Game Review: Just Cause 2
Brian Bowers - Stars and Stripes
Apr 06, 2010
For most games, the ability to leap around and atop cars and blow stuff up would be enough. However, "Just Cause 2" offers so much more.
The M-rated action game from Square Enix lets you play in an immense island sandbox filled with a multitude of targets for an itchy trigger finger.
You play as Rico Rodriguez, who’s been sent by the Agency to track down your former mentor, Tom Sheldon, who’s gone rogue.
This requires allying yourself with various shady characters and factions and completing missions in scores of towns and facilities on the huge Southeast Asian island of Panau. You’ll grab officials, capture bases and blow up a whole lot of stuff.
Getting around the island is truly half the fun. Panau offers scores of vehicles to ride, drive and fly. And if you find someone else to drive, you can hop around atop the vehicle or cling to its side blasting away at oncoming foes. The resulting acrobatics and mayhem are very fun to watch.
However, if careering down a winding road on a motorcycle or skimming the jungle canopy in a helicopter seems a bit ordinary, you can combine your grappling hook and parachute to get around the island. The controls for these maneuvers are very easy and efficient.
The grapple can also work as a weapon. For example, you can grab enemies from a distance and pull them over ledges. Or you can use the grapple to attach a gas canister to an enemy and then shoot the canister, which then acts like a miniature rocket towing your foe into oblivion.
Another bonus is the ability to blow up lots of stuff. Although most buildings are immune to damage, many items are destructible. In fact, destruction is required if you want to unlock various items and upgrades.
The game does have a certain low-rent feel, with cheesy dialogue, bad accents, so-so graphics and a limited aiming system. However, nothing is actually broken — or gets in the way of the fun.
Platforms: Xbox 360 (tested), PlayStation 3, PC
On the Web: justcause.com
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