Review: Just Cause 3 – You Blow Stuff Up, Just ‘Cause You Can - The Games Cabin

Chris says "Just Cause 3 is mayhem. It's mental. It goes above and beyond its predecessors in almost every aspect. The gameplay is a riot and there's a vast world to explore. It may not be as big as some had hoped, but it's packed full of stuff to do. Main missions, side missions, challenges, random encounters, and more. Flying around in the wingsuit is genuinely a thrill, so much so that you'll forget you can even drive a car."

[Kalebninja]

"the gunplay is the weakest part of the experience and, despite it being necessary, was often not that much fun"

If this is the case why give it a 9? Its a pretty big deal if the gunplay is the weakest part of a shooter.

[DevilOgreFish]

none of the JC games empathized on Gears TPS mechanics. JC games are more about running while gunning, and jumping out of stuff while gunning. It's action is a little different compared to most 3rd person shooters.

[chrish1990]

This. It's the reason I'm a bit iffy with JC3's gunplay, it's not bad, but it's not what I'm used to. No points taken away, none added, just a note that I personally didn't like it.

[sullynathan]

That's an excuse. Gears of War is not the only TPS game made.

Just Cause still has a lot of shooting, if the shooting mechanics aren't done well then it should be a flaw that pushes a game away from the 9/10 score.

[KiwiViper85]

maybe the gun play pushed the score down from 10/10?

[mogwaii]

The key word there is GUNNING, its a mojar part of the game and its still bland.

[hay]

@title: "Just Cause" references american invasion of Panama during operation of the same name. They named it to ensure the name alone would discourage people from opposing a cause that is so just it's named Just Cause. Original name of the venture was "Operation Nimrod Dancer" and Nimrod was known to be the first human king to enslave his brothers and sisters for his own amusement and power, his wife was a f*cking wh*re too.

It was done to "promote liberty" and YOLO lifestyle therefore gunplay and explosions are perfect "holywoodian" fit.

[badz149]

Doesn't have to be exactly like Gears but the shooting could be a lot better. The driving mechanic is also pretty weak IMO with car handling worst than GTA V.

But the worst of all,..loading times! The load times between missions and between retry is absolutely ridiculous! I'm talking abot the PS4 version. I don't know how it compares to the other versions but the loading time is getting on my nerves! Seriously, how hard can retry be? Why does it jeeds to take 30+ secs to execute?

The story and voice acting is terrible too but coming from JC2, it's kinda expected. This, plus all the negatives I pointed out above, I'd rate the game 7/10.

[spicelicka]

Jeez how can you enforce your mathematically exact rating standards on the reviewer? There's no scale from which to deduct points for gunplay.

They didn't give it a perfect score, so they obviously factored in the weaker gunplay within the points they deducted.

[Kalebninja]

How am I enforcing anything? I read a part of his review and asked a question. Don't get so defensive.

[generic-user-name]

That's why it's not 10/10

[iceman06]

The thing is...it's not a shooter. It's more of an open world destruction experience. Think of it as what many people eventually do with GTA games...only on steroids. Yes, shooting is a part of the game. But, the game is more centered around destruction, explosions, and mayhem. Many open world games don't have the tightest mechanics overall. They might focus on one more than another. In the end, it's the complete package that matters. For this reviewer, he liked the complete package.

[FN4GM]

Because Just Cause is not a "shooter", its an open world action-adventure game and yes there is shooting but its not the focus of the game, there is a lot of ways to destroy the environment and take out NPC's without using guns.

[scark92]

Shooting is a major factor in Just Cause.. its an action game, countless times you will be shooting in this game. That is not a good excuse for poor gunplay.

Even Bethesda fixed Fallout 3's shooting mechanics for Fallout 4, and that should be expected.

[showtimefolks]

Gunplay was the weakest part of just cause 2 too. Why is it that avalanche studios have refused to fix or improve that

Why do all just cause and avalanche fanboys automatically assume that everyone just wants to play the game like devs want? Why can't 3rd person shorter fans not enjoy this?

I am getting so fed up with gamers and developers. Instead of asking or demanding for change gamers settle and instead defend developers

Also when will the gaming journalism grow some you know and stop handing out 9's to games with clear faults

[quaneylfc]

Reviews aren't the type of things that you can change because of binary.

Say Just Cause 3 does 10 things and one thing doesn't perform as well as the others, you don't just take one point away.

A review has to be made and THEN the score comes from that, you don't just look at the review and say "I'll give it a 9 because it felt that way."

You have to give it a score the review tells you to give.

[chrish1990]

For me, personally, it's a 9. That's not to say the review is wrong or that someone who say's it's a six is wrong. Reviews are opinions. From the site:

9.0-10.0: Must Buy. Any game that scores between a 9 and a 10 is certified fresh and will most probably give you great satisfaction. Many happy joy-joys all around!

Each site will have its own scale. For some a 6 might be a turd, but for me, a 6/10 isn't bad and could be a great game in the right hands. AC Syndicate is an example. I liked it, but not as much as other games, so (if I remember) it got a 6.8. Not a bad score, not an amazing one. The number isn't all that important, it's just something to compare each site's previous reviews against.

As for why it still got a 9 even though I didn't really like the gunplay - the gunplay works fine, there's nothing intrinsically wrong with it and for most people it'll be just what they like, but it just wasn't for me. Like I say, no points taken away for it. It loses points for some dodgy performance, a naff story and some awful voice acting, but the rest of the game is extremely fun.

Any other questions can be PM'd, I don't mind. I usually see a PM well before a reply on here.

[Tdmd]

@Chrish1990
Would you say that the gunplay is something like Mercenaries? Or is it at least more refined and plays like GTA5?

[Fin_The_Human]

Kale the same could be said about Grand Theft Auto 5 that the gunplay is weak but it still got 10s becuse the game was fun.

Its an open world TPS game which means that shooting is not first priority.

[Nivekki]

The gunplay in GTA 5 was great, and more importantly was vastly improved from the game before it. Which is what sequels should do, improve what was in the previous games.

[Fin_The_Human]

Nive so how do you know the gunplay in JC3 is not the same as GTA5?

Maybe the person that wrote this article is comparing it to games like Gears, uncharted or even Tomb Raider.

The gunplay could be just like GTA5 for all we know.

Edit: Mods why do I have to refresh to see the comment that I just posted? Don't think it was like this before.

[scark92]

I personally disliked Just Cause 2's gunplay so I am not happy with that statement as it was what I was worried about, I feel like the only reason I would play this game is to mess around so I guess Il pass on it for now.

[skratchy]

More to the game than shooting, I'm sure.

[Tdmd]

@Kalebninja
And that's precisely why I'll wait for a price drop and pick something from my ever-growing backlog instead. Maybe Arkham Knight, or Destiny... a open world shooter where actually shooting things ain't fun sounds like a deal breaker to me. I've heard shooting was very good in Watch Dogs; it is so too in GTA5. So there's no excuse for this.

[FallenAngel1984]

I can only imagine how many reviewers are going to use a Just Cause pun in the title going forward

[G20WLY]

The decent sites will avoid it for that very reason.

This is the site that claims the console version is a mess (despite others praising it), goes on to award that version 9/10 anyway and ends their review with a warning to their loyal and valued readership, saying "before you even think of being the ultimate keyboard warrior in the comments, use your bloody brain, yeah?"! Classy.

It stands to reason they'd also lower themselves to go for the obvious pun and think themselves clever for it.

[chrish1990]

First, great work cherry picking that quote. It makes a lot more sense when it's quoted in full:

Also, it’s worth bearing in mind that this review was conducted after applying the hefty day-one patch so please, before you even think of being the ultimate keyboard warrior in the comments, use your bloody brain, yeah?

As for the pun? Yeah, I'm bloody proud of it. Spent a good 35-45 minutes coming up with it. If you don't like a bit of humour, well, that's on you.

[G20WLY]

My point still stands; you gave a game that you claim is a mess (in terms of loading times and frame rate) 9/10.

As for humour, I love it, but the 'just 'cause' pun has been done to death - it's the 3rd game! I prefer my humour a little more clever. If you can't produce better after 45 minutes of trying, well, that's on you.

[WeAreLegion]

The gunplay works just fine for this series. I've never had a reason to complain about it.

[TKCMuzzer]

Fine for me, I haven't unlocked the better aim add on so I can't speak. Seeing as I just jump in a helicopter and go around destroying things (which is great fun) i'm not fussed about using puny hand held weaponry ;)

It's a game with no rules, no set plans, it's just a load of fun.

[MK24ever]

Who cares for gunplay when you have unlimited C4 :) Just Cause is about jumping to a bike to jump to a car to jump to a truck to jump from a bridge to jump into a plane to jump to a train to jump to a boat while leaving behind you a ball of fire and destruction. It's about fun fun fun, also, you can graple a guys face to a guys but to a train to a gas tank to........ You get my point.

[Chaos-Dad]

9/10 with "this" FPS and Load Times oO

6/10!

[Ricegum]

Wow. That comment ^

[kupomogli]

Too much loading.

7.8/10.

[TKCMuzzer]

Only if you do the specific challenges, you can roam around destroying things for hours without a loading screen popping up (as I did yesterday)

[hiawa23]

Well, I have always played the game running and gunning so more of that with improved visuals over the previous games and I am good to go..

[Nodoze]

never cared for this series. It is just mindless. Gunplay was always horrible.

[DarkOcelet]

Then why are you here?

[TwoForce]

I enjoyed Just cause 2. Because it was just mindless fun. So i will enjoy Just Cause 3.

[iceman06]

To each his own! For me, the mindless part of it quenches that part of me that does that (or at least tries to) in every open world game. I just want to cause mayhem and see how the world reacts to it.

[FN4GM]

Posting on web sites about games you dont care about is pretty mindless too, just sayin.

[Xristo]

Can't wait! Just got it for $23.39 (PC)! :)

[Xristo]

Disagree all you want. Add the 10% FB code and it's what I paid. So many haters out there! =)

http://www.cdkeys.com/pc/ga...

[TwoForce]

The game does look fun to be honest.

[kupomogli]

You only got one disagree so far. Soooo many haters.

[PancakeLova]

Looks interesting. Too bad review was obviously written by a 10 yr old.

[chrish1990]

Correction: 25 year old with the childishness of a 10 year old.

Thanks.

[PancakeLova]

Say what

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Wait...didn't this site post up an article earlier saying the game had horribly long load screens and big issues with framerate during explosions especially? Seemed like they were sending out a PSA warning and now they have a review 9/10? Hmmm...kinda odd imo.

[LemyAtom]

Yes it was I just checked. Citing horrible frame rate issues then giving the game a 9...smells like BS to me.

[zfuller79]

I'll tell you what I'm sick of. I'm sick of every damn game being judged on whether or not it has multiplayer. And I don't like first person shooters because I like third person. Combine the two mediums as in Star Wars Battlefront and you have the right idea. But... Die, respawn, die, respawn gets old fast. Many players don't even play multiplayer the way it's meant to be played, "as a team" So what is the point? 9/10 for Just Cause 3. Unless folks play as a team to accomplish the objectives, asynchronous multiplayer is much better.

[kupomogli]

Just Cause is all about causing mayhem. What better way to do this with atleast one, if not multiple friends.

It's like if Earth Defense Force ever removed multiplayer. The few cool things about the game would still be there, but with no multiplayer it'd be boring. I'd rather just play another better third person shooter.

[killer_goat]

Well I've been playing this game for a couple of days now and so far think that it is a lot of fun. one problem that I am having is that from time to time the server connection drops and you have to wait a few minutes before you can play again. Also them damn leader boards scrolling up the right hand side of the screen is really annoying.

[Clown_Syndr0me]

I played 15 mins at EGX and can imagine it is a very very repetitive game. I kind of felt like I'd done everything in that time.
Anyone that actually played it properly feel the same or is it worth picking up?

[TKCMuzzer]

Not really, you have to progress to unlock better vehicles and equipment etc, which changes the way you play it. What your saying could actually be said about the vast majority of games released.

[MookaTek]

I already have this downloaded and ready to go for Tuesday morning. I get off work at 3:30am that morning and will play it until bedtime, and I'm also working only a half-shift Tuesday night so I can play it all night until I have to go to bed Wednesday morning.

I have been anticipating this game since about four hours into Just Cause 2 and I can't imagine why this game isn't garnering more heat on this site. The Just Cause series is video gaming defined. Just pure fun.

Well, I feel like I've been out of touch in the gaming industry for a while now what with all the resolution talk, "cinematic experiences", a frame-rate drop being considered a "game-breaking bug", and slang such as "Ubishit", "Shitbox Done", and "Sony Pony."

So I can't say I'm all that surprised that a game that is simply a game, and that focuses on pure fun is overlooked. Oh well. They have my cash, and I can't wait to do what I've always done with video games: Have fun.

[Kinger8938]

I think this review will be on the higher scale of what comes when the actual embargo lifts, just cant see it being as good as this review seems to suggest

[dillhole]

I'm amazed people can play through an entire 100 hour game literally a few hours after they got it. It's almost as if they played for an hour or so and just reviewed that.

I could be even more cynical as to suggest that I see no information on here that I haven't seen on other sites and that the reviewer may not have even played the game. That's just me being cynical though. I get like that when an unknown site breaks embargo and posts a review a week before anyone else. And let's be fair, it happens every single time.

[LoveSpuds]

I have spent the last 2 days playing the heck out of JC3 and I can honestly say its the most fun I have had with a game this year.

While the likes of Bloodborne, Witcher and Fallout 4 offer deep and involving experiences this game delivers something different, a completely bonkers and funfilled experience. This game is just fun to play and is a real palate cleanser after all the heavy games that have released this year.

[MikeOxonfyre]

It would be great if the gunplay was like Max Payne 3's....that game had excellent, fun, responsive gunplay... I find it hilarious that Gear Of War is the 1st game mentioned for good gunplay, when the game's gunplay is bettered by several other 3rd person shooters, including Max Payne 3.