Just Cause 2 – PC Review

Gameplay

The story starts off pretty slow but eventually gets going after a little while. No worries here, as there is a small learning curve involved for those persons (like myself) that did not really play the original. This learning curve is well taken care of in the beginning lull of the storyline. Armed with a grappling hook arm attachment and the gimmicky unlimited parachutes, Rico grabs a few guns, some ammo and then sets off. The only reason I say it is gimmicky is because it isn’t really true to life. You can’t just launch a any number of chutes at any given time but then again, we all need to keep in mind that it is just a game, even if the grappling hook is a bit more believable. Never mind the gimmicks though, as both the hook and the parachuting constantly come in handy and are real life-savers if there ever were any.

The action heats up when you learn that the evil dictator Pandak Panay has been running the island of Panau into ruin. You embark on a double mission, both to confront Sheldon and to overthrow Panay, while causing a lot of damage to his administration. Destroying any of the government’s property marked with the white star, causes chaos.

Chaos is caused by various explosions and is used like a type of currency in the game world. It is used to unlock new story missions and black market loot from the Sloth Demon. He can be contacted for help such as buying and upgrading weapons and vehicles and to drop them in for you. You can also call on him for extraction.

With so much ground to cover and so many things to do, I’ve found that just getting from Point A to Point B can be a rewarding experience. Sometimes, I just take to the road and drive or ride; while other times I either hop a boat or take to the skies for the very scenic route. Taking a helicopter has turned out to be my favourite means of travel. I can move quickly, set it down anywhere (on land), do my business and get the hell out of there ASAP when the heat is on.

The game possesses an adaptive difficulty system that scales the difficulty level with your progress. The heat levels reach new maximums, the further you get into the game. This happens to be very reminiscent of the Grand Theft Auto series of games. Along with that, so is the carjacking. I love to just grapple onto cars and stunt jump from one to the other and even jump onto enemy vehicles and shoot at them from side-to-side.

My all time favourite encounter is having an enemy helicopter firing crazily at me as I run for cover. As I emerge from cover, I quickly grapple to the underbelly of the helicopter and swing out of harm’s way. Then I swing into position on the front, kill the gunner, then kick the pilot’s ass, ditch him out and hijack the chopper. Wow, what a rush! Quite so, as is with much of the game.