Just Cause

"Despite a long list of flaws, this is still one heck of an action game"

This game sort of came under the radar for me, as it apparently did for a lot of other people. There was no massive advertisement campaign, only a few ads in some game magazines. There wasn't even a lot of pre-release information hinting at what all this game was doing. As it turns out, that probably worked in this game's favor since expectations weren't raised too high.

STORY
An American agent (you) has been deployed in an island paradise in the midst of revolution. You are to aid the rebels in overthrowing the dictator so as to reclaim the island for democracy. The story is simple, but it does give you a reason for blowing up everything you see, which is a good thing in my book.

Another plus comes by way of the main character himself. Not only does he look a lot like Antonio Banderas when he played in El Mariachi but he sounds a lot like him too. This does a pretty good job of setting up the whole over-the-top action movie vibe that permeates the entire game.

GRAPHICS
When I first started playing, I was amazed. Not only is there an impressive draw distance, but vegetation is clearly visible on mountains miles away. Light is handled in an equally astounding way. It reflects off the water, creating a dazzling array of sparkles and it bounces off the sand, giving off a warm glow. And then I got into a helicopter…

From a high altitude or at high speeds on land, the flaws really start to show. While the draw distance remains consistent, and I have to say it really is astounding, everything else starts to fall apart. What I once saw as distant trees quickly revealed themselves to be simplistic 2D “paintings”. No matter which way I turned the camera, the trees rotated to give me the exact same image. As I moved along, the trees filled themselves in, becoming actual 3D trees. In practice, only a very limited area is in actual 3D at any given time.

While draw distance is impressive, there is some pop up. It isn't really anything major, and I attribute this more to a glitch than anything else. When moving at a high rate of speed (in a helicopter or speed boat) sometimes things fill themselves in as you fly by. Like I said, nothing major like a mountain is going to pop out, but trees and underwater textures sometimes fill in unexpectedly.

One really irritating issue is that environment tile sets are repeated far too often. When in the jungle, there is literally a set pattern that is repeated consistently. A few trees here, a rock there. After spending a great deal of time with the game, this pattern has almost become ingrained into my mind. When in the city it is noticeably worse. As I walked from one end to the other, I suddenly became very disoriented and confused. I soon realized that I hadn't gotten turned around, it was just that an entire city block had been repeated. This happens in almost every city and once you know the layout for one, you'll be able to navigate the rest.

SOUND
Strangely, there is almost no music in the game. This can at times be very irritating, since you'll be expected to drive across the island with only the sound of the engine and gunfire whenever someone is shooting at you. What little music there is happens to be of the overly energetic and irritating Latin kind.

As for voice acting; I'd rather beat my head into a wall than hear the words, “Stop! Police!” again. I kid you not, I've heard this phrase more times in ten minutes of playing than in an entire season of COPS. The other few pedestrian phrases are repeated just as often, but I never could quite figure out what it was people were screaming at me.

Weapon effects are fairly limited. The sound of a gunshot seems to be uniform, no matter what you're shooting. The only variable is the number of times and speed at which the gun goes “Bang”. When throwing a grenade or shooting a rocket launcher you'll be rewarded with a satisfying “Whoosh…Boom!”

My biggest complaint about the sound is that there isn't always a clear reason for why you're hearing what you are. Take for instance the often screamed, “Stop! Police!” Not only did I hear it constantly in cities, but it happens just as often when I'm in the jungle and there isn't a single person, vehicle or helicopter around. The same thing goes for gunfire and explosions.

GAMEPLAY
In the beginning of the game, you'll be dropped onto the massive island of San Esperito, a mass of land that consists of many provinces and dozens of towns and cities scattered across a claimed 250,000 digital acres. That may sound like a lot, but until you start running around inside of it, you'll have no idea how massive the world is. While I appreciate the work that went into creating the island, not much thought went into what the player would do in it once they arrived. The massive landscape becomes troublesome when you need to move across it. There is a very rudimentary system of fast travel, with the character moved to safe houses which are few and far between. More often than not, you'll just end up hoofing it across vast stretches of jungle or jumping into a car, which creates a whole new set of problems.

You'll soon find out that there are dozens of vehicles to steal and many of them look very cool. Unfortunately, they all handle very awkwardly. Some of them move like they weigh a million pounds and take forever to get up to speed or turn. Others behave like a jackrabbit on speed and are nigh impossible to even keep control of in a straight line. With these, minor adjustments typically cause them to go off the side of a cliff, but typically don't end in fiery doom. Strangely enough, the cars can absorb unbelievable amounts of damage before catching fire, and when they do, they burn for around twenty seconds before blowing up. Helicopters control fairly well, but are slow, yet they are preferable to the airplanes, which move with an unpredictable speed that usually results in explosive death when trying to get them off the ground.

The game can be divided into three sections: main story, takeover missions and side missions. The story missions are fairly easy and offer most of the variety to be found in the game. However there aren't many of them, and I never got a sense of cohesion while I was going through them. It just seems like you'll kill this guy, kill that guy, blow that up and kill some other people. But these objectives are usually fun, mostly because of the interesting ways that they're set up. For instance, one mission is to destroy an entire coca plantation. You can go around looking for trucks with toxic barrels in them, blow the trucks up and let the poison do its work. You can simply use grenades and C4 to wipe out the crop. Or you can go find the crop duster and fly over while spraying poison down on the plantation.

Takeover missions actually form the meat of the game and task you with freeing a town or wiping out a drug cartel. These missions gain you points with one of two factions (The Rebels or the Rioja's, a local drug cartel). As you gain points for each faction, you'll unlock new safe houses, weapons and vehicles. As fun as these are, they tend to be incredibly formulaic. Kill some guys, blow up the barricade, rinse and repeat, then take down the flag or kill a better armed thug (which depends on whether or not it's a town or drug mansion). There isn't a lot of variation in how you can do these either. It's basically just shoot, shoot, shoot and hope you don't get blown up by a helicopter with missiles. The real variation comes in when you liberate a city or a government base. Then things get interesting. During a city liberation, you'll have to deal with massive military deployment, involving tanks and helicopters. Missiles rain down, blowing up nearly everything and you'll have to survive long enough to take down the flag on the other end of the city.

Side missions are downright awful. Basically, they are comprised of all the crappy, cliched things you can think of. Go here, get that, or go there, kill this. All pretty basic and most always moronic. I can't tell you how many times I had to go on a cigarette run for the guerilla leader. Yes, you read that right. An American CIA agent with extensive training in guerilla warfare and government sabotage was charged with getting the guerilla leader a nicotine fix. These don't serve any purpose, other than a few minor Achievements and some extra points for unlocking safe houses.

Typically, every mission will result in some sort of police force being called in. In most games this is a fairly simple affair and can be easily dealt with. However in this game, there are two separate police meters. One for the actual government and another for the local drug dealers. It is entirely possible to max out both of these at the same time and be hunted relentlessly, but it never really gets any more difficult than it is at level one. The only thing that changes are the number of people screaming, “Stop! Police!” In fact, level one is just as dangerous as any other levels. Let me explain; in most games you have to get to level five or so before the helicopters are called in and people just start trying to kill you. No such luck here. At level one helicopters will buzz overhead, firing missiles at you and random police will show up to try and kill you. It seems strange that such an extreme reaction comes from simply hitting a civilian vehicle while driving. They continue to harass you until your wanted level expires (which takes forever) or until you die (which is much easier, since your weapons are conveniently located at all safe houses).

But, if you are determined to run, you'll be happy to know you've got all sorts of tricks up your sleeves. These come by way of contextual stunts. Whenever you are in a position to do one, you'll be notified via a message on screen. By pushing the button you'll automatically do the stunt. These vary from jumping out of a car and onto the hood, and hanging onto the tailfin of an airplane all the way to jumping from an airplane and landing on the roof of a car. You'll also have a grappling device and parachute which allow you to attach yourself to a moving car, or grapple onto the back of a helicopter.

THE VERDICT
While the game has numerous flaws and problem areas, it still manages to be one of the best action games I've played in a while. The contextual stunts are outlandish, but fun to use and takeover missions, while repetitive are fun enough to warrant liberating every province of the island. Like I said earlier, the lack of pre-release exposure ended up helping this game a lot.

HIGHS
- Cool stunts
- Targeting system is spot on

LOWS
- Not enough to do on the island
- Repetitive missions
- Clunky weapon management system

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/12/07, Updated 05/04/09

Game Release: Just Cause (US, 09/27/06)