Just Cause

"The huger the map - the longer the travel."

Before I start with the different categories, let me give a quick summary what this game is about. 'Just Cause' is Avalanche's answer to the other successful games of this genre, e. g Mercenaries and Grand Theft Auto. Free roaming around a vast map completing mission after mission was at the beginning fun but later on it got boring because the genre hasn't seen much changes in the past.

Just Cause doesn't present much great changes and not only that, it has even some MAJOR flaws that make this game not so amusing...

Story:

Okay, here's the plot: In the island nation of San Esperatos is a civil war between the government regime and the Guerilla. And now guess who the evil guys are - the government regime, surprisingly. So you are Ron Rodriguez and you work for the CIA to help the Guerilla.

The 21 missions in the game really don't offer much detail about the war. You just blow one facility after the other up and work for the mafia and the rebels. Yes, you are a CIA agent and work for those people...

Graphics:

The graphics of the people is fine but badly textured and if they talk during the game their lips don't move. Only the vehicles look great and also the scenery when you fly high enough. However the FMVs in the beginning and the end of each mission are HORRIBLE! The people look as plastic as characters from Army Men by 3DO! The water and the sky look nice, but if you dive you'll have some problems finding yourself since you can't tell how deep you are.

Sound:

While you are driving there is no radio, which is bad and during gunfights there is a really repetitive music that really gets on your nerves if you are searching the enemy. However some songs are rather nice such as if you are near a safe house or in a town, there is that calm acoustic song. The gunfire and explosions sound sweet however you can't here if a rocket is heading your way until it is about ~6 feet away from you.

Gameplay:

Alright here comes the big-one. The game play is nice at the beginning however isn't that much fun. You can capture settlements and other territories by starting a revolution, like the turf war system in GTA: SA. During that time you must either destroy all blockades and then capture the flag or you destroy all blockades and kill some guy. After you captured 10 settlements it gets boring so you do side missions in which you often steal a car or an item in a car and run to the next checkpoint.

The controls are easy to get used to and Ron has the grappling hook that makes traveling much easier since you fire at a car or even at a helicopter and then you deploy your parachute.

The missions are cool but sometimes going from A to B is harder than the actual mission! The map is huge and about 90% is forest and I'm used to take shortcuts than using the road but in this game driving through the forest just brings you way out of course! The gun battle AI is fairly good but the AI for the planes or the ships is simply badly programmed! You might see a huge transport plane crashing right in front of you and I once witnessed that many helicopters spawned in the same location and simply crashed.

You can also fly a vast amount of planes - sounds cool, ey? It isn't. Most planes are impossible to take-off with! And they all fly at the same speed. They don't maneuver well, too.

I expected more out of this game. It had the potential, but at the end it was a mix out of Mercenaries and GTA: SA. The too huge map and the bad storyline with the repetitive game play made this game not as good as the other games of this genre. I recommend though that you can at least give it a shot and rent it. The game is short if you only play the main story line.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 08/21/07