Just Cause 3 Review

 

Just Cause 3 is an action-adventure game that was published by Square Enix and released near the end of 2015. The game focuses on Rico Rodriguez, the main protagonist, and his mission to liberate his fictional home country, Medici, from a dictator known as General Sebastiano Di Ravello.  In short, the game is primarily about pulling gravity defying stunts and causing massive explosions.

The game does well to entertain the player because of hilarious it can be at times. With the large variety of weapons, vehicles and gadgets, one can destroy a high security military base with ease and have a laugh at the enemies that are sent flying by the explosions. While this is indeed extremely fun, the console versions of the game struggle to stay at 30 FPS during intense moments and also have very long loading times. Therefore, if you are looking forward to playing Just Cause 3, it would be highly recommended to get the PC version of the game.

After a while, liberating towns and destroying enemy bases becomes tedious and repetitive so we move on to the other main feature of the game which is traversal. Using the wing suit and grappling hook was a bit difficult at first but after a while it became very entertaining. Of course, you have a wide variety of vehicles to choose from but none of them can beat the thrill of gliding through the air at high speeds while avoiding crashing into your surroundings. There is also a lot of side activities which serve to give more game time to players but that sometimes isn’t such a good thing. Every time you fail (which is very often) you will have to wait for the same agonizingly long loading screen until you can try again. Some challenges even have vehicles selected by default that do not complement the objective well.

The story is a bit too cliché for my taste and isn’t very inspiring. There is a lack of character development and the campaign is basically a combination of missions with no actual plot linking them together. However I doubt anyone who is playing the game is concerned about having a below average campaign since most of the fun is derived from being creative and using what is available.

In conclusion, as fun as the destruction and stunts can be in Just Cause 3, the game has too many issues to be considered great. Admittedly, the game has potential and there is a lot of room for improvement in the future. It should be considered as a foundation for the next game and if all of the problems are fixed, then I could see it as a success. Overall, it is an average game and could  definitely bring some enjoyment to players who can overlook it’s negative aspects.