Just Cause 2 is a third-person action game set in Panau in South East Asia. Agency operative Rico Rodriguez must hunt down former US-friendly dictator Pandak “Baby” Panay who now rules over an oppressive regime.
Rico has all of the tools at his disposal to explore this expansive open world, from stunt jumping on cars and dual tethering enemies, to blowing up gas canisters – and more besides. His options for self-expression are truly limitless!
Story
Rico Rodriguez returns to Southeast Asian island to overthrow a brutal dictator. There is an array of faction missions and an expansive open world to explore; Avalanche Studios added physics improvements that make over-the-top shenanigans easier than ever; Rico can use his grappling hook to attach enemies to gas canisters before shooting them at their friends, or use it pull enemies off their feet and throw them across the terrain.
This game also introduced a Black Market system where players could quickly purchase weapons and special Agency vehicles without using heavy drop systems like in previous titles. There were 104 vehicles in total including flyable passenger jets and military planes. Furthermore, engine tweaks allowed greater player control of vehicle physics and handling for better stunts such as shooting rockets from car rear windows or levitating helicopters by firing thruster firing points.
Avalanche Studios wasn’t initially planning on making a sequel of Just Cause, but after reviewing past original games by Avalanche Studios they discovered its popularity had outshone all expectations. Critics lauded its open world approach and physics-based action; indeed it became the first game ever in its genre to sell six million copies!
Just Cause 2’s narrative may not be particularly deep or engaging, but its gameplay certainly makes up for that lack of depth or interest. You’ll enjoy taking down and destroying most races and colonels you come across; most races and colonels you come across are plenty fun to destroy too! Unfortunately, Agency Missions require allies for three faction leaders despite them all being mere mercenaries; Colonels in particular are particularly difficult to work against since they wear bulletproof armor and boast incredible health levels – plus pack assault rifles or machine guns as well as reinforced body armor painted bright red for easy identification from distance; their properties also feature stars so you can let loose against anything red within their map area!
Characters
Four years after the original Just Cause, Rico Rodriguez must infiltrate rival factions on an imaginary island in Southeast Asia to overthrow its dictator, Pandak “Baby” Panay. Playing out much like its predecessor, Rico will undertake missions for three gangs and cause mayhem for their leader Pandak Panay; aside from mission-driven tasks the world remains open for exploration and freeform mayhem-making; though scripted action and forgettable characters fail to stand out from the crowd.
Just Cause 2 features many upgrades to enhance its gameplay and make it more rewarding than its predecessor, with improved gunplay and access to more satisfying weapons than before. Rico can hijack vehicles, boats and aircraft heisting them up before climbing onto them or scaling their exterior surfaces for climbs; upgraded grappling hooks enable more extreme stunts causing even greater destruction; while over-the-top stunts using upgraded grappling hooks add even greater levels of destruction!
Players will meet various characters throughout their campaign experience. Soldiers from various factions are perhaps the most memorable; with their distinctive accents and resilience against even tough mooks. Additionally, Bolo gives a stirring speech at the conclusion of Welcome to Panau mission calling for rebellion against dictatorship.
This game also offers several secret bases that can be taken over to unlock new gear and weapons, with missions that involve leading an engineer into enemy bases to hack their systems; these engineers never take cover or flee from enemies when fighting on hardcore difficulty; moreover, there are various gimmicks that add additional entertainment value: combat rolls can help dodge bullets more easily when moving quickly through enemy territory; plus two drones can be launched against enemies to take out some of the more annoying henchmen while providing hours of entertainment value in its own right!
Environments
Since 2006, Just Cause has been the go-to title for fans of explosive sandbox action packed with comic one-liners from its charismatic protagonist. Additionally, Just Cause’s vast environments and massive worlds enable players to explore at their leisure – as well as take them apart at will!
Just Cause 2 ups its game with its innovative grappling hook and parachute system, enabling Rico to effortlessly winch himself onto anything within its massive environments and hijack speeding vehicles from above. While its mechanics look fantastic and feel rewarding to use, they do come with some drawbacks as well.
Just Cause’s vehicle-based movement can sometimes feel unbalanced when traversing its chaotic environments, especially when driving cars at high speeds; their handling often feels unstable and unintuitive at high speeds – this is perhaps understandable given that Rico often uses these types of vehicles throughout his adventure.
Flying, grappling and parachuting will become your preferred modes of transport from point A to B; but these activities also provide plenty of entertainment in their own right. In contrast with Just Cause 3, which featured overly simplistic linear missions that limited your exploration options; Just Cause 4 offers numerous “tightened” side missions designed to keep you on task; but most of your time will likely be spent discovering Panau and its many locations.
These locations range from small fishing villages and sprawling military bases, as well as cities offering plenty of skyscrapers from which to base jump, to numerous cities offering tall buildings ideal for base jumping. Each location provides plenty of activities for Rico to complete; whether that means blowing everything with government insignia on it, collecting upgrades for weapons and vehicles or pillaging settlements to pillage; assassinating high-ranking colonels or finding attractive vehicles heist-worthy vehicles to hunt. Often missions get derailed due to encountering unexpected settlements containing settlements offering pillaging potential; high-ranking colonels to assassinate or cool looking vehicle chase/hijack.
Just Cause is Avalanche Studios’ spectacular take on Southeast Asia, depicting its topography, cultures, and locales to create an immersive and stunningly beautiful world to traverse.
Missions
Rico can take part in many activities and missions in Just Cause 2; from bombing things up, riding jet fighters, gliding across picturesque fields of flowers, stealing cars and hijacking helicopters to being part of a mercenary contract and leading a group of smugglers into enemy bases to protect.
Once a player has earned enough Chaos, they will unlock certain mission types beyond story missions and faction missions – such as agency missions. Completing such missions often yields some impressive weapons or vehicles as well as money rewards – however completing all open world locations and initial Agency Missions first will help prepare them to undertake these newer, more challenging ones.
Just Cause 2 offers several missions where players are asked to defend an area from military attacks initiated by Panau forces. These tend to be simple tasks to accomplish, with attacking units marked on the map; however, players may become disgruntled at how few vehicles offer reload capabilities.
One issue with these missions is their oversight in control’s implementation, where an error mapped “reverse” and “release tether” together on one button, making it more challenging than expected to pull Blaine’s car out of ditches, for instance, as the player will instantly break their grapple tether and be free.
There are also a couple of issues with these missions; specifically in Black Gold mission, if a player dies during an attack on the gas rig it does not destroy any structures and thus becomes unwinnable; restarting will restore these structures so they can be destroyed again, however 100% completion cannot be reached this way. Likewise in final mission when Baby Panay launches four nuclear missiles that make disarming difficult due to Baby Panay riding one and the remaining three being launched quickly by Baby Panay being launched simultaneously by him or by others; additionally it becomes very challenging disarming all four simultaneously before disarming all four at once while trying to disarm all four at once by stunt jumping between these missiles in order to disarm all four simultaneously!
