Customer Reviews

Just Cause 2

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is just a preliminary review, I will update as I play further. Right now I'm about 45 minutes into the game and have completed a few missions. The first thing that I'd like to say is that the graphics are excellent for a sandbox game. The character models are very good and the environments are almost breathtaking. Foliage moves in the breeze and sunlight flickers as the leaves move. The colors are bright and vibrant, almost like the Uncharted color palette. The draw distance is good, with some minor pop-in with some ground foliage. You can see mountains which look like miles off in the distance. There are few minor jaggies on the edges of things, however not as bad as games such as InFamous. One more thing to add about the graphics is that the particle effects and explosions look really good. Dust flies up and flames/debris shoot out.

The grappling hook and parachute work marvelously. You can basically grapple onto anything within reach and then use a pistol to shoot enemies or structures. Jumping off of cliffs, you can use your parachute to glide all around the environment, it can also be used during base jumping off of high structures.

The aiming is sort of assisted. You have to have your cross hairs near an enemy and it kinda locks on. According to the manual you can target specific parts of enemies, but I haven't tried that yet. I enjoyed taking a mounted minigun off its stand and carrying it (it has unlimited ammo, unlike other weapons I have discovered) A lot of objects in the game are destructible, except buildings (in my limited experience so far) Light poles are destructible, however some lights, like on buildings and such can't be destroyed, which isn't a big deal.

Overall, if you like sandbox games, I recommend this game. If you're on the fence about purchasing it, there's a demo available.

EDIT: 3/24/10
After playing a few more hours last night, I am still impressed with the game. The graphics are very nice, as stated above. The cut-scenes have a lower graphic quality than the game. I was a little disappointed, but the game itself is beautiful.

I experimented more with the grapple. You can grapple two things together, in once instance you tow a car out from under some debris. Another thing to do is you can pull down statues of the island's ruler to create chaos. [A word about chaos, there are government buildings and equipment all around the island, by destroying them you create chaos and help you gain notoriety. By increasing your level of chaos, you gain access to more missions and equipment.] You can also grapple enemies toward you or hang them off of trees or buildings. You can only use one grapple at a time. If you double grapple something, you press a button to make it come back to you somehow (it's a game, not real life, so it basically works like magic).

Free falling in the game is a blast. The designers made it feel like you're actually falling from extremely high up and the controller vibrates as though you're experiencing wind resistance. You can open your parachute at any time, whether falling or while in vehicles. Using a parachute while in/on vehicles allows you to gain altitude. Once you're in the air, you can grapple onto another vehicle and throw the driver out or just ride on top.

Don't expect realism in this game as far as the stunts you perform. You can ride on top of a speeding car and not fall off, you can dive down over the front of the car and shoot. There is just so much to explore and do in this game. There are different things which you can search for such as the statues mentioned above. I think there are 90 scattered all over the place so it's fun to look for them and take them down. There are 3 factions on the island and so far I helped take over one base for them.

The driving is a little weird at first, as far as handling. Different vehicles handle differently, the larger ones are slow and clumsy to control. You get handbrakes to help you take sharp turns and such. There are mopeds, motorcycles, copters, planes, boats, jeeps, cars, taxis, buses, firetrucks, tons of stuff to drive, there are actually 104 different vehicles and you gain a trophy for driving each one (basically hopping in).

One last thing, the shadows in the game are ugly, unlike the rest of the game. At times they look jaggy and pixelated, but the action is fast and you hardly notice.

I will update again once I play even more of the game.

EDIT: 3/28/10
I've been playing 6 hours and 21 minutes. According to the statistics, I'm only 6% finished with the game. The map is HUGE! When fully zoomed out, it measures 16"x16" on my 46" TV. I've explored roughly a 1.5" square within those 6 hours. Granted, I did spend an hour or so just fiddling around. The game has extensive statistics and it keeps you updated periodically. A message appears in the corner telling you how many hours you've been playing, how many different vehicles driven (there's also a check list on the stat screen), how many statues you've destroyed, various free fall heights, etc. The stat screen is interesting to check out because the game keeps track of so many things.

There are racing challenges (not hard and I'm not a fan of driving games), free fall races where you base jump and have to fall through rings in the sky, and aerial races where you can fly either a plane or helicopter. The planes take some getting used to and I've always crashed :(

The trophies are fun to collect. I'm not a fan of looking at the requirements, but the few I did check out seemed pretty cool. I've only racked up a handful but I'm not purposely trying to get them until later in the game.

EDIT: 4/7/10
I've put in around 22 hours and have completed roughly 16% of the game. The reason it's taking so long is because it's rather difficult to achieve 100% completion in the cities! There are always hidden water towers I keep missing or propaganda trailers off in some corner. Also there was a gas station in an out of the way place I missed for over an hour. I've gotten 100% completion in about 4 areas. The cities are huge with a lot of ground and air to cover. Plus, once you get further into the game your heat level increases faster. Just shooting a couple water towers with a helicopter will send air support after you.

I'm still having a blast 22 hours into the game. It's so fun to just explore that I've only completed 3 storyline missions. I have actually gotten frustrated with the business district of Panau. I'm stuck at 97% complete so I'm about to start exploring further into the mountain and desert regions.

A question I received was are the collectable items located on the map as dots? The answer is yes. However, I'll be damned if I can find some of them. I can be right over a dot on the map and there's nothing but trees in the area, no crate to be found. I'm not sure if it's an error in the code, or it's hidden somewhere, but I've given up more than a few times.

FYI, you can complete the challenges multiple times to earn more money. There's nothing worse than buying a $35,000 plane and crashing it after flying 50 yards. If anyone is able to complete the free falling challenges, congrats, I am having a difficult time with those!

Post any questions and I will try to answer them quickly.

Man, how nice to be away from reality. IRS, Bills, Responsibilities, nasty politics and more are reality. I'll leave them behind and grapple to a heli, grapple the passenger to his falling death next with the pilot and then take it over and then blow the hell out of a thug-run criminal gas station with my heli's built in rockets, parachute down and then motorcycle to a drug king pen's villa and blow the snot out of him and his goons and its not even 6:00am in the morning yet. Am I a Marine? Nope, I don't command that respect but I play Just Cause 2. Been playing it for addictively for 16 hours now and not even 8% through the main game yet. Here is the original review - a few gripes after.

Well, I've never really enjoyed "sandbox" games. Tried GTA and just didn't get into it. Maybe I didn't try it long enough. But this game just got started and its an absolute blast and I think its just going to get even better. Watched many videos and read some reviews and watched one of the developers play and man this game is just plain insane fun! The diverse things you get to do and blow up are just amazing. Creating chaos and destroying cities to piss off the government! If only! Well, here we get to do it and the light story motivates you to kick some tail. The controls take time to get used to and are a bit difficult for older gamers like me, but its so much fun its worth it. Glitches??? I'm having way too much fun to even notice, nor do I give a .... Man, grappling to a huge heli, blowing it up OR taking it over then latching on to a building and 'chuting down, so many options. For less talented gamers such as myself, it does get a bit difficult with all of the controls and fast action though. I'll just have to keep practicing. As far as value for a game? I can't imagine how long and how many great hours you could put into this game. I think there are almost 400 locations to explore and infiltrate and I'm just getting started and thats not even mentioning the side missions which I haven't reached yet. Fun factor and replayability give this game 9.5 out of 10(haven't found a 10 yet) if you like to blow stuff up, shoot thugs, drive vehicles - planes, boats, helis, hummers and who knows what else.....this game is absolutely for you. If you pick apart games for reality, well give this one a pass. Once I get way further into it, I'll update this review.

Some gripes: Save points! I wish there was an option to go exactly back to the place where you died. It seems that the game sticks you back into an old conquest and you have to fly/ride/run back to the other place or "transport" from your black market contact to a previous conquest that is close by to where you want to be. Not sure why, but thats the way they did it. Maybe there is another way but I don't know it. The vehicles can be difficult at first, but after you get used to them they are a complete blast. This game is still one of the most fun games I have ever played and there is so much more. Its one of the first games the I want to complete each mission at 100% and that can be fairly time consuming. The heli's are so much fun. I don't know why the put the vehicle purchase option in the game when you can just steal and aquire them in the game. Maybe there is a reason, but I don't know it yet. I bought a couple but it was just a waste of cash when I crashed them and stole another. I'll stand by my 5 star and 9.5 out of 10 review, or ok, 9.25 out of 10. A complete consuming blast, and still I'm only a small way in the game.

This game is a split between GTA4, Saints Row, and something all its own. It has the graphics only better'd by GTA4(but not much), the tons of weapons and fast paced action of SR with none of the bad. The only thing I can say is GTA4 has better gun and driving contols and physics; but this game trades that off with better flying and much more fun! The vast area is really impressive. I mean it make Oblivion look like tiny, GTA 4 look small, and I mean I've played for 4 hours now and seen maybe half of the island... By a jet. I feel like I can't even properly review it. 400 square miles of great graphics, changing weather and millions of opions. I highly recomend this game. Over anything else out right now. Its so much FUN!!!

Open world action with amazing Vistas, crazy stunts and so many things to do, see and destroy.

This game takes the crown the best open world game I have ever played. You will see views in a game that you have never seen before and you can go everywhere.

I have played about 16-20 hours and am currently about 12% done with game (according to the in game stats and just over 20% in trophy progress.) They let you take weapons and vehicles where every you want. (if you have trouble taking out a little communication station just hijack or call in an helicopter and take the place to town).

Another item they have done very well is AI and challenge. If you create a lot of Chaos (the main in- game currency) by killing troops or blowing things up, the "Evil Island of Panau" Army forces will be bring bigger and tougher guys so that you will have to eventually run and hide. This insures there is still a challenge even after you upgrade weapons and master the grapple and para-swing techniques.

Performance with the new engine is truly breathtaking. You climb or fly up the top of a mountain and you look out the island and water below you with no hiccups or pop-in. Rockstar is schooled as Avalanche Studios are the new king of Open World games!

Heck even the Map is 3-D (it has elevation).

Fantastic 1-player game that I want to see more and more of.

I will purchase every piece of DLC they release to voice my financial support for this product.

Truly awesome... Every open world fan needs to purchase this game.

5 out of 5!!

Okay, so this is the LARGEST sandbox map I have ever seen...EVER!!! Its so vast I think It would take easily 100 hours or more to complete everything.

The story is lame and the voice acting is laughable but i think the developers wanted it that way. It probably would have not been as fun if the story was engaging because you would be focused on that instead of the world which is the REAL star of the show.

Now the map as I have said is huge. And there's stuff to do in every corner of it. Whether it be blowing up oil rigs or scaling a mountain or racing planes or boats or finding all of the over 300 settlements or 100 or so drug cases scattered about. My favorite is the mile high club which is literally a club that's in the sky. It's a blimp that has several bars and a helipad and a small airplane on it(you can take off from there too). There are also over 100 vehicles to find and drive.

What's so great about this huge world is that you can explore any of it at any time. It's not restricted like some games. There's also a fast travel system that makes life a lot easier.

Also you can upgrade weapons and armor and your vehicles through the black market which can be accessed at any time through your PDA(unless you're in the middle of a firefight).

You can also swim underwater too. I was expecting you could swim but not underwater! That adds even more depth to the world because there's seaweed and rocks down there which you hardly ever see. You can't jump out of the water though you have to grapple to something which is an inconvenience.

I didn't give the game five stars because of a few annoyances like the corny accents and having to call the black market dealer to fast travel and enemies respawning constantly. When you buy a car or plane or whatever from the black market it's a onetime use so even if you don't blow it up (that's unlikely) you can't store it anywhere or even repair it. Also scarcity of ammo can be a problem when your being overrun by enemies.

This review actually comes as a result of watching my son play this game. As a rule he gets bored quickly with games, of the many games that we have owned, this is one of the few games that he has played non-stop. Let me begin by saying the map is HUGE! I have seen large "sand box" style games, but this one takes the cake! I have seen several reviews where the word repetition was used. Not the case. The different areas of the map offer numerous environments and you go up against three criminal organizations so therefore interact with different characters. The amount of vehicles that you can operate is insane! I have not witnessed any frame-rate issues. However, when you have such a large game requiring so much memory it comes at a (slight)cost. As you have read before the dialogue is "cheesy"; like out of a bad "crime movie". But the rest of the game makes up for this this. Have fun playing this game...but let me give you some advice....don't wreck your jet in the middle of the ocean....takes forever to swim back to shore!

In my opinion its the best sand-box game ever created. In Just Cause 2 you play as agent Rico Rodriguez, your orders are to find and kill your trusted friend and mentor (From the first game) who has disappeared on the island paradise of Panau. The world of Panau is huge with 400 square miles of treacherous terrain with hundreds and hundreds of settlements from large cities with towering skyscrapers to secluded beaches and snow covered mountain peaks along with military fortress strong-holds and collectables to explore, find or destroy. I've been playing for 30 hours and have completed just 20%. The game developer Avalanche studios did an outstanding job making the game so much fun and giving us many, many reasons to explore the large open world.

Thats a gripe I've had with some open-world environments like in RedFaction guerrilla and Farcry 2 -The enviornments at times seemed barren with no real reason to feel motivated to explore the world because there was nothing useful to search for and find. Just Cause 2 solves this with collectables, Armor and weapons parts hidden around the map. Every time I play the game theres something very cool to do like for example attaching enemies to moving vehicles or explosives.

The graphics are beautiful, and the game is amazing with how far I can see off in the distance its really breath taking to see the sunset in this game. The enemy AI is very good at presenting a challenge to the player, if your attacking a military base or settlement you must clear the area and get 100% chaos in that area to stop the enemy soldiers from respawning.

If you enjoy open world sand-box games that allow you the creative freedom to do whatever you want then you probably know that there are not many to choose from and even less with Mercenaries 2 developer Pandemic being shut down by evil EA and even eviler Activision (Yes their both evil ^^) making Spiderman's next game (Shattered Dimensions) linear - we keep getting less and less open world style games, so I'm asking everyone show your support for Just Cause 2 by purchasing a copy or two (I purchased two copies of Just Cause 2, one for my PC and one for my PS3 ^^) because I really want there to be a
"Just Cause 3"

...If we don't show our support for sand-box games we'll be over run with linear first person shooter clones of Halo and the Call of Duty franchises > <


I highly recommend this game ^^

BUY IT!

Many gamers are familiar with the Grand Theft Auto video game series, which redefined the third person sandbox style of adventure games. However, very few games have made a successful attempt to challenge the game series for the best sandbox game. Just Cause 2 is the best game made in quite some time that makes a legitimate attempt to challenge the series. The first Just Cause game available on the Playstation 2 could be enough for some gamers to avoid Just Cause 2. If you played the first Just Cause game, then this is understandable. It proposed a very good idea for a video game, but was extremely repetitive and redundant in its gameplay. It almost felt like a test beta more than an actual video game. Rest assured Just Cause 2 breaks past this barrier.
The game provides far more abilities for the game character you play as, named Rico Rodriguez. The most notable one is the grappling hook attached to the character's arm. It allows you to grasp just about anything in the environment, whether it is the side of a mountain, a barrel on the side of the road, a vehicle passing by, or even other people. The hook also allows you to connect two things together, like an enemy guard to a vehicle (and you can drag him to his death if you choose), a barrel to a building, or a vehicle to a statue (and you can bring the statue down with the vehicle). This adds to the fun factor tremendously, as you can spend hours trying different hooking combinations for your entertainment. The ability to deploy his parachute whenever you want and as many times as you want is nothing new, but with the new abilities of the grappling hook, this becomes more enjoyable as well.
The game map is another impressive feature of the game. The map could be a reason why the grappling hook can attach to things like mountains and trees. The map is huge. At over 400 square miles, it is one of the largest maps ever put in a video game. The area is essentially a chain of islands surrounding one large piece of landmass. Mountains of all sizes can be found (yes, there are some ski resorts around the snow capped peaks), forest areas are also common, and there are a few desert areas as well. Use of the grappling hook and the parachute together makes for a useful way to get around the large map. Don't worry, there are still plenty of land, air, and sea vehicles you can use to get around as well.
As previously discussed, the missions of the game are where the first game really disappointed many gamers. Just Cause 2 addresses this issue. Some may feel that the redundancy factor still comes into play, but at least there is far more variety in the missions. You can take over various types of settlements instead of only one or two types. The side missions involve various activities instead of the same one or two. The number of storyline missions seemed to have decreased from the first game (even though you can now play them with increased difficulty), but the game developers were clearly looking to put exploring the game map as the primary reason to playing the game.
Exploring a given game map, allowing you to do whatever you want, and doing the missions when you feel like doing them is how Grand Theft Auto became popular to begin with and nobody has made a game quite up to its level. Just Cause 2 does a terrific job at challenging the "top dog" of the sandbox style of games.

I have been playing this game every afternoon for about 2 and a half weeks now and I am only 28% complete. This is ridiculous! Never have I felt a game deserved full price ($60) more. Best of all, I'm not getting tired of it anytime soon cause it is just that damn fun.

Like another reviewer, I too bought this and God of War 3 around the same time. Finished GOW3 on a single weekend and haven't played it since. Don't get me wrong GOW3 was great but no where near as addictive as Just Cause 2 (or as big).

Almost every conceivable action sequence you can think of is in this game. I've played through almost every action movie I've ever watched (that didn't take place in space)! I've been in all manner of chases (foot, car, boat and air), jumped from exploding skyscrapers, from exploding cars, from exploding planes and from pretty much anything that can explode. I've fought with gun toting ninjas and destroyed countless strongholds with anything from guns to run away cars to attack helicopters. Heck I've parachuted from heights that would make Superman queasy. I surfed on a freaking jet! I've never done this much in a single game before, and I'm only 28% done! Honestly this game is longer than most RPGs I know.

On the downside, the game can be frustrating. I STRONGLY recommend playing on easy/casual. Not that its hard, it's just frustrating having to restart a mission when you die, and you will die quite a bit. I really wish that the health kits were easier to find as there's nothing more irritating than running around looking for one while the bad guy's chopper is shooting at you.

The story is pretty good, though I can't really comment much on it since I haven't actually completed the game (and by the looks of it, I won't be finishing it anytime soon). The voice acting is atrocious, seriously it's almost painful. Plus I hate the way the cutscenes are fragmented. For instance a mission will start with one cutscene showing you approaching the person whose gonna give you the mission, then it goes black and loads another cutscene showing you getting on the vehicle that will take you there, then another cutscene loads with you being briefed in the vehicle, and yet another cutscene loads with you arriving at your destination. This happens for many of the missions.

These are very minor problems of an otherwise outstanding game. Honestly the love put into this game shows. This game is ridiculously fun and I highly recommend it.

P.s - You can swim and dive too! I know that sounds stupid but I've never played a sandbox game that allowed you to actually dive under water.

>_> GTA4, Infamous, Prototype, Red Faction, The Saboteur, Assassin's Creed 2

I bought God of War 3 and Just Cause 2 almost the same time. I played GOW first and I thought it was the greatest game in 2010. Then I started playing Just Cause 2 demo and immediately hooked. I even stopped playing GOW because JC2 is much much more fun. You can actually do anything you want. For $59.99, this is the best bet. I can guarantee you still won't finish the game after 30 hours playing it. The area is so huge and so many possibilities. It is rated M for violence only.