If you let Just Cause 2 take you for a ride, it will not let you down. Not. One. Bit.
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Avalanche Studios
Genre: Modern Action Adventure
Release Date: March 23, 2010
All information that is about to be revealed in the next few paragraphs is from the first few minutes of the game, so a very minor spoiler warning is applicable. Also, this review is based on the PC version.
Just Cause 2 is a game by Avalanche Studios, published by Square Enix, set in the modern-day Republic of Panau. This Pacific island-archipelago-nation has been recently taken over by a son who murdered his father, and the main character in Just Cause 2, who we will call Scorpion 'cause that is more bad-ass than his real name, has been sent in after one of his co-workers at the Agency suddenly stopped communicating.
Graphics: 9.5/10
Simply put, the Republic of Panau is the most beautiful fiction-nation I've ever seen. Recent games such as Assassin's Creed II, or Bad Company 2 fall just short of the sheer brilliance of the sun, water, forest, and snowy mountain caps presented in this instantly beautiful, and unfortunately fiction, island.
The graphical customization options are fairly thorough and allow people with high and low end computers to play the game well.
I have the sincere belief that nothing can ever be "perfect," and so a 9.5 I gave for graphics is as good as you can possibly get out of me. Congratulations, Square Enix.
Sound: 6.0/10
The game sounds of shooting, flying, and environment interaction are just OK, nothing special pops out at me.
The voice acting is by far the worst I have ever heard in any game in the past 5 years. Maybe even the worst in my entire gaming career. Square Enix should be paying me to give it as high a rating as a 6.0.
Story: 4.0/10
Thanks to the poor voice acting, it is hard to get involved with the factions and the people of Panau. Although you love blowing up the government marked objects and being a freedom fighter in that respect, it does not make a big enough difference to save the story. The setting and plot are good, but the execution of the plot along the way is simply nothing special, and wouldn't even make for a good book.
This is one of the biggest disappointments for me because I love to see games with good stories. I believe the investment of a decent story does more than is imaginable to raise the value of a game.
Game-play: 9.0/10
You've heard from every other review the same thing: Just Cause 2 is good, get your hands dirty, fun. From blowing up government buildings, to driving fast and blowing up even more government buildings, Just Cause 2 provides more than enough entertainment to help you love this game. It even makes up for the crappy story and average sounds that accompany this game.
The grapple hook is one of the most inventive tools I have seen in the game industry thus far. Not because it's never been done before, but rather because of all the things you can do with it. You can attach a man to a missile and launch the missile. You can sent a man hurling off a cliff from the bottom of the cliff. You can even attack an enemy car to an enemy jet fighter and start laughing as the gravitational pull of the car screws both of the unlucky Panauan military soldiers.
Two quick fixes I wish were implemented:
1) I wish you could aim your weapon better. As of right now it is an auto-fire sort of system where you point your crosshair in the general direction of the enemy and it will auto shoot that way, but not automatically lock on to that part of the screen.
I would prefer if you could scope-fire as you can with most FPS games by pressing the right-mouse button.
2) The other thing I wish could be done is to make the world fully destructible. Now don't get me wrong, the world is partially destructible. All the government buildings can be destroyed, permanently, but none of the civilian buildings can be. An easy system that could have been implemented would be making everything destructible, but only civilian buildings rebuild, let's say, an hour after it were destroyed.
Overall: 8.0/10
Just Cause 2 is a worthy game that every gamer should check out. It's jam-packed with fun abilities and a fun-ready environment. If you let Just Cause 2 take you for a ride, it will not let you down. Not. One. Bit.