Just Cause 2

It's hard to imagine where action games like Just Cause 2 haven't taken place yet. Venezuela? Nah. North Korea? Nope. How about Panau?

Now we're talking.

I'm not talking about a segment of Panau, I'm talking about the whole shabang. Over 400 km of land to travel across, and over 200 locations to explore and flush out.

Yeah, I think it'd be safe to say that you won't be finishing this game in 1 week.

Just Cause 2's landscape has tons of different climates to make it truly feel like you're in different sections of Panau. From snowy mountains to urban cities to sandy deserts, Just Cause 2 captures the essence of nearly every inch of Panau. Hell, there's even a strip club blimp boat. How do you get much cooler than that?

Anyways, I better move on to the actual review, then. Here are the Good things and the Bad things about Just Cause 2.

Good: Of course, I already mentioned the nearly 400 km landmass and the extensive locales, but what about the grappling hook-based gameplay and the missions? Well, one of those two I'm gonna save for the Bad section, but I will tell you that Just Cause 2's gameplay controls as smoothly as Mercenaries, and the grappling hook and parachute also work nicely. Gunplay is fluid and action packed, but my only complaint is that you can't crouch to duck behind cover, and headshots are way too easy to pull off. Your character, Rico Rodriguez (Activate the random Spanish name generator!) is so badass that bullets just seem to pass through him, and he can survive 75 foot drops without a scratch on him. He can pretty much defy every single law of gravity, from grappling onto the ground to survive a high fall to RIDING ON THE TOP OF AN AIRPLANE WHILE THE AIRPLANE MAGICALLY CONTINUES TO FLY IN THE DIRECTION HE FLEW IN WITHOUT A PILOT. Damn. Are you sure I'm not playing as an awesome vanguard battleship destroyer or something?

Bad: Being an action game in this era of games doesn't exactly warrant you perfection. For example, the voice acting.

Saying that the voices in this game are downright awful is a huge understatement.

I mean, for Christ's sake, I've seen better Asian impressions on MadTV. Every time an enemy spots you and alerts your presence, not only do you have to deal with the onslaught of Panauan officers that arrive, you also have to trudge through the worst Asian accent ever muttered in a video game. This becomes such a nuisance that I can't even focus on the enemies because I'm too busy plugging my ears. But you haven't even heard the voice of Bolo Santosi. It's not that her voice acting is horrible, it's just they got an Indian actress to voice an Asian character. How does that work out? It quite simply doesn't.

Also, not being a supernatural death eater nor a complete wuss, I decided to try this game on Normal mode. Whenever I'm infiltrating an enemy stronghold, I always find myself running low on health. There's one slight problem, though... Health packs can only be found on random buildings, and once you use them once, they're gone until you either die or trigger some sort of mission. Why would you be that cruel? Granted, Rico can take bullets like mosquito bites, but eventually when an elite soldier drains my health to a nearly empty state, it's almost impossible for me to continue on.

The Freakin' Sweet: Being published by Square Enix, you know that they would've thrown in a little extra easter egg into Just Cause 2. There are 2 easter eggs: the Lost easter egg and the Bubble Blaster. Once you reach the Alpha Communications Outpost in the Southwest-West, you'll see a field in the back that has a bunch of trees with white leaves. In the middle of this field is a bell tower, and if you climb it you'll find a little toy bubble shooter on a table. It's funny, but at the same time, it's completely pointless, and you can't use it to any effect in battle.

As for the Lost easter egg, if you fly your plane over the island on the Northwest corner of the map, you'll hear a boom sound and your plane will light on fire and it will crash. If you jump out and explore the island, you'll eventually come across a downed plane. This area, unlike the Bubble Blaster, however, isn't completely pointless, for there are vehicle and weapon parts you can find to upgrade your weapons and vehicles, and there's an entire mission dedicated to fighting 100 year old World War II veterans. I'm not kidding.

All in all, if you're looking for a wide-open game similar to Mercenaries, but with tons more things to destroy and tons of faction missions to complete, then this game definitely satisfies. Just remember that this game will take a hilariously long time to beat 100%.