Just Cause 2 Review

Skydiving is superb

Vehicles play their part too, with over a hundred ready to be hijacked in the game. These range from bikes and cars, sometimes manned with helpful faction solders, to boats, attack choppers and fighter jets. Not only are these a great way to get from point A to B, but also as a way to cause complete mayhem. While some vehicles aren't equipped with weapons, get in one that has a gun turret or rocket launchers and you're a death dealing machine. It's not easy to remain unnoticed, though, so you'll likely have a small army on your tail before too long.

Scattered around the game world are pick-ups, either giving you new weapons, cash or upgrades. These provide a worthwhile reason to explore, with the upgraded items more or less essential during the game's trickier encounters. A Black Market trader can be called in at will, offering you weapons, vehicles and travel for a fee, although the rather sedate speed at which he arrives gets a little annoying. It's worth thinking about what you're buying too, as spending cash on a vehicle that’s going to get shot down moments later doesn't make great financial sense.

Speaking of annoyances, the gunplay in Just Cause 2 isn't great. It's a lot better than that seen in the original game, but it still comes up short compared to the best third-person shooters. Guns feel bizarrely weightless, yet send enemies flying into the air on impact, while the standard aiming mode is far too floaty and imprecise. Vehicle handling, at least on the ground, is also somewhat disappointing, with cars in particular too willing to spin out of control. These issues don't make Just Cause 2 a poor game, far from it, but do prevent it from being a truly excellent one.

These problems, along with the mediocre story and terrible voice acting, would cripple most games, but not Just Cause 2. It only takes another skydive and grapple into a helicopter moment, or a few minutes of jet fighter chaos to put a smile back on your face. Jumping into an aircraft to explore or to rain bullets down on enemy bases never loses its appeal, and thankfully you're never far from what you want. It's also worth commending Avalanche for putting together story missions that aren't just glorified fetch quests. There's real variety here, not only in mission objectives but in the locations, with Panau offering dense jungle, tropical waters, snow covered mountains and vast open deserts.

You'll never get bored of flying over this scenery

It all looks amazing too. It's the sheer size of the world and the draw distance that makes Just Cause 2 so special to look at. Soaring through the sky in a helicopter as you make your way over a sun-soaked mountain top, only to see a vast expanse of land stretch out in front of you is just an incredible sight. On the ground things look brilliant, too, but character models aren't the best we've ever seen and there's some odd clipping now and again that sees objects pass clean through each other. If there had been full-on destruction, ala Red Faction, and a bit more civilian activity in the more built up areas we'd have had a new benchmark for the open world genre.

So, Just Cause 2 is a gorgeous, fun, rollercoaster of a game. It's far from perfect, but its best qualities shine through, leaving the lacklustre gunplay as more of a mildly unpleasant aftertaste than a meal ruining disaster. It's a game that begs to be messed around with, for you to discover new ways to use the tools at your disposal and to take it all in the light-hearted way the developer intended. Chances are you'll forget why Rico was on Panau in the first place, but his exploits should live long in your memory.