Just Cause 2 is a 2010 open world action adventure video game developed by Avalanche Studios, published by Eidos Interactive, and released for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. It is the second installment in the Just Cause series, the game follows Rico Rodriguez, a major operative of the fictional Agency who arrives at the fictional island, Panau, to overthrow dictator Pandak “Baby” Panay and confront former mentor Tom Sheldon.

Positives:

• Large open world
• Tons of replayability
• Challenging gameplay
• Tons of exploration
• Grappling is awesome

Negatives:

• Lackluster story
• Gameplay is repetitive
• Lackluster characters

Campaign:  Just Cause 2 features a single player experience that allows players to deviate from a linear format to explore the world and perform side missions at their leisure.  The campaign itself isn’t overly lengthy if you don’t count the chaos missions and doesn’t really hold any kind of weight when it comes to the story.

The story is something we’ve seen a million times in movies and games.  Of course, Rico’s mission to overthrow the current regime becomes more complicated because of outside forces who have their own agendas.  The story is pretty bland and pretty far from anything compelling.  Most of the characters aren’t memorable at all, some of them even fitting some bland archetypes.  Sure, Rico is an awesome character but there is nothing exploring his character nor developing it.  No conflicting decisions to make the character more interesting. Even the lack of side stories leave the world feel really bland despite the high level of content.  (3 out of 5)

Gameplay:  Just Cause 2 is a third-person shooter where players control Rico Rodriguez, similar to games such as Grand Theft Auto and Saints Row.  Players are allowed to explore the large open world of Panau with its diverse landscape, including deserts, mountains and jungles, while embarking on a variety of missions to earn Chaos Points.  Aside from the main story, players can embark on liberating settlements (finding all the collectibles and destroying all the government properties ) from government control or help the three factions:  the Roaches (an organized crime syndicate), the Reapers (an insurgent socialist militia) and the Ular Boys, an ultranationalist rebel group which espouses traditionalism and opposes foreign influence.  Players have access to numerous land, sea, and air vehicles with a variety of weapons which both can be upgraded by finding weapon and vehicle parts collected.

But the game’s highlights are Rico’s grappling hook, parachute, and the over-the-top stunts which makes travel and exploration awesome.  The grappling hook adds a lot of versatility to the locomotion and has ton of different functions which include tethering enemies together, pull enemies to Rico, help hijack vehicles, and hold onto objects such as the wall. If you’re proficient enough, you’ll feel like Spider-Man.  Can’t emphasize how awesome it is to grapple to a helicopter and hijacking it, helping to turn the tide of a battle.  Free falling is probably the one thing I did the most in the game.  Now the gameplay does have its share of issues.  The gun play could’ve been better and it took some getting use to.  Also, liberating settlements does feel repetitive.  It would’ve been better had some settlements/bases required different conditions to liberate/take over by raising hell does tend to get repetitive.  Outside of helping the three main factions, you’re literally doing the same thing over and over and over.  Go to a settlement/base, destroy government property, fight the soldiers, and find collectibles. Rinse and repeat.  Still the gameplay is extremely fun. (4 out of 5)

Graphics:  Hands down one of the most beautifully crafted video games when it comes to the overall design of Panau.  It is as large as it is diverse and whether players travel across the land, air, or sea; the entire island is just beautiful to look at from any angle.  The in-game and cinematics aren’t so impressive.  The character models are stiff and blocky, and the animations are decent, just barely making them acceptable.  One point I’d like to make is for how big the map is, does it’s size necessarily contribute to the overall gaming experience?  It’s nice to be able to explore and admire the scenery but if the world isn’t interactive what is the point?  Loved the destructible environments which add depth to the environment. (4 out of 5)

Score:  The score for the most part is good.  The music has a western style theme to it, kind of like in 1996’s Escape from L.A.  The voice performances are alright but a little bland.  There’s no one person that really stands out. The sound effects are on point and help give depth to the world, making the weapons and vehicles feel solid. (3 out of 5)

Replay Value: Games like this capitalize on replayability. Hell, the game practically invented it. The island of Panau is vast and practically begs players to explore its various regions. There’s a lot of ground to covered a lot of ways to cover it. There are over 100 automobiles, boats and airplanes. Hell, the mixture of grappling and parachuting is awesome. There are tons of great locations and a diverse topography; lush jungles, arid deserts, vast oceans and beaches, snow capped mountains, and active cities and small towns making for an immersive world with a size of 400 miles.

There is learning to master the grappling hook and parachuting. This duo is actually great with traveling. And there is a ton of hours worth of experimentation especially with the combat. I’ve never felt better than when I grappled a sniper from his best and watched him fall to his death. But the grapple can also be used to hook two things together, hooking a car motorcycle to a building leads to some hilarious results.

There’s a ton of things to do. Generally, I just ran around attacking the police and destroying stuff and there’s a lot of things to destroy (statues, military bases, oil refinery, etc.). However, players need to destroy is rewarded as Chaos which unlocks more missions.

There are tons of collectibles.  There are various weapon, armor, and vehicle parts scattered across the land to help upgrade and unlock Rico’s arsenal.  There are cash stashes to be found as well.  When it comes to the different factions, there are items specific to each group to be found.  Skulls can be found in natural settings and in the mountains and are collected for the Ular Boys. Drug Drops are collected for the Roaches and can be found in cities, towns, villages, and bridges.  And lastly there are the Black Boxes which can be found under water and are collected by the Reapers.

The game features a grand world with seemingly limitless freedom of exploration, collectibles to find, and side missions to embark on. (5 out of 5)

The Verdict:  In the end, Just Cause 2 is a pretty awesome game with some of the best gameplay mechanics in an open world game.  True, in terms of an actual story the game suffers heavily and the gameplay can be quite repetitive at times.  But Just Cause 2 more than makes up for this in terms of hidden content, diversity of the world as well as its impressive size, face paced action and great stunts, great sound design, and awesome graphics.  Just Cause 2 gets 4 out of 5.

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