It's Grand Theft Auto: Island Edition, and even if you hate GTA there's something to like in this open world system.
Fitting Just Cause 2 into a genre is easy: action. Because that's all it is. It's a game parodying every action movie/comic/game/book/whatever created since man first realized adrenaline felt good. The plot revolves around some U.S. government sanction ending up on the islands of Panau trying to figure out some mystery blah blah blah. I personally love a video game story better than anything else, and thus it was disappointing that the story has no flesh in it (though it does well in parodying every action story ever created). Rather, you may find yourself wondering why white women with pseudo-Asian/French accents lead revolutionary revolts. In fact, you'll be wondering whether the voice acting was meant to be the worst acting ever created or whether it's all just part of the parody.
But that's where the worst problems end. Panau is a beautiful 400 square miles of dozens of different environments, including the four basics of jungle, desert, snow, and urban. In fact, traveling in the beginning can be a minor problem, as moving on foot, boat, car, or even plane can become tedious. However, once you have unlocked multiple areas (if you want to spend 20 minutes in a jet flying over some major ones on each island) you'll find it a breeze to simply warp there, a nice change over games such as GTA.
One might believe that with such a large amount of environment Square Enix wouldn't have put much into it, yet every nook and cranny is detailed beyond description, from hutillas high in the mountains to shoreline coastal harbors to the bustling city of Panau to the oil refineries deep in the jungle. Heck, they even threw in a flying cruise ship. Yeah. That crazy.
From this environment your character has everything he wants or needs at his fingertips. What vehicles he may not be able to find or weapons he may not have picked up yet can be bought for a small fee and shipped in right to his location in seconds. With his arsenal he can perform whatever missions he likes, or even simply tour the island toting his assault rifle and a Harley.
But why stop with touring? That's so 2007. Instead, why not do everything you've ever wanted to in an action movie? Want to have a car chase with you jumping from car to car, planting C4 and shooting tires at whim? Or how about using your grappling hook to attach a man to the back of a speeding boat and watch him improvise water skiing? Inverted Spider-Man parasailing with choppers gunning for you? Check. Jumping off of a bike careening towards an edge, parachuting to safety as the bike explodes? Check. Free-fall from the wreckage of your airplane to the plane that shot you down, chuck out the pilot, attach him in mid-air to your airplane, and fly off into the sunset with him dangling 200 feet below you? Check, check, check.
That's where this game excels: giving you the tools you need for whatever destruction you desire. With about a dozen weapons and 100 vehicles, you have plenty to work with. The shooting mechanics are extremely slick and require little aiming on your part, making the game feel just right as you go Rambo dual-wielding an MP5 and an Anaconda. The vehicles are a little unforgiving, for while the physics are ludicrous and can create some hilarious moments as cars tumble into a spin with real-world damage being sustained, it can also turn right back against you as you try to make your frantic getaway on the tarmac and overshoot your takeoff straight into the control tower.
Still, you are able to forgive these moments, seeing as there is a high amount of survivability. Health can be regenerated over time, but major wounds require first aid stations. Coupled with vehicles and packing an arsenal you can assault whatever villa you like as many times as you wish without worrying too much about a well-aimed sniper shot. Because of the replayability of each role, you will find yourself pulling maneuvers otherwise thought unfeasible from other games. If your sniper shot fails, you could always plow a vehicle through the gates and shoot your way in. Or, if you like, grappel from your hide to a guard tower, kill the guard, and take a better shot from there. Just Cause 2's greatest achievement is its replay value.
Graphically, this game holds up quite swell. It's no Crysis, and I have found several flukes within the details, but it most certainly is the best looking open-world game to date. While the worst graphical issue is detailed objects (such as vehicles or people) popping into view at 200 yards, this is easily forgiven, since you won't be doing anything outside of that 200 yards that requires a greater vision. In fact, this game held up well on my PC. After some tweaking I am able to run it at Med-High settings with little problems, and only the occasional slowdown from 30-20 frames. However, this game is not for the weaker PC's, and I'd suggest reviewing the specs before buying it. The sound is nothing absolutely spectacular. It fits well with the action-y genre, but makes no leaps or bounds in terms of musical score or sound bytes.
Overall, this is one game worth checking out. Whether you love or hate the open-world system, this is the best example of what the future could hold for it. A rental at least. A buyer at best.
My System Specs:
3.0 Ghz Intel Dual Core 8400
9800 GTX Nvidia
3 GB Ram
Windows 7