Title: Just Cause

Date: 10.15.2006

Genre: Open World Action

Platform: PC

Developer: EIDOS Interactive

Publisher: EIDOS Interactive

Just Cause came out of nowhere. It wasn't until just a few months from its release that I first heard of it, let alone took notice of it. If it wasn't for the playable demo released a while back I probably wouldn't even have acknowledged that this game existed. And what a tragedy that would have been, because Just Cause is worth (almost) every penny.

Let me get one thing out in the open first: this game is huge. Probably the biggest game world I've ever played in, which includes GTA: SA and Oblivion. Flying a plane from one side of the map to the other takes around 10 minutes. Even longer with a chopper. The game world is a collection of islands known as ‘San Esperito'. These islands vary in size, many of them contain towns and cities, airports and government buildings etc. Sadly, everything else (and that's about 80% of the land) is either jungle or ocean. To say they didn't put an effort into making a believable world would be a huge understatement, but it feels very lacking at times, and everywhere you turn is just another tree or bush. Still, it's hard to fault it when it's so damn big!

The game itself, as you would imagine, works very similar to Grand Theft Auto.

The protagonist's name is Rico Rodriguez, and you're put on San Esperito and left to your own devices. You've got a Wanted Level, informants that will give you missions in which you can earn ‘respect' and better guns, there's even car racing, although that's not so much ‘racing' as it is ‘race against the clock'. But one of the main features of Just Cause that separates it from its inspiration is the stunts you can pull off. For starters, there's the parachute, which can be deployed unlimited times when falling from any height, great or small. This can result in hours of jumping out of your plane and floating to safety in your ‘chute, just to take in the view of the islands below. Whilst parachuting, you can also equip your grapple hook gun, which can be fired at any nearby vehicle to attach yourself to it and go for a ride!

This goes for air and sea vehicles as well. When attached to a vehicle, you can reel yourself in and you then have the option to jump in it. As unrealistic as this is, nothing looks cooler than hijacking a helicopter mid-flight. Car-surfing is another of the unbelievably impossible stunts Rico's able to pull off. Standing on a speeding car also gives you the option to jump in it and take it for a ride in a similar way to that of taking a chopper in mid-air. All of these sound amazingly unrealistic, and they are. There are times when you'll actually see Rico pass through the rotor blades of a copter, yet land in the cockpit unscathed. I suppose only the most pedantic of the pedantic would complain about things like that, and thankfully I'm not one of those people. There are plenty of weapons to have fun with, and a wide array of vehicles to zoom around in (mini-gyrocopter, anyone?), which certainly don't disappoint.

Everything here just makes you feel part of an action movie, and rightfully so. The action literally never stops: explosions left and right, gang wars on every street corner. All in all, the GTA of the next-generation, with some of the good bits left out. There have been quite a few complaints about the graphics of the PC version from other people. Apparently, some certain graphical effects have been cut out of the PC version that are there, plain as day, in the Xbox 360 version. Personally, I haven't seen much of the 360 version in action to make a judgment on whether or not I've been ‘ripped off', but for now, I can safely say that they're very good. At times, they can look like a mediocre PS2 game. At others, Just Cause can look better than Oblivion, without the game running sub-12 FPS. As I've said previously, most of the land is simple jungle, with the occasional dirt road here and there.

The water effects are very shiny, even more impressive underwater, as you can see rays of sunlight creep in through the water surface. It's a nice effect, but can be a bit overused at times, especially when it's the only thing in view whilst underwater. The explosions are another example of next-gen goodness, they blew me away (excuse the awful pun). Gone are the small orange balls of light as seen in GTA, now they're full-on, screen-shaking, eardrum-bursting effects. Blue flames can be seen falling out of the sky upon firing an RPG at a helicopter. If that doesn't make the game feel like an action movie, I don't know what will. If I have to have a main gripe with the graphics, however, it would have to be the character models and animations.

Rico runs in a similar manner to Sakon from LoZ: Majora's Mask (you'll know who I mean if you see it, trust me), which doesn't compliment the whole ‘bad-ass' image he's supposed to have. Death animations are even worse, as shooting an enemy from left or right, front or back, or even on top of them, they'll fly backwards and hit the ground in the same manner every damn time. Like I've said, you'd have to be a bit anal, to gripe about this kind of stuff, but if they're going to put that much effort into other aspects of the game, it shouldn't be much to ask to have realistic movements on the protagonist.

On the subject of Rico, you'll probably want to know what the story is all about. Rico is put on San Esperito by the ‘Agency', and is used as the muscles in a planned operation involving regime change and overcoming ‘El Presidente'. In case you haven't already guessed, this is where the game gets its title. To be perfectly honest, the story just seems like a way of having the game set in a set of South American islands. I'm not saying it's bad, it just seems to be there, having no effect whatsoever on the rest of the game. The main characters (all 3 of them, including Rico) are forgettable to say the least. You've got your average lazy, fat, wise-cracking bossman (whose name escapes at this moment, just showing how forgettable they can be), in charge of the whole scheme, and the feisty-yet-hot weapons expert Kane, usually poking fun at Rico purely because she feels like it.

The voice-acting is sub-par really, as no more than 12 characters have more than one line throughout the game. Not only that, but there can't have been more than half a dozen lines in each cut-scene. A bit more effort could have been put to use here, as well. As for the rest of the sounds, sadly, there's no radio playing your favorite hits as you ride that Monster Truck through the jungle. Instead, you're treated with a very stylish piece of music playing, depending on what type of vehicle you're in. Being in a chopper plays one track, dirt bike another etc. It's good, but after 3 hours you've heard all there is to hear.

Conclusion
There's been quite a bit of hype surrounding this game for a good while now, and upon buying it, I honestly didn't know what to expect. I suppose in that respect I can't really fault it, but there's too much laziness on display here to ignore. Next time, if you're going to create such a huge game world, please, put it to some use, and don't just fill the landmass with endless jungle. While you're at it, add a bit of decent FMV, voice-acting, music in general, and don't cut out from the PC version what could be done so much better than on consoles. That said, it delivers what it promises, and it certainly feels as though you're in the midst of all this action. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go and watch the sun set whilst hanging off the wing of a plane.

Game Score

B-

Reviewed By: Andy Porter