When the 2015 holiday release calendar for video games was finalized, I stared in awe at all the great titles that were scheduled to be released. One of them, however, kept staring back at me: Just Cause 3. It may seem odd that, in a season where Fallout 4, The Witcher 3, and Metal Gear Solid V are prominently featured, I would be staring so intently at a game some may consider to be second-tier next to those juggernauts. But I have been an ardent fan of the open-world sandbox that is the Just Cause series since the original title on PS2, and I was chomping at the bit to get my grubby mitts on part three.
After helping overthrow the governments of other fictional nations, Rico Rodriguez returns to his native homeland, the fictional Medici, to overthrow its dictator, Sebastiano Di Ravello. In the course of inciting rebellion, he meets up with old friends, works with new friends, and immolates literal metric tons of enemy bases, equipment, and soldiers. The Just Cause series has always been about liberating towns and destroying bases, and this third iteration has that in spades. Grappling and wingsuiting around Medici’s immense square acreage is a blast, and the sheer number of explosions and collapsing structures can have anyone cackling with glee. But a weak campaign story and forced pacing mar the experience just enough to keep it from being spectacular.
When I say Medici is immense, I mean it. There are about 400 square miles of land interspersed among its many islands. The mere task of getting from point A to point B can be exhausting! Fortunately, you have many ways of moving around. In addition to the usual way of commandeering civilian or military vehicles, Rico is equipped with a wingsuit that allows long-distance gliding. There are also Fast Travel points that speed up moving around the islands or from one island to another. These are useful, but sometimes it feels more awesome to wingsuit from area to area, using Rico’s signature grappling hook to gain altitude or speed.
Using the grappling hook and wingsuit in concert makes you feel as though you are controlling a super hero. That feeling is magnified while in combat. Grapple kicking an enemy soldier doesn’t get old, and using the grapple’s new multiple tether ability to bring down radar dishes or smash fuel tanks into each other is awesome. Wingsuiting between points on a base, parachuting down, and spraying structures with a rocket or grenade launcher is extremely satisfying. Commandeering military vehicles like helicopters, tanks, and boats make the destruction even easier. And turning a large base into piles of smoke and fire is even more so. There are a lot of towns, cities, and bases, so liberating them will become tedious before long. If you run low on ammo you can have ammo, as well as vehicles, air-dropped using rebel supply drops. These require flares, and you need to find flare resupply areas as you liberate Medici.
The PlayStation 4 did have some trouble with larger explosion chains, grinding down in framerate while its CPU tried to catch up to all the mayhem. There were also a few graphical glitches that left Rico stuck in a tower or platform. Those kinds of glitches are to be expected in open-world sandbox games, and none were game-breaking. Despite these minor bugs, Medici is very well rendered and looks great on the PS4.
The experience starts to fray around the edges while you are progressing through the story campaign. There are a few story threads that either grind to a halt or are left hanging. There are also quite a few moments where the story stops and forces you to liberate towns and bases before continuing with the campaign. It’s fun to liberate areas, causing mayhem in the process, but being forced to do so before continuing with the main campaign may put off people who just want to do the campaign first.
Like any other open-world sandbox game, there are also tons of collectibles for completionists to find, including audio tapes, vehicles, shrines to pray at, and tombs to visit. These can be seen as busywork so some, but fans of open-world games should find plenty of content here to burn hours on. There are also challenges that can be unlocked as you liberate certain regions. The challenges include racing and flying time trials, wingsuit circuits, destruction frenzies, and weapons training. Besting these challenges net you gears, which help you unlock upgrades for weapons, air drops, and flares.
By far the greatest annoyance with this game is its weak online component. Although co-op multiplayer would be a great feature for this game, it is not present in the final retail release. Instead, the game’s online component is relegated to a scoreboard that tracks certain feats (i.e. most consecutive headshots, longest drifting distance) and ranks your performance versus other online players. This game has a persistent online connection, and it’s present for little more than an achievement scoreboard. If your internet connection goes, out or the game’s servers bite it (as they did over the holidays), you can’t play the game without manually putting your console in offline mode. A co-op multiplayer add-on is planned for future release, but the most you can get out of online play at the moment is trying to have the longest wingsuit flying distance in the world.
(Note: there are reports that Just Cause 3 was meant to be a multiplayer-only game with no single-player campaign. A single-player campaign was added at the last second, which would help explain why the campaign seems to peter out halfway through.)
These trip-ups do detract from the game, but the game is nonetheless fun. The chaos you can cause is very entertaining, and there are tons of things to do or find. The co-op add-on would add a lot of playability, if it ever does arrive. Until then, there is enough here to keep fans of Rico quite pleased.
Developer: Avalanche Studios
Publisher: Square Enix
Platform Reviewed: Playstation 4
Release Date: March 3, 2015
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
