Review: Explosive 'Just Cause 3' leaves nothing standing
Early in Just Cause 3, a close friend of
revolutionary protagonist Rico Rodriguez says, “Whatever you destroy, we'll rebuild.”
Good luck with that.
As with previous entries in the obscenely over-the-top sandbox series, Rico's third dictator-toppling romp is all about blowing stuff up. To free oppressed settlements, towns, and provinces, you dismantle propaganda items, fill the local militia full of smoking holes, and destroy fuel tanks, electric generators, and other items that go up in especially glorious displays of black smoke and red blazes.
While a good old-fashioned handgun and a fistful of C4 can solve most problems, Just Cause 3 encourages you to complete objectives with epic, explosive style. Thanks to an impressive arsenal of guns and grenades, quick access to land, air, and sea vehicles, and traversal tools that make Batman's grapple gun look like a Happy Meal toy, Just Cause 3 turns every encounter into a screen-swallowing setpiece. It’s big and noisy and plenty of fun, though like the armor on that tank you just tore apart, it eventually wears thin.
When the screen's not filled with fire, players can get a glimpse of the picturesque Medici, Just Cause 3's Mediterranean-inspired setting. From snow-capped mountain peaks to stretching lavender fields, the fictional nation would make the ideal vacation spot...if it wasn't suffering under the rule of maniacal dictator Sebastian Di Ravello. Medici also happens to be Rico's birthplace, providing him with the perfect excuse to head home and kick some butt. Just Cause 3's story doesn't dig much deeper than that, but it's easy to forgive the forgettable narrative when you're busy making things go boom.
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Key to Just Cause 3’s destruction is Rico’s grappling hook. Why shoot down two enemy helicopters with rockets when you can use Rico's hook to tether the choppers together and let physics do the rest? Or grapple onto the belly of the flying beasts, plant some plastic explosives, and parachute into the sunset? Or maybe just hijack one of the birds, tether a compact car to its undercarriage, and wreak havoc with a makeshift wrecking ball? Just Cause 3 is all about these kinds of ridiculous, action-movie decisions. Your only limit is your twisted imagination.
The game's physics-fueled fun comes courtesy of the new ability to release the grappling hook's tension on command. Tether two objects together and you can decide when to trigger their collision. Toss in the ability to upgrade the strength and amount of deployable tether points, and this versatile tool is one of the best video game gadgets ever.
Rico's weapons and abilities alone make him a one-man-army — he begins the game riding atop a jet while firing a rocket launcher — but the game just keeps on giving. Rebel drops allow you to call in vehicles and weapons on-demand, while completing optional challenges grants access to gear upgrades. This works especially well as it gives the arcadey challenges a purpose beyond just padding the space between story missions. Participating in a mountainside race, for example, isn't just an arbitrary distraction, but a means of pimping your ride with, say, a nitrous boost or turbo jump.
Then there's the the wing-suit, a traversal tool that, when coupled with the grappling hook and parachute, practically grants the gift of flight. The game frustratingly lacks a proper tutorial for using this system, however, so frequent faceplants may discourage less patient players from mastering its finer points. Those who stick with it, though, will be rewarded with a terrifically satisfying travel method. In a game that allows you to surf atop a nuclear warhead, my most memorable moments came while gliding over gorgeous sunflower fields.
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Just Cause 3's desire to empower the player at times goes a bit too far, though; clueless enemies, an unlimited supply of C4, and guns that practically aim themselves provide an unnecessary edge, while consequences for killing civilians — or even dying yourself — are pretty much non-existent. Certain mission objectives, like “hacking”, are also laughably completed by simply holding a button for a few seconds.
While these issues did little to erase the dumb grin from my face as I transformed picturesque island towns into smoldering craters, occasional performance issues — like lengthy load times and reduced framerates during especially frantic encounters — pulled me from the moment. And while systematically liberating sections of the massive map is great fun, the mission loop grows repetitive. Even with new tools added to your arsenal late in the game, Rico's adventure starts to feel more recycled than revolutionary by the final act.
But for the most part, you’ll be too busy looking for more stuff to blow up to care. Just Cause 3 is an over-the-top blast that embraces the term “sandbox” more literally — and un-apologetically — than any other game in the genre. If you’re seeking substance and depth, wandering Fallout 4's RPG wasteland might be more your speed. If you want to ride a weapon of mass destruction like a hobby horse, however, you'll want to consider joining Just Cause 3's rebellion.
What's Hot: Free-form, creative chaos; thrilling traversal; great gadgets
What's Not: Repetitive; performance issues; tricky controls
Platform reviewed: Xbox One
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