Just Cause

In an island paradise archipelago full of brightly colored flora, vivacious inhabitants, countless villages, and even more vehicles to chose from than Burt Reynolds has wigs... this is the world of Just Cause.

You are placed in the footsteps of an agent working to overthrow a dictator in a fictional Latin country. Sounds good right? Not really...

The cast has about as much character depth as an Extra in a Paulie Shore film.

The game scripting is very buggy. Aiming is extremely difficult. The enemies can take a ridiculously large amount of bullets to the chest before they die. (example given- sniping a Boss character in the back, neck, etc takes health down but isn't an instant kill... the game is very arcade). The poor design allows AI that is so bad that, if you stand in the middle of an airport, you hear "Boom, boom, bang, boom" as the computer is much too stupid to fly, or land, any planes or helicopters- they just crash and immediately respawn above your head.

The game plot is far from linear (neither good nor bad) but at times it can be hard to remember why you are fighting in the first place- oh wait, you're an agent and its cool. That's right. That's why you are fighting. (Seriously, this is why you are set out on a slaughter campaign to liberate a country- because you're wearing black and have a gun, guess its your job *shrug*).

The plot is pretty much nonexistent.

Overall, the scenery is pretty. If you want to explore miles and miles of ocean and tropical paradise and see local villages with people harking their wares and gangs killing each other, this is the game for you. If you like to be entertained with good gameplay, a story, or anything resemblant of character development... this isn't for you.

This is a Grand Theft Auto clone containing both "theft" and "auto", but it is very far from "grand."

Well, I really enjoyed his game, mainly because the scenery is just beautiful and breathtaking at times...parachuting off a cliff and having a stunning view of the ocean and the smaller islands, and the white sands...beautiful :).

You're basically a guy working for two different "gangs" as such. But they are not rival gangs. You eventually work your way up in their ranks to become 'top dog'. There is so much to do in this game, and it's a real change from GTA or Saints Row, which are around streets of America completing missions...I would say Just Cause is much different to those games.

There are countless number of side missions to complete for both gangs, and also secret packages that can be found, some of which can be pretty tricky, and then about 8 races you can complete and get a best time.

The only downfall to this game, is that things are too far apart. What I mean is...if you go to start a side mission, the guy tells you where you need to be, and even if you're travelling by car, it takes you AGES to get to the place you need to be. I'm telling you, this place is huge...there are some things that can take you about 20 minutes to get to your destination! However, I found this to be a nice game to play. Kept me quiet anyway! I managed to 100% this game, and it took me (in total) 38 hours to complete (i haven't calculated that myself, it tells you in your statistics).

This is a good game, to keep you busy. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a change :)

Just Cause will find gamers immersed into a world of GTA but a little bit different. The GTA games are more fun and the world is larger while Just Cause will appeal to some gamers. The scenery is more breathtaking than GTA but it's repetitiveness make Just Cause a messed up and boring game. The game itself doesn't make this bad but the glitches which you will find on the PC version make it shi**ier than it already it is.

You play a agent called Rico Rodriguez and you goal in the game is to destroy President Mendoza and his army of corrupt politicians and thugs. You are helped by your two sidekicks and while you are trying to throw President Mendoza (Out the window), you also have to help two sides reclaim San Esperito, a fictional island which the whole game is set in.

The gun play in this game is very similar to James bond and sometimes you will find yourself quitting but one thing this game is perfect in, is the Scenery and the parachuting. Often you will find Rico parachuting from a helicopter with wind rushing in his face. Also during the game you have to complete side missions to increase your ranks within the two factions but they get repetitive and boring after a couple of missions.

Final thoughts: Just Cause is a very fun PC that will have you enjoying it more and more. The breathtaking scenery along with many other things will have you playing for hours without end. One thing that really bugged me was reaching the mission objectives. Sometimes they take for two hours or more. Nevertheless you will enjoy this game!

Ahh, yet another 'sandbox' game! Basically, the story (if you want to call it that) is: you must single-handedly liberate an entire country and kill the current dictator. Given that you can roam around approximately 400 square miles, this should have made a halfway decent game. HOWEVER, once you factor in abysmal player and NPC animations, unbelievably buggy scripting, baffling level design, bizarre and laughable physics, endlessly repetitive missions, almost no enemy AI, long outdated graphics, etc. etc., you are left with a boring, antiquated-before-it-was-even-released game that is sure to disappoint. To call this game a pile of...you know what...is slandering that very substance. I give this a 1/10, simply because IMDb doesn't have a lower rating. Avoid at all costs.

Some twelve years later, I am again using my Xbox One's backwards compatibility feature to play the 360 version of "Just Cause".

The game is a free roaming action adventure title, in the vein of "Grand Theft Auto" although the city landscape has been replaced by a series of islands that make up a fictional South/Central American country. You are Rico, sent in by some CIA-esque bosses to stir up trouble and inspire the locals to overthrow the countries dictator leader, Mendoza. It's an open world game that you can traverse as you see fit with the standard story missions, side missions and collectables to spend your time on. As per the GTA 3 model, all the vehicles around the island can be commandeered and used by you, though doing so will soon attract the attention of the Islands police force who are hilariously committed to your murder at that point, sending wave after wave of helicopter at your for even the most minor infraction. There is also an existing cartel on the island that the side missions have you replace with a friendlier one, stealing the wrong car - or invading the wrong town will also push up your wanted level with them.

Though the game world is truly massive, what it isn't is particularly interesting. The vast majority of it is uninhabited mountainous woodland. There is no wildlife living in it to avoid or hunt, so much of your time there can be a dull slog from one side to the other whilst hoping that at no point is it ever going to switch to a really steep hill that Rico can no longer ascend. Though it looks quite impressive from a distance, closer up you soon see that it's all the same grass and tree effect. The weather is nicely implemented though, and can get some nice visuals once you're up in a helicopter and seeing the sun set around a mountain.

The trouble with the game is how glitchy it is. There are a lot of moving parts, and from a game that's 12 years old now it's understandable, but it's still not fun to be caught in a vehicle that explodes for no reason, or gets stuck in a wall. Sometimes objectives disappear or were completed without me having anything to do with it. It also, doesn't help itself with its design choices sometimes, forcing you to redo 5 minutes of travel before retrying a mission or walking through the jungle for 10 minutes after a mission to get back to some arbitrary point on the map. There is also quite a big difficulty spike towards the end the game that meant that I gave up rather than completing the final missions and then plodding through the game to get the achievements and 100% total.

There's much to admire in "Just Cause" but the restrictions of the consoles at the time betrayed the grandiose dreams of the developers. I'm hoping I'll soon discover that the sequels have enhanced the experience to a more satisfying one.