The game is beautiful and fun... for a time.
Quite an unsung technical achievement.
Just Cause 2 is a sandbox game that, above all, is over-the-top. The story is ridiculous, the dialogue is ridiculous, the explosions are ridiculous, everything is ridiculous. Which is fine with me, really, because that's how the game is set-up. I mean, you have a grappling hook.
Which is a lot of fun. And more importantly allows emergent gameplay. I'm not old, but I am an old gamer. I played Wolfenstein 3d. I played the first command & conquer. I played the first major MMOs - EQ & UO. I remember the time of arcades and I remember playing the first mortal kombat and street fighter and beating challenger after challenger. I have played and beat probably half of the games that Gamespot has rated 9 or higher.
I mention this not as some misguided boast - but to suggest that I am as experienced and JADED a gamer as can exist. It takes something more to keep me interested in a game. Just Cause 2 has that something more. It's fun to experiment with the grappling hook - to hook up a statue's head to a helicopter and use it as a wrecking ball. Or to hook up a soldier to a fuel tank and send him sailing into the sky. Or to surf a jet, hijack it, and then fly it into a huge radio tower. It's great fun... for a time.
Because it does get repetitive. The main storyline is a mere seven (but really six) missions long. There are three factions, with their own take-overs and side missions. But the take-overs all play out identically. There are a lot of challenges (time races) and a lot of weapon/vehicle upgrade boxes to find. There's a lot to destroy.
Unfortunately, the destruction also becomes routine. After you clear your 50th base, always searching around for that random transformer or that upgrade box way at the edge of an encampment, you lose interest in it. After you've hijacked your umpteenth helicopter and used it to destroy your umpteenth radio tower, it loses some of its appeal. The game's flaws begin to show themselves:
Rico's grapple-hook + parachute combo is, as I mentioned, a lot of fun. But it is sometimes inconsistent. Often Rico will drop into free-fall for no reason and end up smashing into the ground. Trying to climb up a sheer surface - a building or a wall - is an exercise in frustration.
The gunplay itself is loose and arcady. You auto-aim and spray and pray. No cover. It could have been more compelling.
The Heat system (think GTA's wanted level) can get aggravating. I've had two or three helicopters bully me at the first Heat level and then none at 4th or 5th. And if you start a race challenge with heat, you can have helicopters shooting at you while you try to race.
Blowing things up is so much fun that the lack of complete destruction (which you can find in Red Faction) started to get annoying. This game with a better destruction engine... would have been fabulous, absolutely fabulous.
Now I mention these flaws not to suggest that this is a bad game. I think, this late after the game's release, gamers are as likely to be reading my review to simply vent about the flaws as they are because they might be purchase it, perhaps via a Steam sale.
To the latter I say: yes. Absolutely. I picked Just Cause 2 for the low price of $5, but I would have been pleased with it even at full price. It does, I believe, have a limited number of play-time before it gets repetitive. But what game doesn't?
Just Cause 2 is an incredibly entertaining game. End of story.