Explosions, chaos, and pure over-the-top mayhem. Welcome to Just Cause 3, an adrenaline-fueled open-world action adventure game putting you in the boots of Rico Rodriguez, a fearless operative with an arsenal of weapons and an iconic grappling hook. Played from a 3rd person perspective, Just Cause 3 takes you to the tropical Mediterranean-inspired nation of Medici, with islands under the iron grip of a brutal dictator. Your mission? Liberate the islands by blowing up military bases and causing as much destruction as humanly possible while moving around using mobility gadgets. Released in 2015 by Square Enix on PC and 8th gen consoles, the game is one among the many sequels of the popular Just Cause series.
Side Activities
Starting off with side activities, Just Cause 3 has more than a decent amount of things to do when you’re not off trying to complete the main storyline. First, you’ll soon come to realize that you’ll be spending most of your time doing challenges. You have several different challenges to choose from, like wingsuit courses, races, destruction frenzies and a ton of others. The reason why you might want to complete these challenges is so that you can upgrade your gear. And let me tell you, if you want to get all of the gears sooner, you might spend a lot of time trying time and time again to get the best score. But if you aren’t the perfectionist type, then it might not be the case for you, because they can be an absolute chore to complete.
Next up, you’ve got the area liberations, which are actually incorporated into the main story as a prerequisite. These liberations are exactly what they sound like. You have to liberate certain locations in the map. Not to mention, 30 locations scattered across the islands. To do this, all you have to do is destroy specific items in that location, be it a military base, a town… You get the point. So essentially, you’re the sole savior of this world, which is pretty much your main role as the game’s protagonist.
And then there’s the good old collectibles, but don’t worry Just Cause 3 has a fun twist to them, or at least most of them. The game gives you this tiny addiction of collecting all the different vehicles you find around the map, and who can blame you when you set eyes on a slick horsepower rocking beauty in front of you? The game has its own way of collecting vehicles by driving them into a garage in town, and voila its yours to access as a drop next time. The rest of the collectibles are pretty generic, though, which are pretty much random things you can pick up while exploring the map. But the good part is… You can get some pretty good gear from collecting them.
Last on the list for side activities are encounters. These happen randomly when you’re out and about in the open world. Though don’t expect too much depth in these because they’re usually just simple tasks from NPCs needing your quick help, like saving rebel allies from the military. It’s also completely ignorable, but it’s still nice to have for an extra side activity.
All in all, Just Cause 3 has a good amount of side activities, keeping you active.
Area of Freedom
On to Area of freedom, there’s honestly not much to be said. Other than the fact that the map is just a massive explorable map, allowing you to go from 1 end to another without so much as a hiccup of gameplay. What’s even better, there are no corridor like areas or invisible walls, so you’re free to go wherever without any limitations whatsoever, and not to mention, no loading screens so it feels seamless. The game’s vertical space is also something to note. You know the saying, the sky’s the limit? Well, the game gives you exactly that. You can be on the ground level, driving your tank, parking your heli on top of a building or even soaring above clouds with your fighter jet. Just don’t expect to go through buildings, because it’s simply not in the game’s nature.
Overall, Just cause 3 earns a big fat thumbs up in the open world genre, something that other open world games can learn from.
Liveliness
The world of Medici is filled with Mediterranean islands, and each has a biome of its own. You’ll experience snowy landscapes, lush forests, rugged mountains and beach filled shores. The variations of the biome are a good addition as you travel from point A to point B by any means necessary, aka or mobility gadgets. However, exploring the depths of these locations is often meaningless as the most you’ll get are random encounters which don’t hold value at all. And honestly, if you’re lazy, you can always hit the fast travel. Also, the soundtrack isn’t anything special either.
Now let’s talk about the inhabitants of the world. For starters, the game just about accomplishes its mission to populate the settlements across the map. The cities are populated with enough life to make it somewhat alive, with the added bonus of NPCs reacting when you come into proximity to them or agitate them in any way, like hijacking their vehicle. Speaking of vehicles, the roads are filled with cars passing you as you make your way from one city to the next. There are also some outposts scattered around the map, and you’ll find a good amount friendly or hostile NPCs when you visit these outposts.
On the other hand, when you venture off from the cities or roads, you’re met with almost nothing other than the nature-ey landscape, be it forests, mountains, or beaches. There is almost no wildlife either in these areas. Also, although the settlements have NPCs wandering here and there, it still doesn’t feel dense enough, especially when the NPCs feel more like accessories without any purpose. It feels like they just wander around aimlessly. Some towns or villages are even completely empty. If only the density of the pedestrians and vehicles were higher, the liveliness of the area, paired with the size of the map, would match.
That being said, Just Cause 3 stands in the middle in just about everything in this aspect, partially passing it through the liveliness.
Customizations
The game presents you with a few features to make the character your own. Starting with weapons, you’ll have 3 slots to fill out, with each slot dedicated to a different weapon category, and don’t worry, there’s more than enough options to choose from for each of them. Each weapon also has its own advantages and disadvantages when it comes to stats. So you’ll have all the freedom in the world to experiment with all the different weapon lineups. You can either face enemies head on with explosives, snipe them from a safe distance, or gun your way through with an automatic rifle. Spoiler alert, though, explosives are going to be your next best friend here.
Remember when we mentioned the vehicles being collectable? Once you collect them, it’s yours to choose via drop the next time you want to travel from one point to another in style with a vintage car or speed with a sports car. The freedom here is to choose your means of transportation, or not, because let’s not forget you can also go with your gadget to zoom around. Other than that, the vehicles themselves lack the customizability factor. You can't color your car banana yellow or any other color for that matter, even if you wanted to. What I can say though, is that the variety of vehicles is extensive. Outside of the normal vehicles, you also get to choose between armored vehicles, helicopters, to even jets, letting you choose your own way of entering the battlefield, and remember… Each vehicle has their own advantages and disadvantages as well. So choose for the occasion wisely.
But the customization stops there. Although the game also has somewhat a skill system, called Gear Mods, letting you upgrade the way you travel, fight, rebel drops… basically any mechanic in the game. the catch is once you get all the gear points, you can pretty much unlock everything taking away the customizability factor so that you don’t need to make any choice at all.
Overall, it’s clear that Just Cause 3 is still lacking in the customization department.
Engagement
Speaking of lacking, it’s a shame to say that the engagement here is also in the same boat. The game has that generic “you are the messiah” type of story. So with that going on, we gotta dive into other parts of the game that might keep you engaged until the end. Although there are many side activities, none of them have a strong enough pull for you to keep playing the game. Instead, it’s the complete opposite. The side activities are, again, more than a good amount, but most of them become repetitive and even tedious at some point. Take area liberations for example, it’s one thing to have a lot of area liberations, but it’s another if they’re all the same with only the increased difficulty being different. And that’s exactly what it is. There are just too many area liberations, and while it’s fun in the early game, it becomes the same old same old all over again towards the end. Another is the challenges. That’s if you like the challenge… get it? Coz challenge is… Anyway, unless you’re one to get all golds for all the challenges, it’s more of an optional activity with no relevance or value to the main storyline. Last of all, the gear mods, aka the skill system, is pretty much non existent as you can still finish the game without it. Sure, you will get stronger as you play more, but it’s not as significant, and even if you don’t unlock it, you are still going to be strong enough to finish the game.
Now that you’ve heard me list mostly the negatives, the game definitely needs a lot more if it’s gonna keep you playing.
Uniqueness
Cutting a clean slate, Just cause 3 offers something that no other game does, and that is creating a perfect blend of multiple genres, action shooter games and superhero games. The game creates the illusion that Rico has superpowers, and it does so very clearly shows throughout the game. The character's lineup of skills allows him to take action in a way that he looks like a superhero, but of course, these are purely from his expertise in gadgetry and weaponry. You could even go as far as saying he’s the daytime Batman of this world. Combat Mechanics here, combined with gadget mechanics, are also fluid, letting you approach kills with a ton of possibilities. It doesn’t stop there, destruction is going to be your favorite hobby in this game.
The sheer variety of ways to destroy objects and seeing them go boom here are just so satisfying, like going bonkers with jets or tanks. And finally, the traversal mechanics. It’s no understatement that you don’t need a vehicle to go places here. You’re free to use the grapple hook, parachute, and wingsuit, or combine them all, and I’m sure you’re going to be addicted to them as soon as you get your hands on them. Here’s a tough challenge, try not to touch the ground for as long as you can. Having all these mechanics combined is more than enough to make Just Cause 3 stand out among others.
To put it in perspective, the Just Cause series continues to release sequels one after another, and it’s clearly because their game is just fun and like no other.
End Verdict
At the end of the day, Just Cause 3 is a solid open world game in general, especially when you take a look at the game’s strengths in its open world aspects. The game presents you with a vast open world that is fun with all your gadgets, a decent list of activities, and the overall freedom to roam. However, that’s if you’re willing to overlook where it lacks, being customizations, believability of the surroundings, and the inability to keep us playing. Ultimately, this brings the game to a B tier from us.
