Just Cause is arguably the most fun 3rd person shooter just out of the sheer absurdness and perverted nature of the game itself. Your tether now has a lot of mods which you are able to add on so you will find much more ways to ruin things in this game. There’s something simply oh so satisfying in blowing a giant gas canister by tethering a plane to it and having the plane shoot to the canister making the most epic explosion in any video game that I can consider. It appears like it’s having a seizure. Great ol’ fashioned fun in a video game, and that’s exactly what many other contemporary games lack; the overall enjoyment factor. At its core, this game is a great deal of fun. There’s really no story, just go out in the world and wreak havoc. I explained Just Cause in my JC3 review as the game we all dreamed of having and playing back into the 90’s’. ‘No real purpose except to just ruin everything in sight’. And that’s exactly what Just Cause is. However, it’s flawed.
The game is naturally repetitive. It is fun at first as I’ve stated, but it does get old quickly. The wingsuit struggles are back (and are simpler today, thank god. JC3’s wingsuit challenges were infuriatingly hard), speed challenges and then there are such tomb challenges (a clear nod to Square Enix’s other series, Tomb Raider) in which you have these brief little mystery challenges to find out. Nothing crazy, but they are great for a quick change of pace.
The controls are extremely good and texture really fluid. You may easily switch from the grappling to the parachute to the wingsuit and again and it makes traversing the world fun. The gunplay and tether system can be very nice and simple to control. I believe like the automobile mechanics are improved. The automobiles are easier to handle. I understand that was a big complaint with the last Just Cause. Apparently, this sport was built onto a whole new engine and it almost doesn’t feel like it anyhow when you examine the graphics.
The graphics are pretty dreadful. Most of the time, the game is so disorderly that you’re not even paying attention to the graphics and they make no difference to the core gameplay itself. But in the event that you just quit and pan around with the camera as you’re standing still. Oh my, this match is a blurry, pixelated mess. But like I said, you only really notice it if you’re standing still and this game is not Red Dead Redemption 2 and you are not standing still very often. You’ll most notice it during cutscenes which are just poor in general (it is Just Cause after all, it’s not assumed to have a good story or engrossing cutscenes) but the cutscenes look like in early PS3/late PS2 game and that’s no exaggeration.
I mention graphics last because I am not one to obsess visuals as much. It is completely aesthetic and does not affect the gameplay itself therefore I don’t care as much about it. Other people (especially today) who are obsessed with graphics and performance might have a severe problem with this and are having a significant problem with it merely judging by other early reviews of this game. I am sure they will patch it to make it seem better. JC3 looked fantastic but I recall it having some serious frame rate drops to the point where the match becomes a slideshow. I really don’t know if they ever fixed that but something like this does hamper the gameplay experience. Luckily, JC4 doesn’t have that but they severely downgraded the images to compensate within this new engine.
It improves in some regions over JC3 while downgrading in other areas. I like all the alterations they introduced into the tethering system and the improved physics to allow to let more craziness and imaginative destruction which is always excellent. I also enjoy the enormous and diverse map. I really don’t like the gameplay is still pretty stagnant and repetitive and the images could definitely be improved. Another way to describe how I feel about this game is the fact that it’s a 5/5 match for approximately 30-40 minutes. Extremely fun for short bursts but it gets old quick.