Just Cause

"Just Cause presents you with a beautiful, tropical environment but doesn't hold up so well in the gameplay aspects."

Here you are in San Esperito where it seems to have a corrupt government and lots of trouble. Just as you would have thought - it is your mission to help try and takeover San Esperito with its various missions and side-missions. Rico Rodriguez is the character you play and is always equipped with a parachute. So, expect to be using a lot of the game's features throughout and be prepared to check out San Esperito fully.

Starting off, you'll come to notice San Esperito is huge. When you are first deployed to the island, you'll come to realise the tone and detail of the environment around you. It looks so colourful and yet so beautiful from a distance. Many elements you'll come to notice were from the Grand Theft Auto series. The whole sandbox style setting and the ability to store vehicles in your safehouse garage are just one of a few elements inspired from the series. Just Cause has a tropical feel to it and feels like a series of lost islands in the ocean. Getting from one part of the map to another won't be easy - even by plane. Thankfully you can extract to various safehouses that you have unlocked because of the size.

Although you may be pulled in by its huge map, it doesn't seem to make good use of a great majority of it. Much of it seems like a "copy and paste" job. A lot of it is just rainforest and there's not a whole lot to do in a rainforest. Be lucky enough to not get yourself into a rainforest whilst on a pursuit. There are some good places to check out for vehicles and to fulfill your curiosity needs, though. There are many airports which contain planes and helicopters, military bases and many small villages.

Now, the best way to explore San Esperito is by flying. You'll unlock a helicopter later on that you can call in from your PDA to make things easier. You can also call in other vehicles too. Controlling a helicopter works simple and it certainly speeds things up compared to a standard car. Good thing is, if you somehow get shot down or just want to land safely, you can simply jump off the vehicle and if there is another nearby, you just simply land onto it. Although at times this does break the law of physics, it works pretty neat - like some action film. However, if there is nothing to jump to, then you'll have the option to deploy your parachute. Thus, you can land safely on land. If you are quite far up, then you may want to sky dive for a while. This works great and you get a calming choir sound which works well. Also, depending on your status, you'll hear other background music. This all comes in at the right times. When you're flying you typically hear some background music, when you are in a pursuit you hear some background music too. The mood of the music changes depending on your actions. So, it sort-of feels like your in a film with all the background music matching together with your actions.

The main focus of Just Cause is its missions. There aren't very many of them but some of them can prove pretty fun. When you start a mission, you'll be introduced with some greatly-produced cutscenes featuring two other characters - Sheldon and Kane. Sheldon is your guy who likes to chill and mainly gives the orders. Kane is this sort-of tomboy girl who seems to have a love-hate situation with your character, Rico. You'll find some of the dialogue to be quite funny at times and thoughtful. Certainly, these cutscenes are worth watching.

Missions consist of various checkpoints. This is certainly appreciated as it can be a real pain making your way back to a mission on map so huge. There's some variety in these but many of these require you to take down a target. Typical targets include people and objects such as a drug field. Some of the missions can be a real pain depending on how you approach them. You may just drive there in a standard vehicle and have to take down enemies one-by-one with a machine gun. Alternatively, it can be a much easier process if you manage to find a missile-equipped helicopter. It makes many of the missions more forgiving in difficulty and quicker to get done too.

Other missions include the ability to try and protect a vehicle whilst being chased down by enemies and to quickly disarmour missiles before the timer runs out. Finding out where to go is made easy thanks to the HUD map. You'll see a target marker which is typically in games like Grand Theft Auto. There are also other markers on the map too. Ones to show you where your safehouse is, others to show you races, takeover missions and such. The races can work good at times but sometimes it just feels you just got unlucky because of the traffic on the roads. Other races include ones where you have to pass through checkpoints in the sky. The timer is very forgiving for some races but in others, it can prove a challenge. So, choosing a suitable vehicle is essential for the races.

There are various items to collect too. Again, Just Cause is forgiving in this factor too. Each item is marked on the map with a blue dot. So, you can simply go to that location and know the item is there somewhere. Items are not clearly visible at times so it may require you to fly around since items can be above ground or even underwater. It would of been nice for the game's HUD to tell you if an item is higher or lower than you.

You've also got the takeover missions. There's so many of these scattered around San Esperito. In fact, it just seems to get so repetitive doing these after a while. Basically, you are engaged in a three checkpoint fight with the opposition. There's a meter that pops up during these showing you how well you are taking it over. Getting too many of your own people killed will fail a takeover mission. Once, you've killed so many enemies you can proceed to blow up the blockades. There are three in total for each takeover mission and when you reach the end you usually have to replace the flags or take down the main leader. The main leader typically has a lot more health than the other enemies and his health is shown so you get a good idea on how well you're doing. Once you get the hang of these, many of these can be done in a matter of minutes but some places can prove a bit more difficult.

Some of the places don't have any blockades for you to destroy. So, basically you are left roaming around trying to find enemies to kill. Some places have SAMs set up too. So, if you cross a certain area then expect to get a load of missiles coming your way. These ones can prove frustrating, since at times it doesn't give you a chance to get out of the way because of more missiles coming down one after another.

Once you've taken over places, you can go back to them to start side-missions. These too get repetitive since it usually just requires you to go to a certain location, pick up a package/kill a guy and then come back with heat onto you. Fun at first but not after a while.

If you ever get stranded, then you have a few options to try and get a vehicle. The first would be to call for a vehicle to be dropped down by helicopter (this isn't available if you have police onto you) or the other option is to attempt to hijack a helicopter flying above. There are so many of these helicopters flying around. They can end up getting annoying since you can always seem to hear some guy shouting out of them. Anyway, hijacking can be a hit or miss situation. You use your grappling gun (this is unlocked early on) which will fire at any vehicle and Rico will attempt to reel in. At times it just feels you are left hanging around but some of the time you can get right up close and successfully take control of the helicopter. Probably something you would expect to see in a James Bond film.

Controls aren't perfect but work good at times. Sometimes you'll use the B button to jump from one vehicle to another (especially if you know your vehicle is about to blow up). However, at times it will just make you jump off to the ground, if you're not paying attention to the on-screen prompt that tells you what will happen if you press that button. By the time you've looked at that, usually you'll have missed your chance to jump onto another vehicle.

Shooting enemies is pretty easy. When you aim near an enemy, it will show you an icon surrounding their body. If it is white you can shoot but when it is red, you can shoot and give them more damage. This also works when locking onto vehicles too. You get a good variety of weapons - including a rocket launcher, different types of machines guns and pistols. Your primary pistol has unlimited ammo but other weapons have limited ammo. There's also a sniper with a scope but it is not something you would regularly use. These weapons can be topped up at your safehouses. You will also find various weapons waiting there - another thing that was present in Grand Theft Auto.

Shooting is done with the right trigger and you can throw grenades too with the left trigger. These work well in taking down blockades during the takeover missions and can be pretty useful in some of the later missions. Sometimes, you'll be able to blow up grenades prematurely by shooting at them but if there are enemies nearby, then by default, it will just seem to stay locked onto them. Changing your weapons works well, since you use the d-pad to simply change over. You can also reload too by using the RB button.

During the later missions, you'll find things get more frustrating - especially when glitches occur. At a few times, I would pass a checkpoint and get killed shortly afterwards. Now, when put back to that checkpoint you don't regain full health and such which makes it seem at times - annoying. If you get put back to a checkpoint, you expect the next time it could be possible to complete the mission. Really, sometimes it doesn't. A few other glitches were encountered during a side-mission where an oil rig magically appeared in the sea. It required the character to land and collect and item. For some odd reason, it was not solid at all, thus made it impossible to collect the item.

When you die, you are put back at your nearest safe house where you have the chance to save. Again, for some reason your health can still be low and isn't reset automatically. So, you have to do all the collecting weapons and health stuff yourself before you save. Things like this makes it feel like a chore at times.

The good thing about Just Cause, is you have no loading times when exploring San Esperito. It is seamless and the draw distance goes quite far out. At times, you may find the odd texture still loading in some spots but nothing too major. It's very beautiful to just admire the sunsets, the sea and landscape from distance. Although, when on land itself, things don't tend to look as nice as they tend to be from the sky. Flying would probably be the high point of Just Cause. You can also take control of boats too (these can be useful for collecting some items underwater).

Just Cause isn't something to be considered an all-in-all great experience. Thankfully, it is made up by such a huge environment which is really pleasent to just admire. A few missions here and there are quite fun too and it would of been nice to have some sort of replay for individual missions. It's worth checking out but certainly the main missions can be completed in such a short time. If you're interested in doing all the other stuff then feel free to do so, providing you don't mind doing the same thing over and over.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/19/07

Game Release: Just Cause (EU, 09/22/06)