Title Just Cause Date 04.12.2007 Genre Action Platform Xbox 360 Developer Eidos Interactive Publisher Eidos Interactive

If you've played the free demo available for download in the Marketplace, you've pretty much played most of what's offered in the full version of Just Cause. The short of it is that there just isn't much to do once you've put in an hour or two into the game.

As a mercenary for hire, you're sent to a Cuban-like island which has recently had a hostile change in government. Your mission is to help the rebels reclaim their precious island while you play the drug factions against each other and basically run amok guns a-blazing. All the stock bits are here - femme fatales, suave men with thick accents, mustachioed mob bosses, dorky American agents, and massive explosions. On the surface, everything sounds - and looks - fantastic. However, as said above, you'll discover most of what can be done within the first hour or two of play (depending on how thorough you are with exploration).

Now rabid fans of Just Cause will love to throw, "This is not GTA," at you, but you simply can't create a sandbox game without being compared to it, and they're absolutely right. This is not GTA. My gripe with the 360's other major sandbox game, Saint's Row, was that it was a big step backwards from the accomplishments that San Andreas put forth on the PS2. Just Cause, on the other hand, seems like a step even further backward.

While the game is graphically impressive, sporting great lighting effects and shadows, you'll begin to notice quite early in our hero's mission that past the motion blurs, fancy lighting, and excellent explosion effects, what's left beyond graphical prowess is shallow indeed. The appeal of any sandbox game is the ability to "do what you want, when you want." Unfortunately for Just Cause, there's simply not much to do. While there is a story being told, much of the A-to-B of it is repetitive. Most missions will either have you killing someone, blowing something up, or stealing something and driving it across the map. There are other small diversions like side missions, which are micro versions of the main missions (which include killing someone, blowing something up, or stealing something and driving it across the map), checkpoint racing, and item hunts.

Of course, this is all fine and dandy if that's all you're looking to do, but don't expect much of a challenge. You're given a lengthy health bar that doesn't deplete easily, a slew of weapons that you can reload at any safehouse, and practically every enemy in the game is about five times weaker than you. It seems that Avalanche really wants to hold your hand the entire time and rarely let’s go. At the same time, it does help offset the magic-spawning of enemies in that if your character was weaker, dealing with the cops (who always seem to know where you are, no matter what you do - which you can attribute to the fact that they simply spawn if they're needed) would be a lot more frustrating than it already is. Getting rid of your wanted level is a chore and no matter where you are on the map, even if there's no law-enforcement around, doing something (intentional or not) to a citizen will get you a mark on your wanted meter. Not that having a high wanted level is dangerous or challenging, mind you. Simply step outside of your vehicle if you're driving one, and fire away. They go down easy and without fuss. The thing is that it's too easy. On top of that, everything is marked on the map, including item-hunts (like GTA's hidden packages) which seem to defeat the purpose.

For example, while exploring the rooftops in one of Just Cause's stamped cities - there's not much variety in architecture and some towns are shamelessly cloned - I found a few snipers simply pacing around on top of a building. Interested in acquiring their weapons, I shot them both down only to have two more immediately spawn right next to me. Dealing with them was no problem, but they simply kept spawning endlessly until I got bored and jumped down to the street. "Fun."  Now as any self-respecting sandbox game (GTA-clone) brings something unique to the table, Just Cause's big catches are the stunts, grappling hook, and overall vertical nature. The stunts themselves are fun to perform and string together and the grappling hook itself is a great addition to the genre. For example, while being chased by helicopters, I grappled onto the belly of one, pulled myself up and latched onto the tail, hopped into the cockpit (oddly enough, no pilot flew out the window), flew it over a base, parachuted out, landed on a car, hopped into the driver's seat, and parked the car in the garage. Most vehicles have a stunt position (normally the roof or the hood) where a context-sensitive menu on the HUD will help you figure out what to do next. The verticality of the game naturally refers to the altitudes you can reach with the appropriate vehicle, soaring miles into the sky. As our hero never runs out of parachutes, sometime's it's simply fun to fly as high as you can and freefall through the atmosphere.

Of course, there's plenty of ground vehicles to be driven on top of the helicopters and planes, though a select number of them suffer from some serious control issues where simply nudging the left stick can cause the car to make an incredibly (unwanted) sharp turn. On top of that, any vehicle on two wheels is unresponsive, though with practice, you get used to it. Not to mention that the endlessly spawning cops can ram anything off the road regardless of its size. It seems odd that a motorcycle can stop a massive truck dead in its tracks, odder still that a rickety wooden fence can do the same.

However, there is plenty of island to explore, though it's mostly trees. As mentioned above, the lighting in Just Cause is beautiful. You'll see bloom effects as bright tropical sunlight touches on the environment or detailed shadows as it cuts through the canopy of trees. The motion blur effects are truly a sight to hold and explosions are the best seen in a sandbox game yet. But as any devoted gamer will tell you, graphics aren't everything. While the sheer size of the island is impressive and you have a multitude of ways to explore on land, sea, and air, there simply aren't many distractions to keep you busy - that is to say, the mini-games we've all come to associate with the genre are suspiciously missing outside of side missions. You can also rule out indoor environments unless you're on one of the main missions.

The bottom line is that there's a decent game to be had here so long as you don't mind the crutch-nature of the gameplay and stamped cities. For anyone who found the GTA series difficult, but enjoyed the series' sandbox play, you'll feel right at home on the island of Just Cause. It seems that Avalanche was much more interested in developing a beautiful graphics engine than a game that rivals GTA San Andreas. At this point in the genre's life cycle, there's simply no excuse for the lack of activities to do, especially when the game that tops them all is on last-gen hardware. To its credit, the game does open up a little bit after you put some time into it, but not much more that what you'll experience in the demo.

Pros
+ Beautiful graphics engine
+ Stunts are fun to string together
+ Storyline is cinematic

Cons
- Wanted levels are tough to get rid of
- Enemies always know where you are
- Your hand is held throughout the game

Game Score

C+

Reviewed By: Contributed