Just Cause

"Summed up in 3 B's: Big Beautiful Bland!"

Intro: Just Cause was a game that was brought to my attention awhile back when I first read about it in a magazine. Hearing about 250,000 acres to explore and 303 missions to complete were numbers I'd be surprised to see even GTA reach one day. Being the sandbox game junkie I am, I waited until I upgraded to a Xbox 360 to purchase it since I've read many reviews saying that the PS2 version looks horrible. First of all let me start my stating that this game isn't at all as bad as you might have heard. For a first game I have to congratulate Avalanche Studios on their efforts and some original ideas they tried to throw into the sandbox genre.

Gameplay: 6/10 Pretty standard sandbox game stuff here. You can drive cars, aircrafts, dirt bikes, and water crafts to get around the insanely huge environment. First off let me say that driving in the game can be frustrating as roads seem to make trying to travel even more time consuming than it should be since roads tend to curve in all sorts of directions. Vehicles tend to control well for the most part.

Rico is a pretty acrobatic dude as he can pull off some pretty amazing stunts. Anything from jumping from car to car to hanging off the back of a airplane is possible. The stunts are over the top but work well for the size of the game map and make traveling around easier. Rico even has a magic backpack that has an infinite amount of parachutes which is also a plus since sky diving is one of the best things to do in the game. Rico also has a grappling hook he gets later on in the game that really helps for getting to vehicles faster without having to chase them down.

Shooting in the game isn't that fun as you try to take over provinces and complete missions. Basically the game includes an auto aim that turns Rico into a terminator. Basically all you have to do is hold in the Right trigger and let the gun do the work. Speaking of terminator Rico takes an insane amount of bullets to die even though things such as falls, explosions tend to kill you in two or three hits.

The game also tries to throw some extra activities into the mix such as collecting missions and races. The races are actually pretty varied and I was surprised that they spend so time making them pretty entertaining. Collecting missions on the other hand are more of a chore and unless you want achievements really have no fun to be found.

Story: 4/10 Definitely the worst part of the game, a GTA storyline this is not. Honestly this story would be more acceptable on a Playstation 1 than a Xbox 360. The game has you playing as cheesy Antonio Banderas look alike Rico Rodriguez as you go about San Esperito trying liberate the country from President Mendoza's rule. The characters are pretty bland and non-believable in almost all aspects of their design. Missions are standard destroy this, steal this, or kill him kind of stuff and never really gives you a sense of achievement or advancement in the story.

Graphics: 8/10 Very well done for the Xbox 360. The draw distance stretches over 20 miles and the sky and lighting are some of the best I've ever seen in a game. Although the game looks real nice the bad thing is there isn't much to see unless your really into trees. There is simply not enough variety which may be in part to the develops going for big and bland instead of small and detailed. All of the cities look exactly the same which decreases the fun when every new area is deja vu. Weather effects are well done as you can see storms miles off in the distance and also how clouds move over the sun giving shade.

Sound: 7/10 The environments sound realistic enough and flying through the sky miles above couldn't sound any better. Cars on the other hand could have used a bit more variety in their sounds and guns end up sounding like cap guns. Music is nothing memorable or worth wild. As a side note though I find this game great for listening to your own music on the 360.

Playtime/ Replayability 6/10: The game contains about 23 story missions that can be completed in a few hours. If you attempt to liberate the whole country and complete all the races, collect missions, side missions etc. it will take about 30 to 40 hours. This may seem like a good amount of replay but for about 35 of those hours you'll be doing mostly the same things you've already done. The game tries to make it seem like its providing you with a lot to do but you're never really getting anything worthwhile for completing side activities which makes doing them pretty much useless.

Final Recommendation: Worth a rental or a possibly buy if you can get it for $20. I do feel that Avalanche Studios had a good game premise but I felt they tried to set the bar too high on their first game. Hopefully they'll put more time and effort into Just Cause 2 as I feel this game could be a best seller if they address the faults.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/06/07, Updated 07/06/07