A fan boy's review.
Let me cut to the chase. Yes, Just Cause 2 is worth a $60 price tag. Normally I'm wary of paying full price for a game with no multiplayer, but Just Cause 2's expansive world and damn near perfect mechanics leaves the player with the same satisfaction as a fast paced game like Halo or Call of Duty would provide online.
To be honest, you're not going to be buying this game for the campaign. The short and hardly interesting story line only exists to provide the most exciting missions in the game. The campaign missions are a TON of fun, but you won't be on the edge of your seat anticipating the outcome of the events. Even during the most crucial moments in the story line I found myself thinking "more explosions, more explosions, more explosions". But despite the dull story line, you'll still be sucked into this game's awesome world and mechanics.
The world is huge. And when I say huge, I mean HUGE. And not only huge, but HUGE and GORGEOUS. This is a very very pretty game. The game runs like a dream for the most part, but I have come across some weird glitches where I've had to reboot the game because I was floating on thin air with no where to go. But out of the 50-something hours I've put into this game, once or twice isn't bad, but it was annoying. And now that I find myself rambling, let me just establish the graphics are incredible and let's move onto a new paragraph.
There's a lot to do! At just over 75% completion I've put over 50 hours into the game. Collecting all the upgrades and money is repetitive, but I never found it once to be boring. The varied environments riddled across Panau always feel like a fresh experience to explore and destroy. Speaking of destruction, blowing stuff up is FUN. Firing rockets from a jet at unsuspecting military bases leaves you feeling like a bad ass and free falling into the enemy territory only doubles the adrenaline. Other than using the world as a big sandbox, there are neat little "race" like missions where you fly airplanes or drive cars and motorcycles through rings to beat the clock. These little side missions are fast paced and surprisingly fun! A real sense of accomplishment accommodates each successful completion and leaves you running off to the next one.
Finally let me talk about the combat. Weapons are great. Although lacking in variety, guns range from pistols to rockets and just feel right. Something I found weird however was not being able to shoot crouched...wtf. Other than that, shooting is solid. But it takes more than shooting to survive an onslaught of the Panau military. The grappling hook. Use it. Flying from roof top to roof top or using your grappling hook to propel you over soldiers to pull out your infinite parachute(wtf right?) and soar to safety are effective methods for survival and make the game even better.
Feel free to ask questions and let me know what you thought of this review, it was my first.
