Just Cause 3 is the ultimate sandbox game for sandbox game fans. An incredibly huge map filled with tons of things just waiting for your explosive touch. The draw distance is fantastic, as you can see glimpses of settlements and military bases from way off in the distance. Anything you can see you can go to. Once you're at one of these settlements, the choice is yours as to how you go about bringing down the enemy encampments. You can sneak around, using your mystical grappling tether to pull objects down. You can quickly dart from object to object, planting explosives as you go. You can hijack a helicopter or tank and laugh at the puny reinforcements who try and stop you afterwards as you mow down everything in your path. I personally found the planted explosives route the best, as you have unlimited amounts of them from the start of the game and almost every object can be destroyed with 1 or 2 bombs planted on them.
Unfortunately the game's biggest strength is also it's biggest weakness. The framerate begins to chug as soon as the explosions start, and the more simultaneous explosions you set off the lower the framerate will dip. The game is a wonder to look at, make no mistake, but the beauty is only skin deep. The flaws become apparent when you look closer.
Just Cause 3 gives you a multitude of options to traverse it's gigantic map. You have your trusty grappling hook, unlimited parachutes, and a wingsuit all at your disposal. The game also gives you cars, motorcycles, boats, jets, and helicopters for you to travel with if you so choose. Unfortunately most of the vehicles handle terribly, with the motorcycles being the biggest offender. There's always a delay when attempting a turn, so it's all too common to run off road or into other objects. Fortunately however, the grapple/parachute/wingsuit combo is so efficient at quickly moving across the map, you literally never need to hop in a car or bike unless the game forces you to for a mission. The quickest, most efficient, and downright funniest way to stop Rico when he's wingsuiting is to simply crash headfirst into the nearest wall and watch Rico ragdoll, holding his head while he contemplates how many brain cells he just lost. The ragdolling becomes far less humorous however when you are in a firefight and get hit with an explosion. Rico will then lie on his fat ass for about 5 seconds thinking about pudding, while 1000 enemies take potshots at him.
The game does have a story, but it's paper thin and basically an excuse to blow more stuff up, often stuff that you can't otherwise access. There are also random encounters throughout the game that have you do all sorts of activities ranging from freeing a rebel who's been taken hostage and fighting off his kidnappers to... opening a locked gate. Yes, seriously. The most interesting part of the story comes at the end of the game as you realize just who Rico Rodriguez really is. You've been told all along that he's fighting for the freedom of Medici, to pry the country from the clutches of the evil dictator Di Ravello and to push out all his military encampments. Yet as you supposedly free more and more areas you realize that nothing has really changed. All the armored vehicles, the armed guards, the watch towers, they're all still there just with a different logo on them. Rico will kill fellow rebels and civilians without any remorse if they're in the way of his goal. You slowly begin to realize that Rico is actually just another dictator with the same lust for power as Di Ravello.
Just Cause 3 takes sandbox games to a whole nother level. The map is gigantic, is fun to traverse, and is filled to the brim with things to blow up and enemies to take down. Just don't go in expecting much more than that, and pretend that the framerate dips are really just the game going into slow motion to highlight the cool explosions, and you'll come out of the experience with all smiles.