Innovations: The game uses procedural synthesis to create the game’s island environment, which creates a stunningly vast area to explore and traverse. If San Esperito were real, it would be approximately 250,000 acres - just a skosh smaller than Hong Kong. The skydiving component, whether from an aircraft or from a BASE structure, is a remarkable facsimile of an experience that is difficult to duplicate in any fashion, let alone in a video game. And the ability to drive or otherwise operate everything from a dirt bike to a naval warship opens up hundreds of possibilities to get around and complete missions.
What went wrong: As I mentioned above, the game sacrifices realism for some very jarring, gut-wrenching violence… but sometimes the silliness of it will take you aback.
Being able to jump through a helicopter’s spinning blades into the cockpit while simultaneously ejecting the pilot, or being able to take nearly one hundred bullet wounds before succumbing - these can take their toll on even the most thoroughly suspended disbelief.
Additionally, it’s tough to get past your enemy’s inability to take the simplest cover during an all-out firefight, while the same morons can pull off spectacular and very frustrating offensive driving maneuvers which put your vehicle in a tree 90 percent of the time.
Such a monstrous disparity in AI leaves you wondering if they didn’t dump this bun on the market when it still needed a few more weeks in the oven.
Additionally, voice acting is merely acceptable, the soundtrack is fairly repetitive (you have one boating song, one driving song, one safe house song, etc.), and unless you’re completely anal like me, you might give up on completing the “entire” game once you’ve completed the main story line because of the repetitive nature of the side missions. Not me, though. I’m going to own that friggin’ country, you hear me?
In a nutshell: Ernest Hemingway once described critics as men who watch a battle from a high place, then come down and shoot the survivors. I don’t want to be that kind of critic, so I only review games that I like. That being said, I think that even the most elitist gamer will find Just Cause to be a guilty pleasure of the highest order. How can you carpet bomb a village from a helicopter and not fall in love?
Just Cause is rated M (Mature) by the ESRB for Content Descriptors. This game can also be found on: PS2, Xbox, and Xbox 360.
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