From the Vault — originally published May 7, 2010. Some links, videos or prices may be out of date.
Just Cause 2 is like James Bond meets Grand Theft Auto meets Rambo. It is a sandbox third person shooter action game by Swedish developer Avalanche Studios and Eidos Interactive and published by Square Enix. In Just Cause 2 you play as Agent Rico Rodriguez and your goal is to find your ex boss Tom Sheldon, and to overthrow Pandak “Baby” Panay the evil dictator of the fictional tropical island of Panau in Southeast Asia where the game is set.
Vehicles and Terrain
Don’t think that the game is small or short simply because it is set on an island. The game is huge in every way. The game map is actually comprised of a few islands you can visit. The environments expansive and very varied as you will visit everything from forest, to beaches, to huge cities, villages, deserts, and snow capped mountains and snowed areas. Visiting these areas is made easy and fun though the dozens of vehicles at your disposal. Just like in a Grand Theft Auto game you can carjack or hijack any vehicle you encounter. Everything from armed helicopters, jets, planes, race cars, buses, boats and more. There are far too many vehicles to list here and they all handle differently. See them all here.
Missions and Weapons
To complement and make use of all the vehicles in the game there are missions that require the player to race and hit checkpoints within specific times in order to complete the challenge. These missions add variety and keep the game interesting. These missions are not required but very fun nonetheless and should not be overlooked. There are plane, car and boat missions.
Other missions are actually varied but since the game is so big in a way that you could spend upwards of 40 hours trying to complete the game in its entirety there is the inevitable repetition. Considering the full length of the game I really do not think that this repetition is a major strike against the game. The missions are fun and some examples are the base jumping, escort, assassination missions, hostage capture missions, transport missions, targets to destroy, and strongholds to take over. The varied settings help to create some semblance of variety in the missions and I found them all fun.
To help assist you with your destruction, chaos, and mayhem there are rocket launchers, revolvers, pistols, SMGs, assault rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers, sniper rifles, grenades and remote charges at your disposal. You can pick up ammo and guns from downed enemies, find weapon and money stashes and purchase weapons and vehicles from the black market dealer. The more missions you complete the more weapons and vehicles will be available from the dealer.
Stunts Baby
The standard weapons are good but what makes Just Cause 2 more fun than your average sandbox game has to be the grappling hook and parachute. The grappling hook can be used to scale buldings, vehicles, grab enemy’s and objects. You can tether objects together with the grappling hook. For example you could tether a car to a Jet and take off with the car in tow. You could then use said car as a wrecking ball of sorts. The grapple tether is a mechanic that opens up many possibilities and adds much to the sandbox game variety. The physics in the game are very well done and heavier items will react differently to tether shenanigans depending on their size and weight.
The parachute is like magic in that you can never run out of them. Whenever free falling or skydiving you can deploy a parachute and glide to safety. This makes jumping out of exploding vehicles or off of buildings or mountains a fun and viable option when necessary also adding much to the fun factor. You can also stunt jump from any moving vehicle or plane.
Shooting and Aiming
The game is a shooter and because of the hectic nature of the game there is auto aim. At times when there is an alert out for you there can be a swarm of police around and shooting at you. You can turn ato aim off in the options though by clicking in the right stick you can enter a zoomed in precision aiming mode that helps in getting headshots. Most of the enemy’s have armor and vests on so a single shot will not take them out. A single headshot will take them out though. I found the shooting mechanics though not the best for a third person game and not as refined as say uncharted 2 to be good though and not a problem. I can pick off enemys in
Just Cause 2 just fine and the shooting is fun. Just know that there is no cover system in the game and when outnumbered grabbing a getaway vehicle is always a good idea.
Graphics, Sound and Capture Technology
Though not the best looking game out (see Uncharted 2 or God of War III) Just Cause 2 does look great. The expansive vistas and general areas of the map are attractive and eye catching. Flying a plane or helicopter to and through one of the cities or through the snow capped mountain never gets old. Graphically there is hardly any texture pop in or tearing. The development team did a great job with the game from a graphical standpoint considering how huge the game is in scale.
There is also the ability on the PlayStation 3 version to capture and record your gameplay sessions. Very few games seem to be doing this and Just Cause 2 has a great capture system. You are able to auto save the last 30 second of gameplay and add that in front of the footage you capture after you elect to begin capturing. This helps to catch the moment before you wanted to record. Up to 10 minutes of video can be uploaded straight to YouTube and also saved to your PS3 HDD in mp4 format.
There are tons of Just Cause 2 videos on YouTube showing all sorts of stunts and shenanigans. This seems like such a good viral marketing tool that I hope more developers will include this functionality.
The sound design in the game is understated. The sound rises when there is an alert and the action heats up. Since the game is so long it was most likely a good idea to keep the music at a minimum only coming in at key moments and events. The sound effects are all there and are done well. The vehicles all sound different.The game supports DTS in addition to Dolby surround. The game does not boast custom soundtracks on the PS3 version though of course the xbox 360 version does by default.
Verdict
Awesome game. Basically the Grand Theft Auto game I always wanted. A large playground with tons of different environments, lots of vehicles, lots of weapons and a good shooting controls. What more could you ask for?
Just Cause 2 is very fun and worth every penny even at full price. Ther is so much to do. You WILL get your moneys worth.
