Just Cause

"Another average sandbox title"

A year ago I had no idea that a sand box title was something like Grand Theft Auto or even this game, Just Cause. Is Just cause a good title in this genre or is it just another game trying too hard to fit into such a simple genre and just failing at everything it tries?

I'm not sure what the story was. It was so absurd that I gave up after the first cut scene (plot wise). You meet some guy and then try to liberate this country. Kind of reminds me of Cuba I guess.

Graphic wise you can tell that this is a port of a last gen title. Character models are terrible and so tiny that they are truly lacking any details. Everyone kind of looked the same. The animations are very badly done. The main character runs like he was bent in a machine. Cut scenes are some what decent but nothing special.

Sound wise the game is terrible. Voice acting is so-so. Sound effects get the job done. The worst thing is the music. Imagine 5 second sound bites being replayed over and over. Now imagine the cheesiest music ever and have it play non-stop. Just terrible.

Control in the game is simple. Y allows you to enter vehicles. R trigger is shoot, L trigger is grenades and pretty much anything else has a button show on screen to tell you what to do. B is jump. Very simple and doesn't require a lot of time to get the hang of it all.

Game play wise this plays just like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, by this I mean it's very open in its world but the world itself feels lifeless. There is no wildlife and the people stick near the villages. This is fine but there is so much open space that is never used.

The idea behind the game is to go and get missions and complete them. They could be to liberate some towns, rescue someone, and kill someone and whatever else is typical. Hell, the first mission is to rescue someone from jail.

The game does have a few interesting ideas. You can base jump in the game. A cool idea but it fails because the game pretty much allows you to run up cliffs that other games wouldn't. This game actually allows you to walk up almost anything which makes no sense.

The game also feels a bit more interesting with its liberations of the villages and stuff and the fact that the game is filled with side missions. The only problem is that the game itself is fairly short and offered no online play. It does have achievements that are actually good and fit the idea behind the game. The game does have some nasty load times and the save feature feels a bit broken here early in the game.

Just Cause isn't a terrible game. It just isn't anything special. Between the loading and horrible lock-on feature that works only 75% of the time, this feels like a rushed game. It is worth a rental and does offer some rather easy achievement points, if you want to put the time into it.

Story - 4/10
Graphics - 5/10
Sound - 4/10
Control - 9/10
Game Play - 5/10
Replay Value - 6/10

Final Score - 5/10

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 03/21/07