Just Cause

"Not quite up to GTA or Saints Row quality, but a good alternative nonetheless"

Just Cause is one of the many sandbox, GTA-style, games that have cropped up over the past few years, but unlike most of them, this one is actually pretty good. Players control Rico Rodriguez, the man who is going to lead a revolution on the massive chain of islands known as San Esperito. Just think of Rico as a Latin James Bond, as he has many gadgets and tricks up his sleeve from the secret agency he works for.

This is one of the most accessible and user-friendly sandbox games I have played. Just Cause has a very good auto-targeting system, which makes matters very convenient when the government sends swarms of troops after Rico. Since Rico loves to model himself after a certain 007, he has a variety of crazy moves he can pull off. First off, parachuting plays a significant role, Rico will be dropping down during missions and can also use a grappling hook to latch onto vehicles or any air or watercraft. Rico can also go into “stunt position” from on top of a vehicle and jump from vehicle to vehicle and hijack autos in ways that only Hollywood stuntmen can dream of.

There are several missions which take place in the air and sea to mix up the action, and it is a nice change of pace as I don't recall many sandbox games mixing up the gameplay this much before. Now San Esperito is over 250,000 acres of land, to make traversing less of a chore, the developers at Avalanche gave Rico the ability to grab a helicopter transport at anytime as long as he is not under attack. Rico can also call in a drop anytime for agency vehicles like a SUV, motorcycle, speedboat, or even a mini-chopper.

There are 21 missions for the main story in Just Cause which took me about a good 15 hours to complete. There are a few tricky missions that provided a hefty challenge, but thankfully there are usually a couple checkpoints in each mission so I don't have to painstakingly travel back all the way to the initial mission start point like so many other sandbox games before forced me to. After the main story, or in the midst of it if you so desire, there are a seemingly endless amount of side missions to do. Most of the side missions are simple fetch or assassin missions and seem randomly generated from your contacts. They grow boring after awhile, but they serve a mild purpose, with a decent amount of achievement points for completing so many.

Aside from the many side missions, there are also several races scattered throughout the map to compete in and many hidden packages in the world of San Esperito to collect in order to rack up that gamerscore. These extra missions are nice, but a little more variety could have helped a lot and made it even more fun like the extra missions in games like GTA and Saints Row. Another gripe I have with Just Cause is its wanted system, there are five levels of government awareness based on Rico's crimes. By wanted levels four and five the government will be all over Rico's tail, but for some reason the second Rico hits level one, the government sends a chopper that fires missiles at him. What the hell? This made traversing the land and competing in races a hassle and a half as I dreaded giving the slightest of taps to any other vehicle on the road which immediately raised Rico's wanted level.

Other little nitpicks I want to address are AI issues with rebels that fight alongside Rico. For some reason the game engine wants to auto-target on them too and from a distance it can be hard to tell your allies and government troops apart which causes occasional bouts of frustration. Since San Esperito is so massive, I ran into several bugs and glitches where Rico magically got stuck in a rock or his vehicle just wouldn't move for whatever reasons. Again, these are little things that aren't too major, but a little extra development time could have made gameplay a lot more convenient.

For being a touched up PS2 and Xbox game, Just Cause looks fantastic on the 360. The developers must have spent a lot of time polishing it up for the next-gen platform cause there is a noticeable jump in quality from it on the earlier consoles. The lighting stands out the most as it makes the tropical islands of San Esperito come to life. Just Cause also has a very fitting soundtrack, it seems like it came right from the Bond films, but has a certain twist which it makes fit right at home in the island setting. The voice acting is well done too, Rico sounds like the cocky anti-hero he should be, and his two agents that give him orders makes the cut-scenes a pleasure to view.

Just Cause is a damn good sandbox game that is filled with all types of crazy action, and will provide many hours of satisfaction. It does have a few flaws which knocks it a couple notches down from the current sandbox king on the 360, Saints Row, but if you're looking for a really good alternative to tide you by until Grand Theft Auto IV arrives this fall, than Just Cause is an absolute must.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/01/07