Let me paint you a picture. You`re the star and go by the name of a big movie producer and you`re dead keen on explosions. Bang. Bang. Bang. Lots of fire, and lots of smoke. You love seeing a good explosion on set, and people flying through the air and loads of crazy and mental stuff going on. You do? Then this may be the game to get yourself stuck into. Because there will be blood. There will be gun-fire. There will be flying. And lastly, and perhaps the most fun part of it all, there will be explosions.
Just Cause 3 is the latest instalment to the Just Cause series, and is developed by Avalanche Studios and published by Square Enix, the team behind the publishing of games such as Tomb Raider and Thief, and is set 10 years after the actions and story of Just Cause 2 (Which for those interested, will becoming part of the Backwards Compatibility scheme by Xbox) as Rico Rodriguez, our main protagonist for the game, returns to the homeland, Medici, a lovely mediterrean island which is now under the scrutiny and dictatorship of General Sebastiano Di Ravello, who is seen as the neological type who wants to take complete and utter domination of the world. You are tasked with stopping him from conquering the world by brute force.
Now, throughout the game, you have to take back liberations that Di Ravello has taken control, and to win the liberations back for the Rebels, the gangs that pre-occupied these locations before Di Ravello came into take control. Within each liberation, you are tasked with taking our certain key locations and objects, such as the speaker stands in which you can hear General Di Ravello speaking some jibberish, as if a propaganda to the people, and by also bombing and destroying several oil tanks and fields, and by basically tearing down anything that endorses the general. And how do we do that? By gun fire, grenades, and of course, explosions! You will use your vast array of weapons and grenades that you can pick up and trade as you go from post to post, and by using your much beloved parachute, fly through the air in able to create manic and chaos, all from the sky. You`re objective is to go through a majority of the island (Which upon reading, is 400 square miles) and turn each liberation from Red to Blue, meaning that the post is now under the Rebels control. Of course, the more liberations you conquer back, the closer you become to defeating Di Ravello. And of course, it`s not just gunfire and grenades that you can use to bring the explosions to life. Using your sticky-rope (think of Spider-man and his webs) you are able to throw oil and flammable canisters together, creating some of the biggest fireballs and explosions you`ll see, and using them to your advantage.
One of the great new features for this game though, is Rico`s new Wingsuit ability. The ability to fly like a bird with wing-like flaps, all of which keep you going in the air like a bird, and can give a great birds-eye view of the explosions and chaos and mayhem going on below. I found myself flying round Lacos, one of the liberations that I had to capture back for my people, the Rebels, before disabling the wingsuit and dropping into their Prisonment, and making sure there were explosions. Because, well, I like explosions. Mixed with the new sticky-rope (that’s what I am now calling it) you are able to too swing from building to building, and get yourself flying through the sky, and watching your destruction from above.
Now, one of the sticking points for me throughout this game, was that I found certain parts of it very, very repetitive. I love the idea of going to a liberation and blowing things up and causing so many explosions that even Michael Bay would be proud, but it seemed to be that was the main story, with a few missions that focused on doing things for several characters. Just Cause is one of those games that you buy, and may not be too bothered with the story, if you`re someone who likes to literally blow shit up. Because that`s the main aim of this. I love the idea of blowing things up, and causing explosions galore, but I also like there to be that balance, between having good gameplay, and a good story, and I don’t know whether this brings it to the table.
I`d read a lot before I got my hands on the game, that it had been bugged and launched with a poor fps rate, and with several stutters throughout the game, with long loading times, especially for the Xbox One edition. Long-Loading times? I don’t think so. I can`t say that I waited a long time for the game to load and even parts of the game to load up (but then to be honest, I don’t know what sort of times people were waiting for it) but the real problem I found was the low fps rate and the stuttering throughout. My god did that become annoying after a while. It`s a great game for explosions, but when that`s missed and bugged with a stutter throughout, it can get rather frustrating after a while. Nothing like seeing a nice, smooth crisp explosion, and not have it stutter throughout. Hopefully, that’s something over time that will be amended through future patches and updates.
Overall, Just Cause 3 is a great game, for those who literally like to blow things up. You`ll use your grenades, C4, guns and much more in order to create those explosions that you want to see, and you can truly let your mind run wild. But for me, the stuttering and low fps rate at times bring the game down, to a level that can truly become frustrating after a while. But, it`s a good game, and if they can sort the stuttering out, a game with great potential.
A huge thank you to XCN for supplying us with a Review copy of Just Cause 3
