PlayStation News, Articles and Information for the UK and Europe

PLATFORM: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC

RELEASE DATE: 26th March 2010

RATING: 15 (BBFC), 18+ (PEGI)

DEVELOPER: Avalanche Studios/Eidos Interactive

PUBLISHER: Square Enix

Much like the Assassin’s Creed series was in nature, the original Just Cause was a disappointment for most and was criticised for its many bugs and short storyline, but Eidos (now owned by Square Enix) decided to change that with the sequel.The new game boasts a massive playable area and a seemingly endless amount of things to do, with graphics that are reminiscent of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, so it’s no wonder that the Just Cause series is making itself known in the world. One question remains though, like Assassin’s Creed II, has Just Cause 2 manage to fix the problems with its brilliant but flawed predecessor?

Just Cause 2 is all about a secret agent, Rico Rodriguez, and his quest to find another agent gone rogue in a chain of islands off the coast of South America. You start off in search for the agent, but after several events unfold it is clear to see that a missing secret agent is the least of your worries.

Here is just one of the explosions you'll be responsible for...

The actual build of the storyline in itself is short with only about ten missions in total, but in order to unlock each story mission you must cause a certain amount of chaos on the island which is achieved by completing side missions, helping one of the three main factions, and just generally blowing s*** up. Add all this up, and you’ll get a game which takes between 15-20 hours to finish if you go for each story mission as it is revealed.

Of course, that’s not the only way to play, and with the vast size of the area you’re able to explore full to the brim with extra things to do, you’d be a fool just to play the game for its story, as there is easily over eighty hours of gameplay here if you really are inclined to do everything there is to offer.

Just Cause 2 gives you bog standard third-person shooter gameplay and then tweaks it until you enjoy it. You’ll spend most of the time in the over-the-shoulder view shooting everything in exactly the same way as normal. But, here’s the good bit, you also have a grapple at your disposal, which is useful for pulling yourself up onto tall buildings, latching on to vehicles, pulling your enemies over a cliff, you can already see how much potential this gameplay mechanic has.

Bored with normal fighting? Add a parachute and grapple into the mix to make things more interesting...

Another incredibly useful item is the parachute, if you feel like throwing yourself off a building and then suddenly change your mind, then no worries! Just deploy your parachute and you can calmly float down to earth. Once you start combining the grapple and the parachute you really start to see the fun you can have with them, like pulling yourself up to a building and the parachuting over it if that’s your sort of thing.

One of the best things about the gameplay is how much variety there is. When you’re not blowing everything up you can travel around the island in a diverse set of vehicles including cars, lorries, motorbikes, boats, and my personal favourites – planes and helicopters. There are many challenges scattered across the map which encourage you to go around a plotted course within a time limit, each challenge is designed for a specific type of vehicle – some even challenge you to guide yourself through checkpoints by free-falling!

If timed challenges aren’t your thing, then you can help out the factions in special missions in order to cause chaos on the island. And if you ever run out of ammo, just call your black market dealer and he’ll supply you with ammunition and weapons (at a price of course) although he’ll take you anywhere on the island you want free of charge.

Stunning graphics make for some beautiful vistas.

Like I said in the introduction, Just Cause 2 provides graphics on par with the original Uncharted, which is no bad thing I can tell you that (considering the size of the playable map). Whilst roaming around the various environments including jungles, mountains, deserts and cities you really see the beauty of the island. In some places there may be a few graphical glitches and when looking over long distance it can take a while for the hi-res textures to load, but that’s understandable in a game which allows you to see for several miles when at the top of a mountain.

The full day-night cycle makes for some beautiful moments, with the city lit up in the middle of the night, or the orangey glow of the mountains as you parachute over them, and the sparkling water in the high noon sun. The weather cycle is also fitting but it’s not the best weather I’ve seen in a game, there are thunderstorms, overcast days, rainy days, the bog-standard stuff you’d expect from a game.

For completionists, to retrieve every single collectible item, to finish every race, to complete all of the faction missions and do absolutely everything possible will be a huge undertaking, with well over eighty hours of gameplay if you’re up for it. Once you’ve finished the story, everything seems to calm down a bit, but the thrill of blowing everything up still holds strong and should keep you entertained for a good while.

There are several difficulty levels, with the hardest three earning you a trophy each should you complete the game, but other than that there is no real incentive to play the game again, but why should you? There’s so much other stuff to do on the island of Panau that there is no need to replay the game.

The trophies themselves are very time consuming, but they do encourage you to try most of what the game has to offer as well as try out different combat techniques. To get the platinum, you’ll have to finish the game to about 75% completion, and then on top of that find about half of the collectibles. There are trophies for using your grapple in creative ways, such as hanging enemies upside down and killing them, or dragging them along with you when you’re driving.

Altogether, a very good and thorough trophy set, but the one big disappointment was the lack of trophy images – yes, they are all the same (even the Platinum). It’s not really as if Eidos couldn’t be bothered to make any, as the Xbox 360 achievements have unique images and the achievements are all the same as the trophies with the exception of the Platinum.

Just Cause 2 is very much a vast improvement over its predecessor

Overall, Just Cause 2 manages to improve upon its predecessor in exactly the right places, although there are still a few glaring things that trip the game up, it is still a worthwhile purchase even if you haven’t played the original. The ‘blow s*** up’ feel of the game makes for an energetic and fun experience and the oodles of other stuff to do once you’ve done the story keep you coming back if only just to blow more s*** up.

Sure, the voice acting and story are a bit rubbish (not to mention pretty short), but the solid gameplay and freedom make up for it, and the video capture is a nice feature exclusive to the PS3 release. All I can wish for is that the game keeps me interested until I’ve got everything on offer, which will take an enormous amount of time.