JUST CAUSE 3

Mar 3, 2016
3 min read

Boom. Boom. Boom. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.

If you’re looking for a game with a story that plays any part, no matter how big or small, this really isn’t the game for you. If you’re looking for a game where chaos is everything, and I mean everything, look no further.

The only reason I wanted to play Just Cause 3 was because of a few pictures online. Plus, the cover is pretty cool. That’s it. Going in, I had no idea what to expect, or what was going on. I’ll admit, I did have to google the last game to see what happened. I still don’t, but, honestly, I really couldn’t care less. Who would, when everything you see can be blown to kingdom come?

The graphics, whilst excellent for the landscape, are good, but not the top of the line stuff like Rise of the Tomb Raider had to offer. Speaking of landscape…

Forget everything you thought you knew about maps in games. Just Cause 3’s map, which is beautiful by the way, is ENORMOUS. You’re probably imagining a slightly bigger than average map. You’re wrong. Let me put it into numbers for you. Walking across it, with nothing but the feet you were born with, takes over 8 hours. 8! Hell, it’ll take you ages even if you’re in a plane. How that’s even possible, I don’t know. I really, really don’t know. I think I read that GTA 5’s map takes no-where near that long, and Fallout 4’s takes under an hour.

The thing that makes it even better, whichever part of the map you’re in, there’s always something to do. For example, down south, there’s loads of cities and towns to explore. Up north, there’s some incredible mountain ranges, and look hard enough and you may even find an Asgardian Prince’s hammer.

I’m gonna move on before I get even more carried away.

The story really does take the side-line position. From what I can gather, CIA agent Rico Rodriquez returns to his homeland of Medici to liberate it from some evil dictator, who has taken David Tennant hostage. That’s not necessarily central to the story, but he does voice someone who been captured by the dictator.I don't know if it's actaully a long campaign, or if I just got distracted by everything else, but the story did seem unnecessarily long.

Much like the map, gameplay is utterly fantastic. Shooting stuff is fun, but is a lot funner when you’re using a grappling hook to pull stuff together. Any vehicle on the map is potentially yours to control, but there are two things that clearly take centre stage. The first, is the parachute. If you remember you have it, it may save you from several near death situations. The second, is the brilliantly fun wingsuit. This thing will let you glide from anywhere you want to anywhere you want, given that you start of with enough height. It’s also a great way to move around the map fast, as works incredibly well when combined with the grappling hook.

There are problems with the game. The most prominent is loading screens. The intro one between the menu and the actual game can take a good few minutes. The ones that occur at the start and end of every cutscene are a lot shorter, but still take up a lot of time once they start building up. As you play the game more, the loading screens will really start to affect your view of the game. If you’re able to look past them, great. If not, it may actually put you off playing the game for a really long time.

Another problem I’ve noticed is Helicopters. More specifically, landing them. It never quite goes to plan. And when you do crash and die, you’ll be forced to sit through another loading screen.

Just Cause 3 is a fun game. That's the baseline of it. It's not meant to have a brilliant story and great character development. It's about blowing stuff up with anything and everything you can get your hands on, and wingsuiting across a beautiful map. If the loading screens weren't there, if it was seemless like most games these days, that'd be great. But, alas...

I'm not going to lie. This is a hard game to rate. When you're in the heat of the moment, with the world exploding around you, Just Cause 3 is a fantastic game. But the moment something goes wrong, the moment those loading screens start, that rush is gone. The mood disappears and the adrenaline wears off. It's a real shame.

6-7/10

Every game should have a wingsuit.

All images are from my own gameplay experience: