Rico Rodriguez(cynical and blasé) is sent to you're Team America-ing the crap out of Panau(think North Korea) to overthrow its leader "Baby" Panay(I think he's supposed to be Kim Jong-Il
albeit for all the comedic propaganda in this, explaining why 'no, seriously, don't worry, everything is fine' when you destroy something important, they for some reason don't include myths like the ones he told his people about him), and don't worry, use of unnecessary violence in the apprehension of the dictator *has* been approved. But before he can do that, he will have to find his former mentor, Tom Sheldon(a Texan who never saw a barbecue he didn't like), who the CIA have lost contact with. And if he's gone rogue
he will have to kill the man who taught him everything he knows.
As you may already be able to tell, this is a dumb, loud, over-the-top action blockbuster in game form. That goes beyond the plot and the humor, and envelops every aspect of this arcade title(I kid you not, stats like "x amount of kills in the last 60 seconds" will pop up on the screen). One of the better clones, this is like Grand Theft Auto with freer and faster movement as well as a non-linear approach to action, losing the plentiful variety and all the "personality" to characters, plot, assignments, etc. Flexibility is all over this sucker: you can almost always shoot, go to the stunt position of any nearby vehicle(car, motorcycle, helicopter, plane, boat... and not only are there many different ones of all of these, and you can use each and every one, but the military will also do so, growing in intensity the further along you get in this, so the difficulty increases organically) from where you can move without getting off it, go to piloting(if necessary, toss out the guy currently in the driver's seat, after completing a QTE, also used for interacting with computers, disarming bombs that may be on an otherwise-rare-for-this timer), etc.
And of course, there is the grappling gun. Rapidly flying from your left arm to... well, tether (almost any) two things together(people, a tractor and a statue, gas cans, and the list goes on from there), pull something closer(...anything that is not nailed down and that does not have an engine), or yourself immediately and directly to, well, frankly, *anything*(well, short of the contents of the previous parenthesis). Combine that with the unlimited supply of parachutes(and you can go back and forth between using one and base-jumping), and you can nearly instantly go just about anywhere, all. The. Time. This brings you a tremendous amount of fun, and never really gets old. And while it does just barely get old before you complete this(which took me 20 and a half hours, with about 70% non-plot content left to do... which I'm currently enjoying working my way through), it's pure awesomeness to blow stuff up. And doing so makes up the vast majority of this.
If a building belongs to this Communist government, you can, and definitely should, destroy it. This is the non-storyline way to earn money, for the Black Market, which, for a hefty price, so make sure to only use it for emergencies, will ship any of a total of 21 weapons and 16 modes of transportation that you've earned, directly to you, if there's a horizontal surface within a few meters, and you can always just get yourself to an area that fits that description). In addition to cash, you'll get Chaos. This unlocks two things. One is races - and everything about these goes for the multiplayer, as well(the online play has a ton of servers, including ones for RPG, and one for Domination, that, yes, places you on the several hundred square kilometer island, and can easily handle several dozen players with no lag). Every way to get from one place to another is represented, you merely have to use the right type(so, you can do it whether you're in a jeep or a bus) to proceed in it, and while they can be frustrating, they are, as this is as a whole, addictive and satisfying.
Since you're taking chunks out of the army's control of the country and thus you get more information, the second is missions, be it the main, Agency ones or those for one of the three interchangeable Factions. Yup, not only are they all freedom fighters, where the original did have a drug cartel, too. And each of them has a corrupt leader. But they also all allow you to work for them whenever you want, either somehow not realizing, or utterly not caring, that you also work for the other two. Collectibles are either for one of them, or for the upgrading system. Get 5 armor parts, increase overall health - which you'll want, since the amount of static refills for it is quite limited. And there are ones for improving the stats of the earlier mentioned objects you can call in. These two forms of currency give a weight to making progress in this that too many open world titles lack. The graphics are excellent, and this offers natural-looking terrain such as tropical, snowy mountains, desert and forest.
As far as arsenal goes, you can hold any one bigger one(assault rifle, shotgun, bazooka, etc.), two one-handed ones(Desert Eagle, sawn-off shotgun, and, no, I'm serious, a grenade launcher!) that you can dual-wield with separate triggers, and you have C4(where you can throw these sticky things onto anything, and empty your entire stash of them before triggering any and all you've dropped at once!) and grenades. Ammo depends a lot on how common the piece is, and you may need to swap to something your foe was just carrying, and consider if there are better ways to kill people/break stuff.
There is a lot of bloody, violent and disturbing content in this. I recommend this to anyone who plays videogames. 8/10
