Things, as you might expect, are not looking well. Government is gradually moving towards totalitarianism, citizens are harassed for no good reason and other countries are worried it will go to war and cost many lives. But enough about the US. Things aren't much better in the fictional South American(and this gets and utilizes the possibilities and local flavor, tone, plentiful beaches, exotic babes, etc.) island state of San Esperito. The dictator, Mendoza(Tatasciore) has to be taken down. Of course, an invasion would risk international incident. And McBain is busy. So a small task-force is sent in. Sheldon(McGonagle), your boss, Kane(DeLisle) the saucy arms tech girl, and you - Rico(Downes).
Why pick this up rather than the Rockstar original? This takes the basic core of that, and builds a lot of awesomeness on top of it(keeping in mind that, overall, this is not as good as the series that inspires it). The focus? Going through them one by one: Extreme sports. If you jump off a cliff(!) or are moving fast(when the ambient music switches to the energetic score), you can activate a parachute(or free fall). From there, you can attack, get into a mode of transport, and obviously get away. No matter what situation you're in, you can "move", you can affect where you're going, how fast, etc. with the smooth, well-streamlined, responsive and intuitive controls(handling can be OK, and is seldom poor). Everything you steer is equally easy to start using. Sure, their weight, center of balance, acceleration and such vary, but you get a feel for those aspects immensely fast. And before someone says that being a pilot is tough, well, so is being an expert chauffeur. Here, that is acknowledged.
All types of vehicles, common, without you getting blase about their use, and tremendously useful, make up the next aspect. Cars and motorcycles go without saying. Add to that boats(a lot of water - it might be best to cross it directly), helicopters(there are a lot of steep hills, it'll save you time) and planes(want to get from one end to the other of the 1,012km2 there are for you to explore? Here you go. Do note that about 70% of those are the lifeless sea and fugly, "early 3D kind of plants" jungle). All of them have variations that come with a machinegun and/or a rocket(including ones that come at you... typically, use of the latter doesn't go for when you're on foot - so plan accordingly) that, in addition to being a helpful, toggle-allowing auto-aiming, allow you to focus properly on what you want to decimate in a 90 degree angle in front of you. You can bail out at any time, and commandeer them from anyone else, provided you come close enough to them. You know, with the Grappler, that lets you lengthening/shortening the line. And you can be hanging off it if you'd like.
Some jeeps(and some guardposts, yours and theirs) come with a mounted M60, albeit this won't do much for you, a lot of the time: you can't be sure your ally(who will target you in case of friendly fire... and they get trigger-happy in their unsolicited aid of you, being, at times, more dangerous than who they're trying to protect you from) will drive, you can't get on it unless he's already stopped(and if you disengage it while he's still moving, you may go flying through the air - and no, you can't request he stop for a second). The Agency will offer assistance - finite by virtue of you "not being supposed to be there". They'll drop a car, a gyrocopter, or, if you want it to take off *and* hold a small arsenal, a catamaran or a humvee. You can also ask them to Extract you to any Safe House you've unlocked. There, you can fully heal, pick up bullets, save progress, grab something to get you from A to B, and, fortunately, expand what weapons are currently at your disposal.
You always have melee and unlimited ammo dual revolvers. Three of your slots can be occupied by your two types of C4(on a 10 second timer, or triggered) and the detonator of the latter. From there, you choose your preferred pistol, SMG(or sawn-off, LAW), and, last but certainly not least, whether to carry an assault rifle, a sniper, a shotgun, a grenade launcher or a 3-round bazooka(!). All of this combines to provide fodder for the creative destroyer within you. Two thirds of the main missions(that I understand you can complete in 5 hours) indeed allow you to approach them in different ways. Outside of that, there are side objectives(randomly selected between about 20; like the story ones, they boil down to "go here, do something, come back/go there", with hardly any twists, compellingly designed and unique ones as they lack the ingenuity of GTA) and liberations(taking over a town/base of operations from the people in charge, or the Montano cartel, who are on their payroll).
This earns you rank points with that of the two groups you were working for at the time, the Guerillas and the Rioja drug-runners(!). They stock the earlier mentioned bases for you - and getting to the top as well as completing the "plot"(there's little continuity, and thus, sense of accomplishment, between them), took me about 33 hours, which isn't a bad length for this. Sadly, beyond that, there's little to do here. Collectibles that also tie into aforementioned, and six races that vary in challenge(note that this has no difficulty settings), although it doesn't tell you which it'll be beforehand. The prevalence of glitches and bugs, including semi-frequent crashing requiring a cold reboot, in this make it clear that it was rushed. The arcade style is a lot of fun, though it could have been better achieved. Points/cash would do a lot.
There is a lot of bloody violence and disturbing content in this. I recommend this to any fans of open-world action. 7/10
