy to overshoot the ring you're meant to fly through.

This is a great way to see what your snazzy video card is capable of. Panau is an incredibly impressive place to explore. Tall snow-covered mountains cradle ski resorts and military bases between them.

Beachside shacks dot the ocean shores, where gorgeous lighting gleams on the ocean waves. The capital city shows off a beautiful nighttime skyline. Should you plummet below the ocean, you'll admire the striking underwater views, which feature tropical fish and colorful coral reefs.

Just Cause 2 is a stunning game and provides a marvelous variety of vistas to gawk at, and the draw distance lets you take in a lot at once.

We ran into a few occasions in which ground textures displayed a faint grid overlay, but a few setting adjustments seemed to fix that up. The audio doesn't meet the same lofty standard, but it does what it needs to do, with lots of energy if not much nuance. An American friend speaks with a big yee-haw accent and gang leaders deliver their banal lines in a weird, halting manner and with unidentifiable inflections.

Explosions look big and sound loud. It's all about broad strokes, and while not every aspect of the audio makes a good impression, the overall effect is fitting given Just Cause 2's over-the-top inclinations. The game gives you plenty of reasons to visit all of these varied locations. The many villages dotting the geography harbor rewards like gas tanks to blow up and weapon and vehicle parts to collect.

Those parts can be used to enhance the effectiveness of your guns and rides--you just need to call up the black market dealer and choose how you want to apply them. You can also call the dealer if you want him to drop off a weapon or vehicle or to quickly travel to a location you've already visited. The implementation of this mechanic could have used some tweaking.

For example, you can't order up more than one item at a time if you want both a shotgun and a chopper, you need to make two calls. But considering how easy it is to find weapons and how much fun it is to parachute around, you won't need the black market contact all that frequently. Even if you aren't inclined to collect the scattered treasures, there's intrinsic joy in seeking out and blowing up propaganda stations and demolishing the statues of island dictator Baby Panay.

Maybe that's because you can grapple one of those statues to a fire truck, hop behind the wheel, and pull the false idol down. The dialogue won't win any awards, but it'll still make you guffaw in spite of yourself. Amid all this free-form gameplay are loads of faction missions to perform for the three gangs you work with, as well as some longer agency missions that progress the story. Some of these missions are fun and varied, such as one in which you must defuse a series of bombs by stunt jumping from one vehicle to another.

Most of them combine Just Cause 2's various mechanics in interesting ways, having you fly an aircraft, infiltrate guarded fortresses, and destroy specific objects in the course of a single assignment. But even when flaunting this kind of variety, some missions aren't very enjoyable because they magnify the small issues that barely register during your free-form travels. For example, the waypoint arrow gets confused by different altitudes, which is rarely an issue when you are just traveling to your chosen destination, but it's a bigger annoyance when a time limit is pushing you to find an exact spot.

Heavily scripted escort missions saddle you with AI companions who think nothing of wandering into fire. And stronghold takeovers get monotonous because they play out more or less the same way every time.

The game's loose mechanics make for freewheeling fun when you choose your own actions, but they can sometimes lead to irritations when the game pushes you down a specific path. The ground is approaching rapidly. Air is rushing through your hair.

What do you do? Pull a shoot, pull out a rocket launcher, and rain down wanton destruction on the unsuspecting military of a third world country? If you picked the last option, Just Cause 2 has probably caught your eye before. Just Cause 2 is an shameless action game, completely devoid of any connection with reality. But they still need to be backed up by good mechanics. So does Just Cause 2 dive gracefully, or did it forget its parachute?

The sandbox game genre is actually not a very well defined one. Grand Theft Auto, for example, is technically a sandbox. But it is also a linear game because large portions of the sandbox are closed off until you progress through specified points in the story. Just Cause 2 is completely different. From the moment you set foot on Panau you can go anywhere you like and do anything you please.