1. NorthKozar

   10

   The problem and why I think this game has such mixed reviews is that people are focusing on one aspect of the game in their review and getting bogged down in it. The fun to Just Cause 2 is how open it is and what all it provides for you to do. Yes, if you focus solely on collecting the stupid collectables, you will get bored (it does get pretty boring) but you don't have to do that, nor do you have to focus solely on the missions. The main point to Just Cause 2 is to "cause chaos," a seemingly cliche way to tell the player to do whatever the heck they want to blow stuff up and have fun to progress to further missions. I've played over 150 hours and still found new, fun things to mess around with, the most recent being grappling a truck to a helicopter and swinging it around to the speed that it starts swinging my helicopter around. Basically, it comes down to this: If you're into games that push you (the player) to make decisions about how you want to play the game and to make the game fun and unique to you (whether you fast travel everywhere, drive and take in the gorgeous sights, or hijack helicopters and fly everywhere), you will enjoy this game. If you enjoy open world exploration and the freedom to try crazy ridiculous stuff, you'll enjoy this game.
   However, if you're looking for a strict, linear, engaging story telling experience, you probably won't enjoy this game. If you're looking for a realistic portrayal of physics and gunplay, you probably won't enjoy this game.
   Personally, I find the game's story to be absurd and insane -- which I feel is the point. I think they wanted to focus more on the content and free-roaming nature and I feel they did a very good job of that and it got me on board with the crazy storyline. The voice acting adds to this ridiculousness, it's almost that they don't want you to take the story seriously, and so that's how I approached it. My personal opinion is the negative reviews this game is receiving are because players are expecting the game to tell them or show them explicitly new and fun things to do, where Just Cause 2 pushes for creativity. Yeah, you could simply walk up to that radio tower and shoot it and be done, but what if you hijacked the helicopter over there, grappled a car to it and used the car as a wrecking ball to smash the tower? Then when your plan falls apart and you accidentally crash the helicopter into the tower instead, you can hop in the car and drive off. You, as the player, have to have some vision in order to see all the potential and fun there is in the game. There's things to collect and upgrade, there's things to destroy, there's semblance of progress, and there is an immense amount of fun all in Just Cause 2, you just have to be open to playing around and trying ridiculous things.… Expand

   • Helpful? 7 of 7 users said Yes.
2. Manmade3

   8

   I picked up this game on a sale impulse buy. I had seen my friends play about half an hour of it and was not impressed, a lot of the stuff you could do looked over the top and stupid. But after playing I found guilty pleasure in the over-the-top parachuting, ass kicking, and grappling. The environment was something I did enjoy quite a lot, the beautiful graphics combined with the setting, think Cuba combined with North Korea was very pleasing. The vehicle driving is implemented very nicely as well. If you don't mind stunts that are totally unrealistic, a mediocre story (Most cinematic are skippable though) and a massive free roam expanse filled with explosions, gunfire and god knows what else, this is the game for you.… Collapse

   • Helpful? 1 of 1 users said Yes.
3. Baenlynn

   7

   If Ubisoft ever make an assassin's creed game with a grappling hook, civilisation as we know it will be over. People will lock themselves in their houses and refuse to leave because the combination of close-quarters contextual combat with the ability to pin enemies to the environment and turn them into viscera-filled pinatas will be like cartharsis on a stick to anyone who loves to play sandbox games.
   
   Funny way to start off a review about Just Cause 2, but I feel that this is the major misstep that the game makes. As a sandbox game it follows in the footsteps of GTA, the trigger-happy titan among sandboxes. Just cause 2 does everything I've seen done in the GTA franchise and it does it smoothly and cleanly. But as a sandbox game trying to do something different it should've cast a wider net in looking for inspiration. Because while it is a sandbox, it is NOT a GTA game. The grappling hook changes all the rules, but I don't think the folks at Avalanche really cottoned onto that because the hook feels underused, and under-developed. Some more combo/contextual moves coupled with the ability to upgrade it and streamlining of certain manoeuvres (like dragging enemies behind your car, or holding a grappled enemy so you can fling them OFF of things etc.) would elevate this game beyond simply being a 'more interesting GTA clone' to something truly exceptional.
   
   That is not to say that Just Cause 2 is not fun. It is, and more fun than the last GTA game I played in fact (San Andreas for those of you keeping score). The vehicles while nowhere close to real-world accurate in terms of handling are massive fun to drive, skipper, and fly. The slingshot mechanic which turns your parachute into a paraglider is a stroke of brilliance, and the gunplay, while not stellar still manages to perform better than other sandbox titles. I just find myself wishing that the developers hadn't stopped on the threshold of greatness.… Expand

   • Helpful? 1 of 1 users said Yes.
4. l0rdm0rd

   3

   This game gets boring after a few minutes. If this game defines anything, it's repetition. Most cutscenes are repeated, the dialogues are generic and voiced badly, the story can't be named a story. The grapling hook is an interesting feature, but it stays the only interesting thing about this game. The driving physics are bad, the vehicles are slow, the map is enormous but with so few details, that you just take a jet, and fly up to 5 minutes in a straight line with afterburner on, just to get to a point 6 km away. Technically the game looks fine, but not great at all. Repetition is the main motive, trees, rocks, streets, landscapes get repeated so often, that the large map is of no use. Anyone can blow up a map using ctrl+v. Blood looks strange, explosions lack a real bang but the lighting of sunsets is quite nice. But gta4 looked better.
   Driving by car is annoying, all 30 sec the police starts shooting. They are not very difficult to fight back, but still it gets repetitive a lot. Just like Just Cause 1, the game is a nice feature, but fails to fulfill the rest of qualities a good game needs. The upgrade system does not make a big difference, there are very few different guns and all the good stuff is available from the beginning so you have seen all the game has to offer in the first hour of gameplay. After that, nothing new happens. Really, nothing. Some parts are ridiculously difficult, but just because 3 helicopters and a lot of soldiers fire directly at you after reloading. The controls are ok, the helicopter controls are really good, the only thing I'd like to see in another game. Countless counters track you during the game, but nothing interesting happens when accumulate 500 or 600 headshots, more than 100 stunt points and so on. And it is so easy to progress these stats, that you start to ignore them. In hindsight I wonder why i played this thing for over 15 hrs. I think I wanted to know if the end is as lame as the rest of the game, maybe I had some hope that the game surprises me with a good ending. But no. Not at all. So buy this game only if you have alzheimers and don't realize when things get repeated every 2 minutes or if you really want to waste time.… Expand

   • Helpful? 4 of 14 users said Yes.

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