Just Cause 3 Reviews
Just Cause 3 provides a ton of thrills. Its main goal from the outset seems to focus on raising the player's blood pressure and enthralling them with the action. While it achieves that feeling for a majority of the game, the console version suffers from some serious frame rate and loading issues that bog down their experiences. That being said, Just Cause 3 is a great game to simply sit down and have fun with. Turn your brain off, relax, and embrace the explosions happening on your television screen.
If you want to cap a relatively serious year of gaming off with no-brain-required explosive fun, it's difficult to look past Just Cause 3.
As for the much talked about framerate drop, I was expecting for the game to be unplayable with plummeting framerates and glitches. Turns out that the framerates were mostly fine except when things got seriously chaotic.
Imagine a roller coaster that stops for maintenance every 30 feet and doesn't allow you to exit, even after you've already been around the track a few dozen times.
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 delivers a series of systems that are solid on their own, from the ability to grapple around without any limits to the new options opened up by the wingsuit, and manages to mix them to deliver impressive results.
Just Cause 3 is an absolutely functional, totally pedestrian sandbox game which just so happens to launch at a time when the old models of open-world structure and design feel more overused than ever. Every standard issue, familiar mechanic and conceit is present here – if we needed one more argument for a new type of sandbox, one that doesn't prioritise or even feature the tropes and clichés we've come to expect, this is it. It's fine. It's there. It's benign. Even if you haven't played it, you've already played it.
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.]
Together, Mad Max and Just Cause 3 demonstrate that Avalanche is great at making games feel great. If it could just make the stories and gameplay less dull and repetitive, it'd have an all-timer on its hands. Because god damn - at its best, this game really is that much fun.
Despite the technical problems – which need to be sorted out quickly, really – we've had a terrifying amount of fun with Just Cause 3. The freedom enabled by this game is second to none, and the island of Medici offers plenty of opportunities for creativity – or, of course, explosions. The campaign may have some low points, but attacking bases and liberating towns is some of the best fun that you'll find on the PS4 this year.
The VerdictJust Cause 3 is a great game. It's a fantastic game even. The few nitpicks I had with Fast Travel and Supply Drops are issues I was willing to overlook. But I can't in good conscience recommend this game to anyone at the moment, not while the performance issues are so bad.
Just Cause 3 is consummately shallow then, but were you expecting anything else? It's brash, it's in your face, and it's lacking in a driving narrative. But it's one of the few ways to connect with that childhood feeling of getting a new toy, and just messing around with it in every conceivable way. And for that it can't really be faulted. Just Cause 3 shows no pretensions of being a game changer or attempting to advance videogames as an art form. It's about bombastic explosions, hilariously unintended consequences, and seeing what happens when you drop your brand new toy from a fourth-floor window.
After a few hundred times, even the most fantastic version of blowing something up gets tiring. It's an appealing action because it isn't complicated, but the least complicated thrills become banal far more quickly than complex ones. Just Cause 3 is engaging because it gets the first half of this so fully.
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.
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.
In spite of some technical setbacks and repetitive tasks, Just Cause 3 delivers the kind of stress-relieving destruction to get you through the doldrums. It's easily the best looking game of the series thus far, and the awesome gameplay will have you continue to think up ways to bring down enemies. You're due a holiday vacation, and Rico's trip will certainly fulfill the need.
The additions of the wingsuit, dual tethering grapple hook, unlimited C4 and regenerating health system are all fantastic additions that would've made Just Cause 3 a breakout game in the franchise, if not for the dull story, repetitive story missions and technical issues ranging from long load times, to poor framerate and to constant disconnections for a single player only game.
When all is said and done, the overall direction of Just Cause 3 is certainly a positive one. Avalanche Studios set out to build an enjoyable title that gamers can truly experiment with. I have to admit, I sunk more of my time into jumping out of airplanes and blowing stuff up than I did with the actual missions. Rico's character perfectly complements that fun and creative atmosphere as he feels like an action hero that breezes through the Mediterranean with an arsenal of weapons and a bulletproof chin. The game does have its glaring flaws in the atrocious shooting mechanics, repetitive main missions, and turtle-like loading screens. However, the title definitely shines where it needs to, and Just Cause 3 might very well be the most underrated title of 2015 - this is one wild, testosterone-infused adventure you'll want to check out for yourself.
Just Cause 3 is truly a one-note experience, but one with a loop so addictive I can't stop playing it. This is the most fun sandbox I have toyed around in since the previous entry, and I can easily see myself sinking another couple dozen hours exploring the world of Medici. Those that found JC2 underwhelming or repetitive won't find much to change their mind here, but for fans like myself that simply can't get enough destruction, Just Cause 3 delivers on all levels.
If you are willing to overlook the long load times, frame drops, and occasional graphic pop-in, you will find a highly enjoyable game. Just Cause 3 has its problems, but it's so damn fun you may not even care.