TITLE: Just Cause 2
PLATFORM: PS3, XBox 360, PC
DEVELOPER: Avalanche Studios/Eidos Interactive
PUBLISHER: Square-Enix
ESRB: M
RELEASED: March 23, 2010

By Justin Polak
Staff Writer, Abassador to the Mushroom Kingdom

I promise that during this review, I will not make a lame pun out of the game’s title. I think it’s pretty obnoxious to even include something like that in your review just ’cause…

Damn it. I’m sorry.

Despite the title that begs a good riffing, the game itself isn’t half bad. If you enjoy sandbox type games, you’ll have a good time in the playground found in Just Cause 2.

First, while the grappling hook is a gimmick, I feel that most of the game’s fun stems from this simple mechanic. As an added bonus, it makes traveling a lot easier. I fell off a mountain during a mission and barley survived. Any other game would make you find a vehicle and waste valuable time driving back up. Rico Rodriguez, on the other hand, can sling shot his way back up to victory! I also loved the new ability to tether your grappling hook onto two different things. I once hooked one guard onto another and shot one of them off a roof. The other guard screamed in terror as his body went flying due to the other guards weight. They might as well renamed the grappling hook to “Hilarity Ensues,” since I found myself torturing enemies with the item more than actually playing the missions. Plus, hijacking helicopters is always a bad-ass move, and never gets old!

Unfortunately, nothing else runs as smoothly. While the missions are fun, they end up feeling stale due to repetition. Sure, you traverse the island in creative ways as a result, but the core of the missions don’t change up too much. There are unique missions to be found, but those are only the ones that are part of the main story, which obviously doesn’t take up a huge chunk of the game. Only completists will find the tedium entertaining. It feels like the developers focused too much on building a game for completists, mainly.

The bigger problem I have with this mentality is that you are forced to play like a completist. You must create chaos in order to unlock weapons, missions, and various other cool stuff. While finishing missions does give you a hefty bonus, I found that all too often I had to run around blowing up fuel tanks or something to unlock the next mission. This problem mainly plagues the first part of the game, but it felt like work. I play video games to relax. If I wanted to work, I’d put in some overtime at my job.

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Although I know Just Cause 2 is purposely over the top, I still found the dialogue, cut-scenes and voice acting very irritating. It’s like they intentionally tried to be controversial because that’s what they thought made Grand Theft Auto cool. Imitation can’t be pulled off if you are caught trying to hard. It’s kind of like when you are sitting at a lunch table in school, and some kid does something gross with his food. Some people  react, but smarter people know he’s just trying to grab your attention.

Despite my complaints, I realize that the problems I had with the game just happened to press all the wrong buttons for me. If you liked the first game, you will definitely be happy with the familiarity that stems from the first installment, along with all the tweaks and upgrades found in this title. While I certainly don’t think Just Cause 2 is the worst game in the world, I feel that the only series that can properly release a mature sandbox game anymore is the king itself, Grand Theft Auto. I’ll admit that Just Cause 2 strays away from GTA to be its own game, but I feel that it could have been so much more.

RATING: 6.5/10

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