Just Cause came out to prove that sand-box games don't need to have gangs in them. You do have Guerillas, however. The game puts you in the role of a latin field agent sent to start a revolution on this tropical island. Your guy is very much James Bondish with his moves. Unfortunately, the game is unable to bring itself into the level that GTA is on.
Jumping right into it, the best part about Just Cause is its unique feature. Your character is able to perform several "stunts." For example, you are able to fly off a hill riding a moped at full speed and jump into a parachute where you then use a grappling hook to latch onto a helicopter and then jump on to the back of the copter and then swing through the blades into the pilot's seat. From there you climb the helicopter up for a while and then jump out free falling and then jump on to a car hundreds of feet below of where you jumped. From that car you can then car surf for a little bit and then jump to different car that passes by before jumping into the driver's seat. It all works out nicely and looks awesome. This is what we should see in James Bond games. From there the game doesn't go much further.
I do like that the game doesn't give off a lot of a GTA clone impression. There are side missions that you can do in addition to the main story and the nice thing is that they don't go into something weird that has nothing to do with the game's story. The problem is that you will quickly realize the lack of variety that will face in the game. After a while, all you will really care about is performing the stunts. Worst of all, the lack of variety is not the only problem with the missions.
You are led through the game a little too much. The game is clearly not going for a realism approach and that is fine if it follows through. It tends to be a bit too easy to kill the enemies and almost too hard to kill you. Not to mention that you have unlimited ammo for your duel pistols, unlimited parachutes and can restock ammo & health at any base makes the game a bit easier. You are also told and shown pretty much everything you need. Hidden items are actually shown on your map. Why are they showing "hidden" items on your map? The only thing that will get in your way are the glitches. Trying to blow something up that can be walked through is kind of hard...
Graphically there are some nice things about Just Cause. The water effects are great looking when you are in the ocean. The rain, however, looks pretty bad. I am also disappointed with the explosion effects. Especially considering how unrealistic the game is, I would expect some extraordinary explosions but this is not the case. And I realize that this is a tropical island but there is just too much forest. There needs to be more in the forest, at least.
Just Cause is a good looking game that introduces some nice stunts with the parachuting and such but could be such a better game in the end. The game's missions need to have more variety to them and let you figure some things out on your own. The game does make for a great rental to pass time but is hard to push for a purchase at full price.
