AKA - "Let's go Invade Cuba!"

User Rating: 6.7 | Just Cause X360
By b_blakeney | Review Date:
Since the first time Wolfenstein 3D's pixellated blood crossed the screen, games were criticized for negatively influencing our youth. Being an avid gamer, I've never put any stock in these claims. But after a look at Just Cause, I did a 180, and I'm almost ready to volunteer for the Army - Jack Thompson's army, that is. I headed down to my local Blockbuster to pick up a copy, thrilled that the game I had been eyeing for months had finally been released. After a quick drive home, I popped it in, and booted it up. For those of you who don't know it, the game is set on a fictional island in the Caribbean, where evil fascists have taken over and are trying to put the little people down. As soon as I set foot on San Esperito, I said, "Hey, that looks just like Cuba!" The evil officials all wear military garb, and sport mustaches and beards... Sound familiar?

The similarities didn't end there. In Just Cause, you play as Antonio Banderas' twin brother, Rico Rodriguez. Decked out in black from head to toe, Rico looks like James Bond's goth son, and has the skills to put Jimmy to shame. He boasts a grappling hook, which he can use to hoist himself onto whatever happens to be flying by at the moment, and a parachute that can deploy at a moment's notice. Unfortunately for Rico (and the player), he doesn't quite have the finesse to pull them off. Hitting "A" will get you into "Stunt Position," where you hop on the top of your current vehicle. You can then hop onto other vehicles, although this is about as difficult to pull off as it would be in real life... The game doesn't take the angle of your camera into account, so if you hit the button at anything but the perfect time, you could be hopping onto the vehicle behind you that's about to explode. This will happen quite a bit, and the save points are a bit of a pain to manage, so no props given for what would be a cool feature.

Graphically, the game looks quite a bit like Far Cry, with an expanded draw distance. The NP-characters are feebly modelled, so it feels kind of old. But as I happen to like the way Far Cry looks, we'll give it some props here. The graphics hold up solidly even at 10,000 feet, when you hop off of a plane and parachute to the ground. The weapons are all the same, as are the vehicles... The monster truck that I was so stoked to get? A car, with big wheels. Helicopters don't vary all that much, although the F-16 is pretty fun to ride around in. The side missions become more of a chore than anything else, too -- there are only so many barricades that you can lob grenades at before you just go, "Can't these poor, oppressed, horribly-modeled peasants take care of this themselves?"

The freedom is great, and the most fun you'll really have playing Just Cause is just farting around on the Island - literally a sandbox that you can fly around and around. It's kind of like Mercenaries that way... Now that I mention it, it's kind of like Mercenaries in a lot of ways, except with more propaganda and a grappling hook. Enjoy, but don't fall for it.

--B

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