Just Cause™ 3

67

Fun, but not without issues

Well, I like many others was looking forward to Just Cause 3 after how fun JC2 was, but this was not as good as most gamers found out when playing it. First of all, if you enjoyed the upgrading system in the last game, then you're out of luck as the only way you can upgrade Rico's arsenal is by completing challenges strewn about on the islands, you have to beat a certain score and/or time in order to get Gears that then unlock an upgrade for one of Rico's items. Now I don't mind challenges, but forcing players to do them in order to unlock weapon upgrades like this ain't exactly the way to go. And the story feels like it was shoved in late in the game's development, apparently Square Enix had originally wanted this to be a multiplayer game hence all the challenges with online scoreboards. It is fun to cause chaos in JC3, don't get me wrong, but this felt like a step back and a lot of wasted potential for what could have been an even better sequel to a great game. The only Avalanche Studios game I have had fun with in 2015 was Mad Max, at least there they had free reign to make the game they wanted and not be forced to do certain things by a publisher. Such a shame really.

91

Did anyone mention Explosions yet?

You'll literally have a 'blast' playing Just Cause 3. it's an excellent game if you're looking to jump into something to have fun with blowing things up; be it with your wire-tool, weapons, tanks, scooters, and more... The movement and control system in JC3 is above par. The feel of the game and the smoothness of the controls is very welcomed. These guys get the Travel System down perfectly. Once you master the controls of the wire-tool you'll be zipping around and gliding all over the map. The story/plot is rather well done. It's humorous and enjoyable, with a lot of great turning points to create some good memories. They don't force you to do anything and if you're like me... you'll spend most of your time just unlocking the whole map, doing the side-quests, because they're just that darn fun. I did personally have a big issue with a Memory Leak in Just Cause 3; but I think that was because Plays.TV was running. Once I disabled Plays.TV it seemed to stop. (Note for those of you that might have that issue)

76

Just plain fun

If you're just searching for a fun game which doesn't require you to think, this is for you. You can fly around in planes, helicopters, drive tanks, boats, whatever. Most vehicles handle okay with the keyboard, but the planes are in my opinion awful. With a controller they're all great though. The tethers are really fun to use, and pretty much everything is possible. Wanna tether a car to a helicopter and drop it as a bomb? It's possible. Another trademark of the Just Cause franchise is of course the explosions. And their better than ever (especially with the tethers). The explosions are incredibly satifsying and there are a lot of means of causing them. While the game does a lot to encourage destruction and brainless fun, it also hinders it. Tethering things and causing chaos can be really hard in the middle of combat, and most of the fun stuff is require you to do a lot of side quests, of which 90 % are "drive through rings with this vehicle". I personally like the feeling of gradually becoming more powerful, but I understand that many people will hate those side activities I mentioned, and just want to destroy everything instantly. Another major thing which has to be done to make progress is liberating settlements. There are like 6283185307*10^1337 of them, and to "liberate" them you have to destroy sh!t. It's pretty fun, if you do it with the tethers. The gunplay is pretty stiff and in general boring. There are also a few secrets to collect to unlock a few nice weapons. Oh, and there's a main story too. The missions in it are decently varied, but the story is pretty... I've already forgot it so I can't really say anything except that it's forgettable (duh). Overall this game is really fun, in my opinion.

77

Beautful game, but some issues

If you've played other just causes then you know what to expect, if not, then you're set against a fascist regime over throwing the government with rebels. You can fly, drive, swim, and boat your way across a huge map, destroying a lot of things in your wake. Normal buildings aren't destructible, but a lot of them are, mostly the regimes buildings. The story line is mediocre, but the game is about blowing stuff up, so you shouldn't expect a whole lot. One of my biggest complaints is of a log in with the games servers constantly pops up and interrupts the gameplay. But, the PC version is so much better than the consoles. I've seen the game play on the Xbox one and the FPS's tank under too many explosions. My PC version never has such a drop.

74

Cool guys look at explosions

If you have the PC specs to handle it, this game is excellent fun. Lots of explosions, plenty of options of how to do it. Shoot, grapple and sling-shot yourself into your enemies with plenty of earnable mods to increase your mayhem. It is a little rough around the edges. Cut-scenes are excellent and not long-winded. This game concentrates more on discovery and action than continuous reminders of what you are trying to achieve. Its not a game to be rushed. You want some action without worrying about playing online then this is great fun for an hour a day. Too much and you'll find yourself grinding. Its still rough around the edges. There are bugs, graphical glitches and a few driver problems apparently. I can't say I had any trouble with my rig. Never had to reload anything due to major problems. Grappling hook is a lot of fun, but the aiming does need to be fine-tuned. Maybe a bullet-time implemented for when you want to incorporate the grapple but need the time to aim at enemies and objects. Major flaws I don't like about the game: Rico (main character) is virtually indestructible. He can survive ridiculous amounts of damage, while vehicles seem to blow up with very little help. Making him get armor to wear or shields would make things less weird. Also the driving of vehicles basically sucks and blows. The vehicles do not handle well. Not at all. I just parachute and wingsuit everywhere I can. Driving mini-games are a chore and not really fun with such poor driving physics. And finally, this game does not work well with gamepads. I cannot stress how much I love using gamepads for these kinds of games, and yet I am far more comfortable playing with my keyboard/mouse. Aiming without a mouse is a nightmare - and I stress to you, again, that I don't play third-person games with a mouse. GTA looks so similar, minus the wingsuit and grapple. Why is the control they chose to implement for JC3 so very frustrating for gamepads? The game screams to be analogue in nature, yet is so very digital. A mouse with programmable DPI settings is the only way to get rid of most movement frustrations. I'd love to give a higher score. But at the end of the day, its just not addictive enough to play for long sessions, and the controls need fixing badly. DLC and a few patches to address gameplay might change the game further to a better score all round. But for now, a modest 74 out of 100.

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