Just Cause 2 is a massive, action-driven adventure game. It compares to games like Grand Theft Auto in the open-world sense, and SpiderMan in the "flying around, grappling, doing crazy stuff" sense.
Gameplay: 8.5
Unique gameplay concepts - What drives the game, and what is it similar to?
Just Cause 2's main method of transportation is a grappling hook, skydiving and a parachute. Your use of the parachute is unlimited, so you can make for an interesting combination of grappling hook + parachute + freefall to gain speed and get around the map by gliding and grappling objects to gain speed and influence your direction.
The grappling hook is also interesting in that you can connect objects together, or grapple onto a car and stand there, hang off the side or hang from helicopters and airplanes, making for a pretty unique gameplay angle. Plus, who doesn't like grappling cars to the ground and watching them run out of slack, get yanked back and flop around?
But, the interesting thing about that method versus a car is that a lot of the times it's faster and it allows you to cross terrain that is impossible to drive over. And by terrain I mean 1000 meter-high cliffs and distances that, frankly, no car could handle without running out of gas.
This game's map is RIDICULOUS. By ridiculous I mean the biggest playable map in the history of gaming on a console. Traveling a few settlements over might seem like a walk in the park (or a climb up a mountain, over a sea and through the jungle.. whatever), but it's often several kilometers and can take up to 15 minutes at a reasonable speed. Not to mention, the distances are so great, you'll pass several settlements and wind up getting enticed by blowing stuff up, killing guys or just exploring new terrain. More than half of the game you'll likely spend wandering around and looking for new stuff to do.
The great thing about this is that once you've explored a settlement, you can quick-travel there and skydive over the settlement, so as the traveling gets cumbersome, you can limit it quite a bit if you choose. The missions also do a fair job at spreading you around the map. And besides, the map isn't closed off until you advance in the game, like it is in Grand Theft Auto. If you wanted to, you could do nothing but wander around and goof off. I did that for about 5 hours in the demo before I played the full game.
Besides the logistics of the game, Just Cause 2 plays a lot like Grand Theft Auto when it comes to combat. It's a 3rd-person shooter in combat, and a sort of action/adventure game when not in combat. All of the missions are very similar to Grand Theft Auto with fairly linear objectives and plot lines, but they are still fun to do when you're had enough wandering around and want to make some progress.
The main story missions are unlocked by causing chaos - basically going around the map and destroying stuff, so the game will likely befuddle the kind of people that play games of this scale and do nothing but blow through the story. It's actually a pretty good system.
You can choose (and there's no real reason not to) to work for different rebel factions around the map that will gain you chaos, money and items. These missions are good because, for the most part, they offer new story angles and more unique gameplay than just running around causing trouble. The unfortunate thing is that some of the faction missions can feel kind of stale or repeated.
It is also similar to Grand Theft Auto in that the game is centered around a sort of wanted level, where if you commit crimes and make people mad, you'll get more and more guys trying to kill you, resulting in sometimes rather large fights. The difference is that your ability to escape by being able to slingshot yourself out of a battle and basically leave the area in the drop of a hat makes for a much different, and actually much more enjoyable experience.
The weaponry and vehicles are nothing we've never seen before. Pretty standard, but pretty fun to use anyway. The only issue is that the game just doesn't do enough to keep you entertained for long enough stretches, so the novelty wears off quickly.
Presentation: 8.0
Graphical and audio presentation (animation, texturing, overall look & artistic style)
Just Cause 2 both looks good and bad at the same time.
Their scenery and especially long-distance mapping for the ground, water, objects, etc is amazing. The game looks great from a plateau or when flying around on a parachute.
Their character modeling is pretty bad though. The animations (and the fact that gunfire can push bodies around) make the game put off silly vibes. Their character modeling of some of the random citizens is awful.
Theatrics: 2.5
Story, Dialogue, Cut-Scenes and Artistic Use of Camera
The story is totally over the top, as is most of the game anyway, but it begs the question why it's even there, or why put any story there at all if it's going to make no sense and the characters are going to be these random assemblies of nonsensical jibba jabba.
You're supposedly some secret agent sent to an island to.. do some agency work or something. Either they never really said what you were there for, or I was too distracted to care about it, instead focusing on how horrendous their voice acting and dialogue is.
The setting in this game is just senseless. Not only are you sent to some random island in what is supposedly South-East Asia, but the people speak with no coherent accent whatsoever. Some characters sound Asian, some characters sound Hindu, some characters sound African, some characters sound Persian, and some characters have an accent that changes from sentence to sentence. At least they go out of their way to say who's an American and who's not, but if you're not an American you're a random mash-up of cultures and ethnicity from all over the world that isn't near the United States. I even heard a guy with an Asian accent say "mierda!" (spanish word.. look it up). Go figure how that makes any sense.
It's almost as if the developers didn't really know any parts of the world, so they mixed everything together. The voice actors sucking also doesn't bode well for this game.
What's even more ridiculous is people call him two different names, as if they can't remember what his name is so they guess. Imagine the main character's name was Brian, and half of the people in the game called him Ryan...
The story really is as bad as the worst action movie story you can think of.
Fortunately, their terrible... well, everything when it comes to theatrics is easy to overlook because the game is so fun. The only reason this didn't get a 0 is because the game makes for some cool bits of action that's at least interesting to look at.
Controls: 8.5
Ease of Use and Smoothness of Controls
Just Cause 2's controls keep up well with the intensity that comes with skydiving, grappling and utter chaos. Only a few things bothered me.
While driving a vehicle, the camera tilts along with whatever way you are tilting, and it is particularly evident when driving a motorcycle or flying a plane. Throughout the game there are race challenges and trying to race in a plane with your camera tilting every which direction is impossible to do. Because of that, I completed maybe 4 or 5 races throughout the entire game, when there are hundreds available.
Another strange thing is their crouching. When you crouch, you only crouch when you're standing still. The crouch toggle, if you're used to a game like Grand Theft Auto, is awkward and it's hard to remember if you're in crouch or not. When you're crouching, you can't use your grappling hook so it gets confusing.
Also, I really wish the controller vibrated (more strongly) when you were getting shot. They have the typical "your screen goes red" feature when your health is low, but most of the time you don't have any audio or vibration indication that you're taking damage. If there is an indication via vibration (when your vibration setting is on "high") it's really subtle and can easily get mixed in with your gunfire.
Replay Value: 7.0
Total Gameplay Time versus Expected
I put about 5 hours into the demo, and about 25 hours into the game. I had to play in small stretches as it is just not that versatile of a game, and I don't think I could see myself playing this all the time. It's fun and gives a good amount of gameplay. The element of exploration is ridiculous, though, so if you a person that needs to find and see everything, this game was made for you.
Fun: 8.5
How much fun was the game?
This, at first, was one of the most fun games I've played. It's action-packed, over-the-top, unrealistic, and crazy. I enjoyed it.
The fact that you're always so in command of your circumstances is really what makes it's combat work. Whenever you felt overwhelmed, you were a grappling hook and a good paragliding away from safety. Dying is rare, and when you do die it's usually pretty funny (plus there's no real down side except having to start a mission over).
It's combat in the way of gunfire isn't anything outstanding, though. The grappling hook is fun, but there's not enough interesting times to use it. The combat to any shooter game is going to be it's centerpiece, and this game's combat just isn't overly inventive. It's good, but not great, so it's easy to get bored doing nothing but fighting.
Some of their missions are so stupidly hard or long that when you die and have to do them over and over again (and not have a single checkpoint the entire way), it can get really annoying.
My Overall Rating: 8.0
Complexity Level: Some advanced concepts. In order to get the most out of the game you really need to master the grappling hook and parachute combo, along with various other skills related to the grappling hook. People who have a good feel for games will play this and enjoy it's complexity. Newer games will likely have a hard time executing all of the different things the grappling hook has to offer and will likely not see a ton of value in this game.
Gameplay: 8.5
Unique gameplay concepts - What drives the game, and what is it similar to?
Just Cause 2's main method of transportation is a grappling hook, skydiving and a parachute. Your use of the parachute is unlimited, so you can make for an interesting combination of grappling hook + parachute + freefall to gain speed and get around the map by gliding and grappling objects to gain speed and influence your direction.
The grappling hook is also interesting in that you can connect objects together, or grapple onto a car and stand there, hang off the side or hang from helicopters and airplanes, making for a pretty unique gameplay angle. Plus, who doesn't like grappling cars to the ground and watching them run out of slack, get yanked back and flop around?
But, the interesting thing about that method versus a car is that a lot of the times it's faster and it allows you to cross terrain that is impossible to drive over. And by terrain I mean 1000 meter-high cliffs and distances that, frankly, no car could handle without running out of gas.
This game's map is RIDICULOUS. By ridiculous I mean the biggest playable map in the history of gaming on a console. Traveling a few settlements over might seem like a walk in the park (or a climb up a mountain, over a sea and through the jungle.. whatever), but it's often several kilometers and can take up to 15 minutes at a reasonable speed. Not to mention, the distances are so great, you'll pass several settlements and wind up getting enticed by blowing stuff up, killing guys or just exploring new terrain. More than half of the game you'll likely spend wandering around and looking for new stuff to do.
The great thing about this is that once you've explored a settlement, you can quick-travel there and skydive over the settlement, so as the traveling gets cumbersome, you can limit it quite a bit if you choose. The missions also do a fair job at spreading you around the map. And besides, the map isn't closed off until you advance in the game, like it is in Grand Theft Auto. If you wanted to, you could do nothing but wander around and goof off. I did that for about 5 hours in the demo before I played the full game.
Besides the logistics of the game, Just Cause 2 plays a lot like Grand Theft Auto when it comes to combat. It's a 3rd-person shooter in combat, and a sort of action/adventure game when not in combat. All of the missions are very similar to Grand Theft Auto with fairly linear objectives and plot lines, but they are still fun to do when you're had enough wandering around and want to make some progress.
The main story missions are unlocked by causing chaos - basically going around the map and destroying stuff, so the game will likely befuddle the kind of people that play games of this scale and do nothing but blow through the story. It's actually a pretty good system.
You can choose (and there's no real reason not to) to work for different rebel factions around the map that will gain you chaos, money and items. These missions are good because, for the most part, they offer new story angles and more unique gameplay than just running around causing trouble. The unfortunate thing is that some of the faction missions can feel kind of stale or repeated.
It is also similar to Grand Theft Auto in that the game is centered around a sort of wanted level, where if you commit crimes and make people mad, you'll get more and more guys trying to kill you, resulting in sometimes rather large fights. The difference is that your ability to escape by being able to slingshot yourself out of a battle and basically leave the area in the drop of a hat makes for a much different, and actually much more enjoyable experience.
The weaponry and vehicles are nothing we've never seen before. Pretty standard, but pretty fun to use anyway. The only issue is that the game just doesn't do enough to keep you entertained for long enough stretches, so the novelty wears off quickly.
Presentation: 8.0
Graphical and audio presentation (animation, texturing, overall look & artistic style)
Just Cause 2 both looks good and bad at the same time.
Their scenery and especially long-distance mapping for the ground, water, objects, etc is amazing. The game looks great from a plateau or when flying around on a parachute.
Their character modeling is pretty bad though. The animations (and the fact that gunfire can push bodies around) make the game put off silly vibes. Their character modeling of some of the random citizens is awful.
Theatrics: 2.5
Story, Dialogue, Cut-Scenes and Artistic Use of Camera
The story is totally over the top, as is most of the game anyway, but it begs the question why it's even there, or why put any story there at all if it's going to make no sense and the characters are going to be these random assemblies of nonsensical jibba jabba.
You're supposedly some secret agent sent to an island to.. do some agency work or something. Either they never really said what you were there for, or I was too distracted to care about it, instead focusing on how horrendous their voice acting and dialogue is.
The setting in this game is just senseless. Not only are you sent to some random island in what is supposedly South-East Asia, but the people speak with no coherent accent whatsoever. Some characters sound Asian, some characters sound Hindu, some characters sound African, some characters sound Persian, and some characters have an accent that changes from sentence to sentence. At least they go out of their way to say who's an American and who's not, but if you're not an American you're a random mash-up of cultures and ethnicity from all over the world that isn't near the United States. I even heard a guy with an Asian accent say "mierda!" (spanish word.. look it up). Go figure how that makes any sense.
It's almost as if the developers didn't really know any parts of the world, so they mixed everything together. The voice actors sucking also doesn't bode well for this game.
What's even more ridiculous is people call him two different names, as if they can't remember what his name is so they guess. Imagine the main character's name was Brian, and half of the people in the game called him Ryan...
The story really is as bad as the worst action movie story you can think of.
Fortunately, their terrible... well, everything when it comes to theatrics is easy to overlook because the game is so fun. The only reason this didn't get a 0 is because the game makes for some cool bits of action that's at least interesting to look at.
Controls: 8.5
Ease of Use and Smoothness of Controls
Just Cause 2's controls keep up well with the intensity that comes with skydiving, grappling and utter chaos. Only a few things bothered me.
While driving a vehicle, the camera tilts along with whatever way you are tilting, and it is particularly evident when driving a motorcycle or flying a plane. Throughout the game there are race challenges and trying to race in a plane with your camera tilting every which direction is impossible to do. Because of that, I completed maybe 4 or 5 races throughout the entire game, when there are hundreds available.
Another strange thing is their crouching. When you crouch, you only crouch when you're standing still. The crouch toggle, if you're used to a game like Grand Theft Auto, is awkward and it's hard to remember if you're in crouch or not. When you're crouching, you can't use your grappling hook so it gets confusing.
Also, I really wish the controller vibrated (more strongly) when you were getting shot. They have the typical "your screen goes red" feature when your health is low, but most of the time you don't have any audio or vibration indication that you're taking damage. If there is an indication via vibration (when your vibration setting is on "high") it's really subtle and can easily get mixed in with your gunfire.
Replay Value: 7.0
Total Gameplay Time versus Expected
I put about 5 hours into the demo, and about 25 hours into the game. I had to play in small stretches as it is just not that versatile of a game, and I don't think I could see myself playing this all the time. It's fun and gives a good amount of gameplay. The element of exploration is ridiculous, though, so if you a person that needs to find and see everything, this game was made for you.
Fun: 8.5
How much fun was the game?
This, at first, was one of the most fun games I've played. It's action-packed, over-the-top, unrealistic, and crazy. I enjoyed it.
The fact that you're always so in command of your circumstances is really what makes it's combat work. Whenever you felt overwhelmed, you were a grappling hook and a good paragliding away from safety. Dying is rare, and when you do die it's usually pretty funny (plus there's no real down side except having to start a mission over).
It's combat in the way of gunfire isn't anything outstanding, though. The grappling hook is fun, but there's not enough interesting times to use it. The combat to any shooter game is going to be it's centerpiece, and this game's combat just isn't overly inventive. It's good, but not great, so it's easy to get bored doing nothing but fighting.
Some of their missions are so stupidly hard or long that when you die and have to do them over and over again (and not have a single checkpoint the entire way), it can get really annoying.
My Overall Rating: 8.0
Complexity Level: Some advanced concepts. In order to get the most out of the game you really need to master the grappling hook and parachute combo, along with various other skills related to the grappling hook. People who have a good feel for games will play this and enjoy it's complexity. Newer games will likely have a hard time executing all of the different things the grappling hook has to offer and will likely not see a ton of value in this game.
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