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o yeah, I finished the main storyline of “Just Cause 2” the other day and generally the game left a good impression: after you finish up the main line, “Just Cause 2” goes into “mercenary mode”, a free-as-you-will mode to explore Palau and environs.
But before I go into the game specifics, the game’s makers (Avalanche Studios) had a hit in their hands the moment they released the game: this “sandbox game” is so large that it dwarfs anything else (see Kotaku for size). This is also the feeling that creeps in the moment you start and what makes this more delighting is that there are many ways to go out discovering the country, using cars, bikes or boats. And planes. So once in a while you get subtle hints that you should check out the main story line (“Agency missions”), but you’re not really required to do these as there are many other missions from other factions to take care of. The general consensus is that you should be able to finish the main storyline in some 50+ hours.
The point of the game being? As a free-ranging CIA agent (“Rico”), your job is to cause as much chaos in Palau as you can (using as many tools that you have) so that it will eventually take down its leader. In your arsenal of tools are the grapple hook and the parachute, your stunts and weapons (which you can buy from the local black market dealer). The more things you blow up, the more ‘chaos’ points and the more missions open up. However, besides the main missions (8 or so?), there is a limited amount of faction missions (40+?). This is probably the weakest point of the game: while exploring the country seems like an endless cool adventure, knowing that missions are finite is not really a comforting thought. I think Avalanche should have either concentrated on adding missions instead of throwing DLC of (unnecessary) extra vehicles and weapons. Additionally, it’s ‘checkpoint’ save thing is completely flawed. There were complaints that this game didn’t have multiplayer, but, I personally think multi-player co-op (for example) would be a tad too boring: after all, I never had troubles taking over bases on my own.
So yeah, an excellent game with fun and over-the-top features (the grapple hook mostly) and physics: if you like sandbox games, Just Cause 2 is probably of your liking. It’s easy to get into (the “boss monster(s)” are actually not too hard to defeat) and its silliness is so unique that I wouldn’t dare not to recommend it. This. Is. Fun. Really.
Images after the fold:
