Note: This is a review I wrote last year for Amazon.co.uk and is the top rated review. I mention this as I don't want someone commenting that I've just ripped off some body else's review, thanks!
Just Cause was never a game I particularly enjoyed, it was too buggy, too ugly and surprisingly too boring. So I wasn't expecting much from it's inevitable sequel.
The game gets straight to the point on the first mission by dropping you into fully fledged rampage, with lots of big guns and gadgets at your disposal. Basically, all you do is blow stuff up, fuel tanks, broadcasting towers, generators etc.. Which doesn't sound great but honestly, it is one hell of a spectacle watching propane tanks flying into the sky carrying a soldier with it... then blowing up... then watching the man who is barely alive falling to his demise... then watching his blood and guts splatter all over the floor. It's amazing and it all happens in about 3 or so seconds, it's so fast paced and it flows so well with the rest of the gameplay you just walk through all the missions but the carnage never stops. The missions, to keep variety going, have loose objectives, but you barely notice them as the primary objective, you just want to blow stuff up on the way. The first mission for instance has you collect data files that have fallen from your helicopter. But they just so happened to fall into a big explosive fuel station. Great!
But the main missions, called agency missions, play a very small part to the game. Just Cause 2 is massive... Literally. It is a free roaming game, and the space you are able to roam in is mind bogglingly big! around 1000km2 which consists of countryside, jungles, snowy mountains, deserts and a city which by itself would qualify to be a game map it's that big. The islands all come together to form a country called "Panau" which is cluttered with towns, villages, airfields, Oil rigs, Military bases and so on, all of which you can takeover and keep as your strongholds in which you can store weapons and have your own sort of gang to stand guard or take with you on missions and taking over other facilities.
Having the amazing map with loads in it is one thing, but what's even better is that you can destroy it! Almost everything explodes in this game, and when you cause explosions, you cause chaos, and when you cause chaos, you earn err... Chaos points, which go towards new things like Agency Missions, Stronghold Missions, Faction Missions and best of all, Black Market Items. Now when you earn alot of chaos points in one go, you also earn alot of money. and money is spent on black market items. You can see the greatness of this system. The Black Market has just about everything, from measly parachutes to to heat seeking rocket launchers! All kinds of vehicles are available too, from boats, cars to Apache helicopters. All of the items you can buy on the black market are also upgradeable, which is made possible by collecting weapon and vehicle parts that you find all over Panau. Another neat feature of the Black Market is that you can have extractions from one part of the map to the other, and it's completely free! It really helps as it takes along time to drive around. My only complaint about the Black Market feature is that you can't keep your bought items, you have buy them each time you want them, you can't just store them in a garage like you could in GTA. It can prove quite expensive. Also you can only purchase one item at a time, so if you want multiple items at one time, you have to wait for the menu to load up and off. Gets annoying...
That isn't the games only flaw, there are a few. First off, Loading times, seriously, I know the game is massive but waiting for the damn thing to load is sometimes frustrating, and it has to load quite alot. When your wanting The Black Market, When you die, when you start the game. Another thing is the controls, they work great in most areas of the game but sometimes they really let you down. For instance, I want to land my helicopter which I intend to get back in after, to descend in a helicopter you hold "L2". Which makes perfect sense. But "L2" is also used to drop grenades. You can see where this going. I land the helicopter get out drop a grenade next to my helicopter, my helicopter blows up that causes an explosion which causes chaos which means feds. are now after me and i have nothing to escape in! ...And I wasted a grenade! One last thing that bothers me is that the game is still very buggy, like the first Just Cause, only Just Cause 2 can be patched... I await that patch.
The game technically is amazing, the graphics are beautiful, as good as GTA IVs, i'm not joking. Except the vehicles look a bit cartoony' but it's ok. AI. is surprisingly quite intelligent, just a few mishaps occur when the enemy is driving, but it's quite funny to watch so it's all good... I love this game, i haven't yet became bored, just exhausted. A definite buy for anyone who loves adventure and/or action!
These are the worst guns in video games. Unlike weapons that are useful and practical, these only take up space in your inventory.
Being a completionist can be fun, but some games are more like chores than fun. Here are the worst games to 100% complete.
The Yakuza Games
Haha, yeah, currently over 100 hours into Yakuza 0. Considering going for 100% and well on the way but may not get there. Cat Fights are a real chore.
I use to be a trophy hunter, was getting around 20 to 30 platinums a year. Had a saying of Play-Beat-Platinum, play and enjoy the game like there wasn't no trophies, beat it and at least get 50% then look at them and see if I'll platinum and platinum it. I think death star was a pain, the servers was ending so i had to rush and play that for awhile none stop. NGs2 was hard because of that online trophy but easy if you had the partner that can do it for you while you grab the enemy attention. Grinding idk, death was grinding last one I had to grind for platinum literally 1 trophy needed was dungeon travler or something vita gave up on it. After that I stop trophy hunting get like a 1 platinum a year or 0.
Yeah, if I enjoy a game I usually go for the platinum unless there are some unreasonable trophies in there.
For Yakuza 0 I've invested too much time in it to give up just yet and most of the content is good fun, apart from Cat Fighting which is broken and dull after a couple of fights.
Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 was literally the last platinum I got on PS3. After that, I went into PS4 kinda deflated and getting them where it felt appropriate.
I genuinely HATED that platinum, but it was a personal challenge I took upon myself. It was a lot of "get 1,000 kills with [insert weapon]" and it got to be a bit tedious. Master Ninja really pissed me off, but the WORST which you alluded to was that bloody Gold trophy for missions that you needed to do online because the AI was useless and got wrecked in moments. I jumped on the game a bit late so I struggled with finding a partner for at least 1.5 months. After that, I burned out hard with trophy hunting. I still came back for games I really enjoyed (Bloodborne, Dark Souls III, Nier: Automata, and a few others that escape me) and low hanging fruit that was just a bit time consuming and I didn't want to buy new games at the time (Final Fantasy XV). Total, it becomes clear where I taper off since I've only plat'ed 33 games since there inception of trophies which really isn't much.
Screw Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 lol. That game was pure nightmare fuel.
I say never force getting a platinum, its not worth the trouble definitely if it costing you to waste time on chore like grind. Those brainless design trophies.
Dead rising was the worst one I’ve ever tried. I haven’t tried it with the modern console “rest mode” but the 360 didn’t have that.
Was GTa4 the on where you had to collect a shit ton of pigeons around the map and there was no help in finding them?
The saving grace was that there was only on average 50 collectables with the two exceptions being graffiti and oysters from memory horseshoes and photos were capped at 50 each.
But for me it was all the other grind that was way more painful in SA like the car export lists which even with guides took way longer than collecting stuff
There was a guide book that came out with the game that had all the pigeons in it. I actually still have it
One of the more recent games I got a Platinum in was Killzone: Mercenary for Vita. What a crap game, that requires so much terrible grinding.
Awful game, awful experience.
Oh man..wish i could get a vita. I've been trying to get a preowned too(in my country) but no luck.
I can vouch for Just Cause 2. It was the reason I quit achievement hunting. 86 hours in, the game bugged on me during one of the last side quests (it failed no matter what I did) and my save file got corrupted. Wiped it off my drive and never looked back.
I downloaded the ‘complete edition’ or whatever it was called for $2 about 7yrs ago in hopes of trophy hunting it for a platinum. It always sounded fun and I would like to commit time to it but not enough for a platinum trophy
A look back at some of the most iconic moments of horror from non-horror video games.
Agree with your review, it's a great game, and definitely deserving of more attention from gamers for its pure sandbox fun.
yeah, I cant believe how over looked JC2 is. it basically has the best open world features ever. you can cause explosions everywhere and its not boring when you do all the missions like in GTA games. grappling hook and parachute combo is one of the best things ever!
I am kinda surprised that you don't mention the horrific voice-acting in this game :P
Just Cause 2 is one of the most played PS3 games I have, and I have over 90 on blu-ray. It's just so much fun doing the story or messing about. One of the best open world games with very good graphics.
Totally agree. I got this game for under $10 on Steam, and I figured what the hell, the demo was decent fun, and for so cheap, I may as well give it a chance. I now love the game and recommend it to all of my friends. The story isn't anything great, but the missions are fune nough, and the map is so massive and there are so many things you can do. There's nothing like standing on top of a flying airplane, shooting another plane, and then grappling over to hijack a totally different plane. Things like that are just a random example of the crazy things this game lets you do.