GAMETIME: Just Cause 2

Published 7:32 am Friday, May 28, 2010

By Cody Webb

Many games advertise that they boast “over the top action and destruction” and while many of them deliver, none of them exaggerate destruction as much as Just Cause 2 does. Yes, the sequel to Just Cause has come out with even more crazy explosions and an even bigger tropical paradise to destroy. Unfortunately, not everything is sunny in paradise.

Let’s start with the game’s most disappointing failure: the story. At times it can be a little amusing, but most of the time it is little more than an excuse to drag you from setpiece to bigger setpiece. JC2 makes little effort to take itself seriously, and while I’m not asking for some sort of soap opera drama, I’d like a little more meaning behind destroying an island.    Along this same line of complaining: the characters’ voice acting. Main character Rico sports a voice that doesn’t fit him, while the supporting characters tend to sound like complete stereotypes or just completely annoying. Thankfully cutscenes tend to be on the short side so you can get back to what the game is good at: blowing things up in the island nation of Panau. And what pretty explosions these are. I may dare to say that these are the best looking plumes of flame and smoke I’ve ever seen in a game.

The island itself is also on the pretty side; the jungles lush, mountains covered in beautiful white snow, and water sparkling. A nice little detail I enjoyed: being able to actually see through the water to the reefs beneath. It’s the little things that count, right? Panau is one big island, chock full of villages and cities to destroy and raid for upgrades. These upgrades can be used to strengthen weapons or boost vehicle performance of the vehicles and weapons you can buy from the black market. However, since it’s such a big nation, you’ll need to either keep a fast vehicle on hand or master the relatively easy slingshot move to get around.   

This brings us to Just Cause 2’s biggest gimmick: Rico’s ever-useful, multipurpose hookshot. Players can use this fun little toy to hook onto buildings, terrain, and vehicles to pull themselves over to it. Or you can use its alternate function and attach it to an enemy, then to whatever else makes you happy. You can even connect vehicles to objects, people to objects, etc. It’s a neat little invention, and definitely something I’d love to see more of.

Aside from going around and blowing random things up, players are tasked with aiding three rival factions to gain power in Panau. Helping these factions and destroying objects nets you Chaos points, which you use to unlock new weapons, vehicles and storyline missions. Sadly, a lot of these faction missions are repetitive “Go here, blow that up, rinse, repeat” types of missions. So in the end, what you’ve got here is a fun sandbox game that sets you loose in a big open world with weapons and tells you to blow things up. If that’s your kind of thing, you’ll love this game, but if you want a deep, rich story you should look elsewhere. I give Just Cause 2 a B; now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got more Chaos to cause.

Cody Webb lives in Live Oak.