Just Cause 3 Review
Platform – PS4, Xbox One, PC
Developer – Avalanche Studios
Publisher – Square-Enix
MSRP: $59.99 USD
(Editor’s Note: This game was reviewed for the PlayStation 4 and the review copy was provided by the Publisher – Square-Enix.)
Introduction
Welcome to the world of massive explosions, ridiculous traversal mechanics, funny and cheesy characters and more explosions. This is Just Cause 3, a game best described as the Michael Bay of video games. The franchise is mostly known for a crazy open-ended sandbox game and a story with characters that’s not to be taken too seriously. With that being said, what does Just Cause 3 offer as a sequel and how does it stack up against other open-world sandbox games? Let’s find out in the review down below.
Story
The plot in Just Cause 3 is a direct follow-up after the events of Just Cause 2. Rico Rodriguez (main character of the game) has returned to his homeland island called Medici. Medici is now being over-run by a dictator who goes by the name of Di Ravello and your job is to stop him from taking over the world. It’s a very simple plot that does nothing new or exciting. However, Just Cause 3 games were never meant to be taken seriously, the premise of Just Cause was always about having a silly fun open-world sandbox experience, and this is what the game delivers. If you’re looking for a deep story such as Witcher 3 or Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain with serious tones that are set in an open world, then you need to look elsewhere because that’s not what this franchise is all about.
Just Cause always tried to deliver humorous dialogue and funny moments. So because of that, you will meet many different characters with unique and quirky personalities. If you enjoyed this in the previous games, then you will also here. Avalanche Studios did a good job at keeping the game’s personality and tone intact from beginning to the end.
Gameplay
Just Cause is known for crazy explosions and stunt-like gameplay, and it’s no different here. As Rico, you can pull off some insane movie-like maneuvers with your tethers. For example, you drive a car off a cliff and go into parachute mode and then use your tethers to grab on to a helicopter, stick a C4 on it and jump off and activate your wingsuit to safely land. This is what makes the game shine the most, and it’s those fun and adrenaline pumping moments where you can pull off stunts. If this is what you’re looking for, then Just Cause 3 will make you very happy.
Medici is a colossal island with a lot to do and plenty of challenges to tackle. The structure of the game is very simple, you start the game and go into different regions and liberate bases. Once a base is liberated it becomes yours, and you unlock new challenges to tackle and side stuff to do. It’s an easy open-world formula to follow, and there is nothing complicated about it. At first, it may be intimidating because there is a lot to do, but little by little you will eventually liberate the entire island and get to your final mission.
Just Cause 3 packs in a ton of different type of challenges for you to tackle in the open world. The challenges range from driving through checkpoints as fast as possible to the finish line too wingsuit traversal that has you flying through the rings while maintaining balance and best possible score till the very end. There are also many destruction challenges that you can take on that are fun and complement the game’s overall gameplay style. As you complete these challenges you will earn gears that you unlock mods for Rico. These mods can range from combat, traversal, vehicles and other things that add variety to your character and how you want to be equipped for battle or a challenge.
The challenges themselves are not bad. However, the driving missions are hampered by atrocious car handling that takes a very long time getting used too and the wingsuit missions are not better either. Once you understand how they work and how much sensitivity you have to apply on the analog stick, it becomes easier. You won’t be running out of stuff to do anytime soon in Just Cause 3; there is plenty of things to accomplish across all the side-stuff and the primary missions.
Overall, Just Cause 3 has a solid gameplay foundation, but there are a lot of things that are keeping it from being great. Unfortunately, the technical side of the game is where all the issues lie that make the game sometimes not very enjoyable and quite disappointing.
Technical
This is where the game falls hard on its face. There are some technical issues in the game that are just not acceptable. Get ready for frequent 3-5 minute loading times and agony of waiting every time you try to start up something in the game. Want to start a driving challenge? Have to wait 3 minutes. Failed the driving challenge due to horrible handling mechanics? Have to wait another 3 minutes. You got 4 out of 5 gears on the challenge, but are trying to get the last gear and keep attempting until you get the perfect score? Have to wait 3 minutes again.
Now, take this and spread it across all of the side stuff that you can do in the game and main missions. Want to 100% every challenge in the game and get a perfect completion? Get ready for a lot of loading screens and waiting times just to accomplish something because the game was poorly optimized. Even getting through the game from end to finish and ignoring all the side will be a complete pain the ass.
The sad part is that Just Cause 3 is a good game when it comes to gameplay that is held back by horrible optimization and other graphical issues such as frequent FPS drops and bugs. I really wanted to enjoy the game for what it was meant to be, but it was difficult because the game’s technical side ended up being such a mess. I am hoping that there will be a patch soon to address these issues because otherwise the game will be kept from its real potential.
Final Verdict
Just Cause 3 is not a bad game by any means. It has a great gameplay foundation that focuses on fun and explosive open-world sandbox experience. But the game is hampered by a ton of technical issues. The biggest problem, as I’ve mentioned earlier, are the game’s loading times, bugs and the FPS drops. It is hard to recommend the game to anybody unless they’re a diehard Just Cause 3 fanatic then it might be a different story. However, my best advice that I can give you is to wait for some sort of a patch or fix for the loading times. Once that gets fixed, I think everyone will have a great time playing the game despite it having some other technical issues. Overall, Just Cause 3 is worth a rent if you want to give it a shot and see for yourself or you can pick it up when it gets fixed or gets really cheap.
Just Cause 3
Pros
- Fun and explosive sandbox gameplay
- A lot of side content such as different vehicle challenges and so on
- There are many ways to destroy things, especially when you get more mods
Cons
- Tons of technical issues including bugs and fps drops
- Loading times are horrendous and are in a need of an immediate fix
- Atrocious car/vehicle handling making challenges and overall gameplay harder than it should be
