Write a review for Just Cause 2?
"It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it"
StoryYou are Rico "Scorpio" Rodriguez. You are the member of "the agency" (which may or may not just be the CIA) and you have been sent to a glorious region of south-east Asia known as "Panau" to overthrow the evil government and track down a fellow agency member, Tom Sheldon, who is suspected of going rouge. The story in the game is not especially strong, but it is engaging enough. The point is, the story is not the reason you should play this game, which brings us to...
Gameplay It seems I have a little too much to talk about here. I'll have to split things up further.
PanauThis is easily one of the best sandbox games I have ever played. While most games of this particular genre give you a city to play in, Just Cause 2 basically gives you an entire continent. Panau is a beautiful place to explore and mess around in. Once you have completed the first two story missions which serve as your tutorial, you are thrust into this enormous region to do whatever your heart desires, and unlike some games (I'm looking at you, Assassin's Creed) you have the entire game world right off the bat, no story progression required to access any areas.
Chaos Control!"So what now?" You ask. Well, you can focus on completing the main story if you choose to do so. In order to gain access to the story missions, you need something called chaos. You obtain chaos through various methods; you can find one of the many (over 350) settlements and military bases and begin destroying government property (marked in red with a white star), or you can complete a settlement by destroying all the available property and collecting all the available collectibles, do a race in either a car, plane, boat, or no vehicle at all, do a side mission, or just blow things up (this game can be very explosion-happy). Essentially messing around is the glue that holds this game together, and this works well in the game's favor due to the size of the world and wide range of possible things to do in it.
Missions"Ok, I've been having alot of fun messing around, why bother doing story missions?" Well, I am glad to say you really must do the story missions because they managed to do something I have only previously seen once (in Saint's Row: The Third) in which the story missions vary so greatly from the rest of the game and are so over-the-top that they are quite a sight to behold. I won't spoil anything, but I will tell you that you won't be disappointing.
Outside of this, you have 49 faction missions in which you work with a gang to cause more chaos. It's funny how you are supposedly doing all of this "for a just cause" but the more you play the game, the more difficult it is to deny your status as a terrorist.
Ignoring that, there is one more mission type: Strongholds. These are probably the worst missions as they are all exactly the same: Protect this guy as you infiltrate a military base, shoot down a helicopter, and you now have a new area of Panau available to you where you can enjoy not being shot at (and also use as a respawn point when you die). Still, I found these to be entertaining as well, and it's great fun to complete these and hear your allies chanting "Scorpio! Scorpio!"
CollectibilesThe collectibles in this game range from parts to upgrade weapons and vehicles to health upgrades to piles of money, skulls, cases of contraband, and black boxes. Overall there are over 2250 of these to find, so if you are a fan of collect-athons (Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64, etc) you will have a ball with this one, especially since the collectibles actually get you something in the form of upgrades to make things more worth your while.
ScorpioWow I've gotten carried away and forgot to tell you what sets this game apart from the rest. In addition to guns (which you can mix and match dual-wield a la Halo 3) and various vehicles you have a grappling hook and an infinite supply of parachutes available at your disposal. This opens up a world of opportunities for use in getting around, enemy combat, or, once again, causing chaos. I challenge you to come up with a game that would not be improved with the addition of a grappling hook. Please, I have tried and can't come up with anything, hence why this game is so much fun to play. I can assure you hours will be spent zip-lining along, tethering various things to various other things, the possibilities are nearly endless. Do something awesome and you may be rewarded with one of Scorpio's one liners, such as "It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it", "Don't take no passengers", "One less pipeline, one less problem", or "Some day they'll write books about this" to name a few.
GraphicsPanau is gorgeous, but sadly the characters in this game are not. It's odd when the cut-scenes actually have the worst graphics in the game. Clearly the focus is on the gigantic world, as it should be.
SetbacksThis should be a short section, I hope. You may have a hard time playing in the beginning due to a relatively steep learning curve and also the requirement of getting used to the physics engine. You may also get bored from time to time when needing to travel long distances, and the store, run by the previously mention Tom Sheldon (who is not nearly as awesome as Sheldon Cooper) only allows you to buy one weapon or vehicle at a time, each time involving a loading screen and cutscene. Fortunately Sheldon also offers fast-travel services to any previously discovered settlement, making Panau slightly more manageable.
Conclusion (Finally!)You owe it to yourself to at least try this game. With so much to see and do, you will be occupied for hours. Careful, due to a glitch it is actually
impossible to 100% this game. The achievements aren't too challenging, but they will take some time (and you only need a in-game completion rate of 75%), so be warned, completionists. Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation fame called this his 2010 game of the year, and while I maintain that Super Mario Galaxy 2 is most deserving of that title, this game should not be passed up. 5/5.
Well, I wasn't expecting such a long review there. Congrats on making it to the end, thanks for reading, leave a comment, and See you next time.

5.0