Best sandbox game since GTA3 series, and a new holder of the crown for sandbox "fun"... respect for the PC platform too!
It's not perfect, and you can find buggy bits in the game (I found a place to get stuck when jumping off of a building), but JC2 has too much cool silly fun going for it for the bugs to become frustrating (none that I've come across anyway).
Alot is still the same like the first Just Cause... JC1 felt like a cross between GTA3 and Far Cry... JC2 is like a cross between Crysis and Red Faction - Guerilla. And I'll say this is what GTA4 should have been.
Trees break when you hit/shoot them. The new method of spreading chaos in the Just Cause game mechanic is an evolutionary step that feels so much more rewarding than the first game.... you actually get sucked into that "I'll go blow up one more base, then I'll quit" mentality of addiction. The landscape is stunning and varied. Like the first game it feels like a work of art that you really want to explore every corner of.
The first Just Cause had alot of boring vehicles.. too many slow ones (even if they did keep with a banana republics logic). That's not the case in this sequel... even the crap vehicles are enjoyable to drive (something many GTA clones forgot to copy from the GTA3 series). It's nice to see a sequel from a developer that looked at the first game and tried to fix all the ways that their first attempt failed.
Tried and succeeded, on all accounts (as far as I've been able to tell anyway.. still so much to blow up... and explore :)
The story/script and voice acting are a vast improvement on the first Just Cause, but that's not saying much. JC1 had an absolutely retarded B-grade action storyline. And I mean RETARDED!!! This isn't an intellectual gem either, but it's not embarrassing to watch the cutscenes anymore.
And most importantly... how is this compared to GTA4?
On the same spec machine that can run GTA4 on almost full settings?
GRAPHICS
GTA4 = Almost full and pretty... convoluted graphics setting options
JC2 = Full and stunning/superior.. "normal" PC graphics setting options... the way it should be.
INSTALLATION:
GTA4 = long, big, slow
JC2 = compact for such a huge game, installs like a 'good' pc game should
LOAD TIME:
GTA4 = excessive startup procedure, slow load screens everywhere else
JC2 = get in the game fast, loads/reloads fast
GAMEPLAY:
GTA4 = story driven, with a friend system that can be unnecessarily spread out across lots of terrain, alot of other tedious details that suck some of the fun out of the missions
JC2 = fun driven, they finally captured big kooky action film explosion fun in this sequel
STORY:
GTA4 = rich, well written, brilliantly voice acted.. though over hyped. It's great, but not a work of genius
JC2 = if you think a typical Dolph Lundgren action film kicks the crap out of shakespeare, you'll think this story/voice acting/etc. is just as worthy of mindless praise as GTA4. The rest of us will treat it like what it is... an afterthought (and that's probably a good thing)
INNOVATIONS:
GTA4 = living breathing city, all that street AI is really the only new thing.. that was 'good'
JC2 = the new standard for sandbox 'fun'. You just can't list everything because they all come down to 'how' they made it feel fun
PC CONTROLS:
GTA4 = smells like a port, feels like a port... is a port
JC2 = not perfect but everyone is going to nitpick about their perfect controls... seriously, get used to the layout and the limitations are in your fingers, not the game. Might be better with a gamepad, but keyboard and mouse work plenty good.
TO XP OR NOT XP?
GTA4 = runs in XP but who cares, it runs like a lumbering oaf no matter what OS you're in, no advantages
JC2 = DX10 is really becoming a worthwhile step forward visually, and this game helps promote that fact in a less whorish way than some (ahem.. Crytek)
CONCLUSION:
Just Cause 2 deserves to get some serious attention. It's obvious alot of love went into making this a GAME first and foremost. GAMING love, not "let's keep the franchise at the top of the food chain" love. Sandbox games aren't known for being big on straining your skills. They're big on the stoopid goofy fun factor, and this has it in spades.
For the PC, I'll go so far as to say this is the only sandbox-GTA-clone game that has been developed with any respect for the PC platform since Vice City.
It's not perfect, but it comes pretty damn close. This game was so worth buying on release!!!