With so many highly-anticipated games coming out this year, it can be easy to overlook a lesser-known title. Just Cause 2, from developer Avalanche Studios and published by Square Enix, does not have the brand name recognition of franchises like Halo or Metal Gear Solid. In terms of the amount of enjoyment it can provide to the player, though, it is more than capable of hanging with the big boys. I actually had never even heard of Just Cause 2 or its predecessor until a few days before the game launched, but on a whim, I decided to give it a chance. Now, with more than 30 hours of playtime logged on a game I did not know existed a month ago, I can safely say that I made a good choice.
Just Cause 2 is an open-world third-person shooter set on the fictional island nation of Panau. The protagonist is an elite secret agent by the name of Rico Rodriguez whose mission is to overthrow the island's tyrannical dictator by any means necessary. At your disposal are dozens of weapons, hundreds of vehicles and your trusty grappling hook that allows you to come up with clever ways to dispatch enemies or to slingshot across the island when combined with your stunt parachute.
The graphics depicting the island itself are beautiful and staggeringly expansive. It would take hours to cross the hundreds of square kilometers on foot, but there fortunately are faster ways to get to the next mission marker. Once you have reached your destination, you will take on assignments typical of the sandbox genre - video games with nonlinear gameplay - such as escorting a VIP's vehicle or destroying an enemy stronghold. If you would rather just explore on your own instead of playing missions, there are more than 400 unique locations to discover - and sometimes destroy - and dozens of vehicle races and time trial competitions. There is a full game's worth of content here even if you never play a single story mission.
Many video games from this generation attempt to elevate the medium to an art form. They strive to make the player think about the consequences of their actions, grapple with moral dilemmas or reevaluate their beliefs about social and political issues. Just Cause 2 is not one of those games. The plot is superfluous, the physics are intentionally unrealistic for the sake of fun and the voice-acting is laughably bad at best. Just Cause 2 is content to be "just a game," and it performs exceptionally in that role.
This is a game designed for a certain type of player. If you need a strong plot and character development to get into a video game, then you may find Just Cause 2 wanting. But if you are like me and can waste an entire afternoon just running around Liberty City in Grand Theft Auto IV blowing up cars and generally causing havoc, then you may have a new favorite game.
Just Cause 2 looks great considering the open nature of sandbox games, and with the exception of average character models, all of the objects and textures in the game will make your time spent in Panau easy on the eyes. The music and sound effects also are solid and fit well with whatever action is going on at the moment.
There are a few minor gripes that I could make about Just Cause 2. The missions could use some more variety, and it would be nice to see some sort of multiplayer or co-op mode, but until some other game allows me to get out on the wing of my jet, grapple to and hijack a passing military helicopter, then use said helicopter to lay waste to an off-shore oil rig laden with explosive fuel tanks, I'm more than willing to overlook those flaws.
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