Just Cause 3 (PS4, 2015)
Before deciding what I had to say about Just Cause 3 I went back and looked at my review of the previous game in this series. I found JC2 enjoyable in a methodical sort of way, working through the missions and other activities in a workmanlike but, mostly, fun rhythm.
What then to say of Just Cause 3, the first effort on an 8th generation console? Surely we can imagine Just Cause 2 with improved graphics, some tightening of the controls and being a completely fluid, effortless romp though a cohesive and detailed map which is sized appropriately for all the gameplay mechanics you can utilise to move around in and destroy it?
Well, you know the answer to that question, don't you.
JC3 is large. I checked to see how large it is in comparison to 2, and they're pretty comparable in size. Medici, the fictional Mediterranean locale where it's set, is comprised of three main areas. You start out with missions centred around two which are smaller and made up mostly of small islands. They're still large, and they can take time to move around, but for the most part they're quite nice looking and have stuff to do. These two areas are about a quarter of the land mass combined of the main island above them. Which is comprised of... mostly nothing.
I would put this meandering criticism further along in my review after the usual topics like story, gameplay, graphics, etc, but the sheer mass of the map – and the size is its defining characteristic – is so overwhelming it's impossible to really think about anything else. I certainly didn't. Only a few hours into the game getting around and doing things became a chore.
The story and the story missions are a waste of time. The dictator in charge of Medici is evil! Okay. He has access to huge piles of something called Bavarium, a mineral which can be weaponised and is putting him on a path to world domination or something. None of the story missions amount to anything more than going somewhere and killing things, usually with more restrictions than the open play you've been used to. For a game centred around freedom and destruction, it's jarring. There are times too when the story missions feel... I don't know how to even describe it. Poorly optimised? They can be quite overwhelming in terms of enemy counts and without even a clear objective (or maybe I tuned out while people were talking) you can struggle to survive, struggle to kill people, and not know why.
The bulk of the gameplay outside of the story is the same as JC2, going round liberating towns and military bases by destroying all the government-operated objects. If you've freed one town, you've freed them all. Same goes for the military bases although these were often more annoying, especially if you were trying to blast everything with a helicopter. Bases have multiple SAM sites which are all surprisingly efficient and effective. If I didn't know better I'd swear the game was trying to get you to play it a certain way.
Outside of liberating settlements are an assortment of challenges. Races, destruction frenzies and wingsuit gliding challenges are all here to annoy you as well. For nearly every challenge that needs a vehicle or weapon though you can either pick your own or grab something from near the starting point, so the only point of them is to be a normal settlement liberation against the clock. You can be glad of being able to default to the fastest car/boat/plane every time though, because the vehicle physics in this game is appalling. Imagine trying steer a shopping trolley as it goes down a hill. While carrying a phonebox with a shark in it. That's just the cars. Bikes are worse. Helicopters fly as if they're broken and are more predictable after they've been hit by some missiles.
You can avoid this, mostly, by getting around the map with Rico's grappling hook, parachute and wingsuit combination which lets him create his own momentum by reeling into something and firing up the parachute, which moves him forward. This is fine, like last time. Nothing else. The wingsuit has the distinct impression of being added to try and feel like something new, but it's annoying to control and only worth using if you want to get from somewhere high to somewhere low more quickly than with the parachute. Fortunately, the empty part of the map to the north which is filled with mountains gives you no reason to actually go there, so it doesn't come up that much.
Combat mechanics are mostly fine, although as I cleaned up the challenges and unlocked some upgrades I realised I hadn't used half of them. You can attach booster explosives to people which, when activated, fire them around like ragdolls for a few seconds before blowing up. You can also use the grappling hook to attach people to anything, and instantly reel them in. If you haven't played the game, imagine trying that with a twitchy control system while a dozen people are shooting at you. It's as impractical and tedious as it sounds. Even more unnecessary when you have a grenade launcher and a surprisingly effective LMG.
Now to the good part. The problems. Loading times that would have been embarrassing on the previous generation of consoles. These improved as I played for a bit longer, but there was still the odd freeze and the game flat-out bluescreened on me yesterday. Another time I was gently descending to land with my parachute. I was waiting to reel in when I got close enough to grapple to a cliff face, but the reticule didn't come up. I watched as Rico carried on through the side of the hill, clipping under the map and on to certain oblivion if I didn't stop him. Being relatively new to working my way through PS4 games I'm a bit more than underwhelmed if this is the sort of quality a 40GB game gets you. And since there's an ongoing score counter for 'Chaos' whenever you destroy enemy objects, you can be pottering about, minding your own business when you get a message saying you destroyed a jet or something. Awful.
If there's one thing that deserves a paragraph of its own though, it's the various user interfaces. There is no mini-map displayed when you're in-game. In a map which is several hundred square kilometres in size. Aside from the obvious sense of disorientation which results, the few attempts at compensating for it the game employs don't help. If you're in a car then a route will appear on the road, but given how difficult to control they are you'll probably miss several turns along the way. No mini-map also means you need to pause all the time to bring the map up and find story missions, settlements or collectibles, which gets really tedious and kills any sense of immersion that the game must surely have been going for.
The map itself isn't much better. There's no legend, so you can't know what a symbol on it means unless you hover over it. You also get every kind of waypoint on it at once with no way to filter them, so if you were looking for something in particular you're going to struggle to find it. Bonus points are on offer too for the colours used for the challenges. Got the best score on a challenge? It'll be blue. Not quite got there yet? We'll make it an extremely blue-y green colour. On the background which itself is varying shades of blue. I don't know how testing for games works but there are a lot of small aspects of JC3 which make me feel like nobody not involved in its creation played it before it went on sale. Surely these are glaring faults, easily solved?
I think I've covered everything. The game is focused on freedom – in your movement, your approach to what to do and how you go about it. Most of the controls are twitchy and better served with a carpet bombing, the map is unfit for purpose and it doesn't look particularly exceptional either. It's hard to say that a game I probably spent 50+ hours in was completely unforgettable, but that's really the impression I'm taking away. Like Just Cause 2, but slightly worse in most aspects. There's progress for you.
) but a frankly hilarious and thoroughly enjoyable game, and the switching between 8 and 16 bit is really cool. Would have made my top 10 of 2018 easily if I played in in 2018, and wouldn't necessarily have won, but would have at least challenged Celeste for best indie game of the year. Brilliant game with incredible writing, easily worth the asking price (particularly if you got it from Twitch Prime like I did).
