Just Cause 2

Just Cause 2
PS3 – XBOX 360
Square Enix

The Good – Enjoyable over the top action – Huge Island to explore – Blowing stuff up is cool – Grapple Hook/parachute combo works well
The Bad – The odd glitch here and there – Travelling from place to place can be a bit dull

The action in Just Cause 2 is ridiculous in a really good way. There are very few games where you zip to an aeroplane chuck the pilot out, fly towards an army base, just to jump out at the very last minute and watch the fireworks as you glide down to safety with your trusty parachute. Although not without its minor annoyances, on the whole JC2 is a great open world romp.



JC2 is set on the Island of Panau, the island itself is incredible, the size and diversity of each region is extremely impressive. The story is not an important part of the game and is therefore pretty weak. You take control of Rico Rodriguez a field agent for an all-powerful American agency cleverly called… The Agency. Panau is run by a nasty dictator and throughout the game you will be helping out three gangs to cause chaos and un-rest in Panau. To progress through the game you must cause Chaos, this can be done by taking on the optional faction missions or just by blowing shit up. The main story is told through Agency missions, a handy meter shows you how much Chaos you need to achieve and unlock your next Agency mission.



Rico is not your bog standard action hero, he has a cool zip-line/parachute combo, this may sound weird and it does take some time to get used to but it works really well. You can latch on to pretty much anything and as Rico is pulled towards his target, at any point a quick press of a button will deploy his parachute and he will glide along. The zip-line is also used in combat, which can create some truly laugh out loud moments. You can latch a Zip-line on to anything and then connect it to something else, so for example you can connect an enemy to a gas canister, shoot the gas canister and see him fly all over the place, latch them to the back of a car and just drag them along or connect a pursuing car to a tree. The combinations are endless and actually useful in combat. The gunplay is fairly standard and nothing to write home about, in fact there are targeting issues at times but nothing too major.



Panau is an impressive place to explore, tall snow-covered mountains cradle ski resorts, beachside shacks dot the ocean shores, the capital city shows off a beautiful night time skyline. You can explore the island by simply gliding around with your parachute or test drive one of the hundred plus vehicles. The gargantuan size of the Island and the free gameplay mechanics of JC2 are some of its best assets, unfortunately it is also some of the games biggest downfalls. Travelling from one place to another can be a bit of a laborious task at the beginning and planes feel like the are moving at a snails pace. However as you you progress through the game and unlock new areas, a lot of this pain is aleviated in the way of an extration option, where you will by instantly transported to your desired location on the map and dropped from a helicopter. On occasion Rico can land awkwardly on a sloping surface, you will lose all contral and he will fall like a rag doll, if it’s a long drop you can be waiting for him to reach the bottom for an absolute age, upon landing he will jump up and carry on his merry way.

For all of JC2’s faults, the good far outweigh the bad, if your idea of fun is grappleing a cannister, shooting it and then flying in the air like a rocket, then it’s about time you took your next holiday on the Isle of Panau.

8/10