Just Cause 2

Welcome to the island of Panau. This is an island which is will be completely alien to all of you, in the island of Panau you will meet people with strange accents, the laws of ‘physics’ does not operate here and the most efficient way of getting yourself around the island is using a combination of parachute and a grappling hook.

This game is just my type of game. I will now paint a picture for you. Rico whips out his grappling hook, targets a hovering helicopter hundreds of metres away, commandeers the craft, lays down the unlimited supply of rockets into a fuel base and then your helicopter is spotted by an anti-air unit. No worries, you simply just jump out of the helicopter like a mad man, free fall for a couple of hundred metres and then use your grapple hook to pull yourself to the ground (at a faster speed than you were falling) and walk away.

Now, if Rico didn’t use his grappling hook at that point in time and just floated to the ground at a SLOWER speed, he would have died. Why, Just Cause.

Before I get into specifics, I should probably tell you what exactly you do in Just Cause 2. Just Cause 2 is an open-world game, where you take control of Rico Rodriguez, a CIA agent who, has been tasked with taking out the oppressive dictator of Panau. Panau is a beautiful island, which contains tropical rainforests, dry deserts and snowy mountains. The game’s graphics are amazing, and I think that it is because the content that they are rendering in the game world is just appealing to look at, it is certainly a nice change from the dirty streets of alien planets or battlegrounds war torn countries that we are used to. The sense of scale is also really well established, when you try climbing a mountain with a grappling hook, you will soon realise just how goddamn big the mountain is.

As you may have figured out already, unlike many games nowadays, Just Cause 2 does not take itself seriously. I believe this to be a good thing. One of the main flaws of the game is the storyline and the voice acting, the voice acting is atrocious but I found this to be entertaining half the time so it wasn’t exactly a burden that I was required to carry throughout the game. But if it does annoy you, thankfully you will be allowed to skip it.

One of the game’s real strong aspects is the way that you traverse Panau. Once you get the hang of using your grappling hook to pull yourself along, you will find that it is incredibly satisfying. The one of the currencies in the game is labelled ‘CHAOS’, you will obtain chaos through the destruction of government property. The explosions look fantastic in this game, and things fall as they should. There is a large variety of weapons all of which (once unlocked) can be delivered by the ‘Sloth Demon’ (a dude in a helicopter). The Sloth Demon can also be used to deliver vehicles and fast travel you around the island. You can travel on Land, Air and Sea; there are a smattering of boats, planes and cars for you to mess around with.

This game will reward you for experimenting. Countless times, I have thought ‘This game would be so awesome if this will work” and nine times out of ten, it will work. One tool that seems to have been designed for the player to experiment with is the grappling hook. Apart from pulling you along at a lightning face pace, you can also ‘tether’ two objects together. I must have spent at least two hours; tethering cars to the road and watching them fly into the air. You can even attach yourself to a gas can, and use it as a rocket to fly into the sky.

Now, like all open-world games, there are missions which are entertaining for a while but, soon become repetitive, and with no strong narrative, most players won’t feel the compulsion to complete missions. Also, ammo can be a problem, which I found odd as the game is focused on the act of destroying objects. But it really does not matter, because the island of Panau is just fun to be in, the explosions are awesome and there are a bucketload of easter eggs around the world for you to find (there is even a little tribute for Lost fans). Cars also drive nicely too (a massive improvement over the first game) and the shooting feels solid, and there is even a lock on feature to help you along.

The pure ongoing madness of this game is what really won me over, there is always something awesome waiting to happen, and I cannot think of a good reason why you should give this game a miss. Panau is a great place to be as a superhuman superspy with access to the best weapons and vehicles in the world.