Just Cause 3 Reviews
The explosions are amazing, and it's fun in short bursts, but Just Cause 3 is ultimately an unremarkable, shallow experience.
Just Cause 3 is a playground where you get to be a physics-defying force of destruction, and its loop of liberating dozens of towns across this enormous scenic world would've gotten old much quicker if the combat wasn't so full of options for free-form mayhem. Getting the most out of it requires some creativity and tolerance for performance bugs on your part, so come expecting to make at least some of your own fun. It's a damn shame so many performance problems and punishing load times keep cropping up [on the PS4 and XB1 versions], because I love what Just Cause 3 does. But for game that's so heavily dependent on action to run this poorly is no laughing matter. [OpenCritic note: Dan Stapleton separately reviewed the PC (8) and PS4/XB1 (5.9) versions. Their scores have been averaged.]
Just Cause 3 may suffer from bugs and lengthy load screens, but it still offers an over-the-top action experience that is more fun and exciting than most summer blockbusters.
A bombastically enjoyable action game with serious performance issues gets spread too thinly over a vast map.
A chaotic action romp, tragically let down by repetition and padding. There's fun to be had, but all too little variety in its huge open world.
Blowing up everything loses its anarchic thrill after several dozen times, but it's still a blast
Just Cause 3 is a stunning display of cause and effect, despite weak story missions and occasional technical problems.
If you can judge a game based on the moments that make you put it down for the night, Just Cause 3 is hard to criticize: I only stopped when I needed to sleep, not because I wanted to put the game down. The "did you see that?!" factor seems unlimited here, and it kept me coming back to discover what unexpected domino of explosions I could start next with a single grenade. The formula of the Just Cause series hasn't been expanded, but it has been improved. And it's rare that a game is so comfortable in its own skin.
Rico's third adventure stays the course, but at least this course involves slingshotting cows off of cliffs.
Enjoyable enough to make up for its manifold flaws, but technical issues hold it back.
The adjective "ridiculous" has been used several times in this review as it's the most apt available. Just Cause 3 is a ridiculous, over-the-top experience that wants so hard for you to blow it up. Playing around its 400 square miles, it's almost as if the game can be heard yelling "OH MAN, THAT WAS SICK" in the background. It's hard not to feel like a complete badass as you fly around the island dropping grenades and vaulting enemies into the air; in fact, you basically have super powers.
It's a triumph of a game despite some flaws, and certainly one of my peak gaming moments of 2015. Bright, cheerful, ridiculous, and most of all, absolutely determined to ensure you have fun.
Just Cause 3 offers the tantalizing tease of a terrific open-world adventure, with weapons and tools that make blowing up the bad guys hilarious fun. The wide maps and great selection of missions, although fairly repetitive, means you always have something engaging to look forward to. Unfortunately, technical problems ranging from serious connection issues to NPC failures make the game nearly unplayable at times, and if the bugs don't drive you insane, the loading times will.
An open-world fill of exquisite explosions that, while often falling afoul of flaws, might well contain some of the most fun moments this year.
Frustrating controls, a bland world, and various technical issues stop Just Cause 3 from being the mindless action classic it clearly wants to be.
There are so few ways that this game could be a better version of itself, or better at what it does. Just Cause 3 is, from any way I care to think about it, a massive success.
Just Cause 3 is fun game to take photos, stream or make videos of you doing something amazing since its "no-rules approach" to combat can create some uniquely stellar action scenes.
Annoying as I found these technical hitches they hardly deterred me from creating new sequences of pyrotechnics. Perhaps, what that says about me is something that I don't want to think too hard about.
Just Cause 3 is a wonderfully constructed open-world, that successfully builds on its predecessor's legacy with humour and aplomb. The key problem however is that at the moment there are too many technical problems which hamper play. You'll want to be wild and free, blowing everything to hell in a variety of ways, and so often you can be, but that only serves to emphasise those moments where Just Cause 3 struggles to keep up.
I'm sure you'll be seeing a ton of animated GIFs of Just Cause 3 for a while to come, due to all of the wacky things that can happen within the game. It truly is an insane, explosion-filled romp through a beautiful nation chock-full of cheeky humor. It provides some of the best open-world tools ever. This is definitely a case of "it is what you make of it," and for those with intrinsic motivation to make it the best will be greeted with just that.