The original Just Cause was the very definition of a rough diamond; it aimed for the sky with some truly stunning ideas and a massive open world environment but was sadly dragged back down to earth by repetitive gameplay and more bugs than your local zoo’s insect house. Read our Just Cause 2 review now to find out of the sequel can do a better job.
Read the rest of our Just Cause 2 review
Just Cause 2 for Xbox 360 review: Gameplay
Just Cause 2 for Xbox 360 review: Must See Hotspots
Just Cause 2 for Xbox 360 review: Weapons and Vehicles
Thankfully suave secret agent Rico Rodriguez has been handed a second chance to impress us with his Latin flare and almost from the outset it’s obvious that Just Cause 2 tries hard to rectify the shortcomings of its predecessor.
For starters, there’s a lot more variety on show. The fictional island of Panau is a world apart from the Caribbean locale of the original game; spanning 1000 square miles and packed with mountains, cities, industrial areas and military bases, it’s bristling with tantalising possibilities.
Just Cause 2’s gameplay benefits greatly from Rico’s expanded selection of tools; the familiar parachute makes a reappearance and can be deployed an infinite number of times. While this flies in the face of realism it ensures that the player rarely frustrated during their sky-diving escapades – of which there are many.
However, it’s the grappling hook which arguably steals the show; this ingenious device allows Rico to attach himself to all manner of objects and pushes the game in new and exciting directions.
While the mechanics of the gameplay waste no time in knocking you for six, visually Just Cause 2 is initially unimpressive. Character models are passable and the locations themselves aren’t particularly striking in their complexity.
However, it’s only when you take to the skies that you realise that the developers have made a trade-off; they’ve kept the detail low in on the ground but astonishing in the air. You can literally see for miles when you’re high enough and being able to skydive thousands of feet onto an enemy installation before blowing it to kingdom come is amazingly exhilarating.
Just Cause 2 review: Must See Hotspots
With such incredible scope it’s perhaps unsurprising that Just Cause 2 occasionally creaks and stutters; it’s not uncommon to find yourself hopelessly marooned in mid-air thanks to a bug in the physics engine, with no option but to restart from a previous checkpoint.
Collision physics are also slightly suspect at times; driving a car head-on into another vehicle doesn’t always result in a fiery death as you might expect. Nine times out of ten Rico will walk away unscathed, although this could be a conscious decision on the part of the developers to remove potentially frustrating deaths.
Elsewhere Just Cause 2 has other problems. The storyline isn’t particularly compelling, although it does contain its fair share of intriguing twists and turns. The voice-acting and script border on the abysmal at times; during one mission, Rico threatens to “bitch slap” someone with their own hands if they don’t remain silent. While Just Cause 2 is clearly not supposed to be taken seriously, some of the chatter is downright embarrassing.
However, like Rico fighting his way through seemingly impossible odds, Just Cause 2 manages to overcome these issues and provide a massive, explosive-ridden dollop of absolutely awesome gaming brilliance.
Any game where you can airlift a car, drop it at 8,000 feet and then control its decent before jumping off with your parachute and drifting to safety as the vehicle hits its target is a must-play in our book; true, Just Cause 2 isn’t perfect and the repetition that dogged its forerunner does occasionally rear its ugly head but on the whole this is well worth the admission fee.
Read the rest of our Just Cause 2 review
Just Cause 2 for Xbox 360 review: Gameplay
Just Cause 2 for Xbox 360 review: Must See Hotspots
Just Cause 2 for Xbox 360 review: Weapons and Vehicles
