Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Just plain fun"

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Overview:
Just Cause 2 is an action-adventure/free roam game created by Avalanche Studios. The game puts you back in control of Rico Rodriguez who is described as the Spannish-accented version of James Bond. Litterally from the getgo, you will be parachuting to your destinations, grappiling your way to your destinations, pulling enemies down from high ledges with, yep, you guessed it, your grappeling hook. You can also use the grappeling hook to connect two items (such as vehicles) together. This peice of equipment is just one the things that has been improved and uses expanded in this sequal.

The game is set in the island nation of Panau, currentlty under the rule of a dictator government and just as it was Rico's job to overthrow the government in the original Just Cause, it is his job to do exactly the same in Just Cause 2.

Gameplay:
Almost everything possible has been improved in regards to gameplay. For starters, you can now take cover behind walls and other objects of sufficient height, but in addition to this, enemies will also take cover behind items and walls. This adds a real sence of challange to the game. Though taking cover isn't really needed on your behalf as you can take a lot of bullets before going down, there are some parts of the game that require the use of taking cover. A major flaw in this side of the gameplay however is the fact that enemies take litterally a thousand shots to die.

Another thing that has been improved is the mission structure. Faction missions are no longer generic and they aren't too easy to complete as they were in the original Just Cause game. Infact, to even complete faction and agency missions you (Rico) must cause sufficient "Caos" by blowing certain things up. In addition to earning caos, the player now has a fully-functioning currency system, which money can be obtained by collecting crates, blowing stuff up and completing both agency and faction missions. Money the player earns can be used to buy weapon and vehicle upgrades from the black-market as well as buy new weapons and vehicles and to be extracted to a specific location in Panau.

Agency and faction missions are also no longer repetitive and generic. The player now has more of a purpose to complete missions without the player being overpowered.

Graphics/Scenery/Effect Details:
This is an obvious and huge improvement over the previous game. The graphics no longer look muddy and shabby like they did in the original. They look more clean and sharp, with many of the enviromental effects vastly improved, giving heaps better weather effects.

The scenery is also really sharp and behave accordingly to how the player interacts with it. If you were to drive into a whole heap of trees, they'd all go coming down. There's also deserts, snow-capped mountains, large cities and tropical jungle-rainforrests with appropiate weather effects to fit these enviroments accordingly. It is though obvious that not all bugs where annielated in regards to the scenery as it is possible to get stuck in the scenery and not get out, forcing the player to reload. This is a blemish on a hugely improved aspect of this game.

Sound:
The games music soundtrack is rather well done and is a nice mood-setter for the game. The music track changes accordingly when you are in a shootout, in a chase or whether you're just crusing around. The music captures the right mood for each situation.

The voice work however is a different story and is another major blemish in this game. The characters don't seem to have any emotion in them when they are speaking, which in-tern, makes the listener bored that they don't want to listen to the character speech in cutscenes, which the majority can not be skipped unfortunately. Other enviromental and gun sounds are also very well done.

Overall:
Overall, Just Cause 2 is definently a fan of the first Just Cause game should get. Even if you weren't a fan of the original Just Cause because of its flaws, definently give this one a go. If you just like to cause havock in a free-roam game without actually doing missions, then this game is definently a game for you as you can do just that but without limitations. The good thing is that you do not need to know what happened in the original Just Cause game in order to fully enjoy and understand this game.