Just Tedious (Just Cause (Xbox 360))

Member Name: spencer_hawken

Product:	Just Cause (Xbox 360)
Date:	01/01/08 (113 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great graphics, enjoyable freeplay

Disadvantages: Glitches and repetitive gameplay

Ever the tight fisted one, I waited nearly a year before Just Cause became affordable enough (I resent paying £40+ for a game) to justify a purchase. Just Cause recently shot for a limited period to around £10 on some online entertainment websites, namely in my case Play.com.

You play Rico, a mercenary who takes up a series of missions to help revolutionaries take control of a heavy government controlled South American country. And literally that is the top and bottom of the story.

The gameplay is quite diverse but incredibly tedious as there are main missions, and silly little repetitive side missions. The main missions are generally more impressive with lots of big scale fire fights and a 5 out of 10 chance that you will die, whether your storming a building or carrying out a high profile assassination this part of the game is pretty good. The side missions however are really dull, but easy for playing in short bursts. This time you might have to steal a car, trade in drugs, perform a low profile hit or go scavenging for items on the beach or in the cities, villages or towns.

Things are fun because while as the game starts you get a choice to use cars and bikes, as the game continues you get to use more impressive vehicles, from helicopters to giant passenger jets. The air travel can be incredibly good fun especially when you get to jump out at altitude an either freefall, parachute, or throw yourself onto oncoming traffic whether it be by air or by road. Oh yes this aspect I love, it sort of makes up for the chicken in me who would never in a million years jusm from a plane in case the parachute never worked; luckily here you could use 100 parachutes in your fall and never will one fail, although you might land badly and ultimately die.

Just Cause is the most free roaming game I have possibly ever played, starting the game with a series of about 100 island all of which come into use during the game. While the main missions are structured, the side missions allow you to start wherever you want and build up a little arsenal of weaponry before the level of difficulty on the main missions becomes too hard. I really enjoyed the aspect of starting where you like, and like a typical tourist chose the most beautiful looking island to start.

Just Cause is all about the unlocking, and on the Xbox 360 this is a double edged sword. First of all there is the aspect that you do certain things like side missions and it unlocks weaponry or vehicles as well as a number of bases around the island where you can save and store vehicles (other than the ones specifically given). While unlocking you get to make associations with little radical groups and overthrow the authorities, the result of this generally provides you with more side missions and a safe location to get a helicopter or a speedboat. The second side of this which is exclusive to the 360 is the unlock-able points for point chasers. For those not aware there is a point system that works as a sort of status for online players. You can look at other online players when playing multi-player games (this is not one of them) and decide on their points whether or not to challenge them. The points are not necessarily an indication of how well they play; it could be an indication of how much money they have to spend on games. Some games have no points; some have a 100 points, or games like Just Cause seem to have an endless supply of points. Doing a number of side missions gains you points, picking up crates gains you points, as does killing people and performing both ground and air stunts. And this is where the point chasers will love Just Cause because an hour playing and doing a variety of things is more than likely going to give you some points, so far (and I have not completed the game) I have gained 500 points from this game alone, with plenty of missions and other points to gain.

I guess at this point you're probably thinking that the negatives are minor, which I guess to some degree they are, however there are big issues that seem not to be exclusive to me. First and most importantly variety unlike islands is limited, so many of the missions are identical to ones you performed earlier, so much so that you can almost do them in your sleep. But the biggest issue of all is the glitches, for those unfamiliar glitches are faults within the game; and as many missions as the game has it seems to have flaws. Most annoying is the general crash, this is when the game locks up and you have to redo all the progress that you have made since your last save (as a rule of thumb I have now learned to save each time I pass a save point if possible). This is bad enough but the bigger glitch is where you spent time doing all the preparation for a mission only to discover that due to technical difficulties you can't complete the mission; the hot spot (target area you must reach) might not activate, a building you need to blow up simply won't, or you might have travelled three islands with a vehicle only to discover the garage you need to park it in does not open. I guess the final issue is that there is no online option, and no co-operative play.

So in summing up my review and to put things as plainly as I can Just Cause is a great game for £10 the tedium outweighed by the fact that you can play the game in short bursts of say as little as 20 minutes. The glitches are overcome by saving, something which too can be tedious but better than recovering old ground. And for point lovers this is a must have game. But if you're considering spending above £15 for this game then think again, while the graphics are great, and the freedom is fun, paying above £15 for a game that everyone knows has issues is just silly.

Spencer Hawken 01/08

Summary: Reasonable game if purchased for the right price