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joejoethegreat's Just Cause 2 (360)
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| [February 10, 2011 12:01:33 PM]
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If the first Just Cause felt like a two-week break in the Caribbean short on interesting things to do, then Just Cause 2 can feel, at times, like your average package holiday: a series of activities and excursions ranging from thoroughly entertaining to so monotonous that you’re relieved to make it back to the hotel bar.
Rico remains a fantastically versatile protagonist. His grappling hook returns, and continues to exert its irresistible pull (literally so, for those guards unfortunate enough to be posted on lookout towers). No longer a separate weapon, however, the grapple can be activated with a button tap at any time, attaches to almost anything, and can be used in conjunction with Rico’s inexhaustible supply of parachutes to fling him around the map from a standing start. It’s exhilarating, and the defining feature of Just Cause 2, coming into its own when used to hijack a helicopter in mid-air.
Other changes include the introduction of the ‘chaos’ system, which quantifies the destruction you unleash upon the property of the fictional east Asian island of Panau and its dictatorial regime. Accumulate enough chaos and you unlock new weapons and vehicles for purchase on the game’s black market, new side missions, and further developments along the game’s main storyline. It should be an effective way of making sure the ad-hoc carnage at which the game excels genuinely contributes to your overall progress, but it’s let down by the fact that the bars representing the chaos you’ve caused fail to move along at any meaningful rate. There’s something disappointing about finding your spontaneous and thoroughly destructive assault on a military complex has had little to no effect on the infrastructure of Panau, and there are times when trying to unlock the next storyline mission can feel more like grinding for experience points in an MMORPG than racing to the next chapter of a breathless action thriller. Eventually you’ll realise the only meaningful way to progress in the game is to take part in one of the many side missions offered by the various criminal factions based on the island.
And what a mixed bag they are. Whereas the first game’s missions so often suffered from being uninspired, Just Cause 2 serves up equal measures of fun and frustration, along with the occasional treat. The best missions combine challenge, spectacle and even humour – with the opening levels, an assault on a satellite facility and a visit to a supposedly haunted island – being particular highlights. Unfortunately, later missions resort to the first game’s trick of throwing masses of anti-air weaponry and irritatingly accurate enemies at the player while asking them to whittle down the health bar of a target wielding a rocket launcher. These missions turn Rico the daredevil assassin into Rico the grunt, waging a one-man war of attrition from whatever cover he can find.
Like its predecessor, Just Cause 2 can hardly be called an average game. It’s a good one undermined by a selection of mediocre elements, and it’s all the more frustrating this time around because Avalanche shows us glimpses of just how much fun two weeks on holiday with Rico should be. [7]
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joejoethegreat's Just Cause 2 (360)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Thursday 10 February, 2011
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