Just Cause 3 Reviews
Meet The Phantom Pain's disposable, delinquent cousin, dedicated to the art of blowing things up as loudly and as frequently as possible. Just Cause 3 doesn't have the depth or richness of the year's big open-world blockbusters, but it has a fantastic set of toys, some great destructible environments and a physics engine designed for maximum carnage. More importantly, it seems hell-bent on making sure you have a blast while everything goes bang. You'll love it, feel slightly guilty about loving it, but keep on coming back for more.
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.
Just Cause 3 doesn't hold too many surprises, particularly if you're familiar with the previous titles in the series. But it offers an almost unlimited number of ways to create your own flavour of mayhem, and is a source of constant "did you just SEE that?" moments. If the next Michael Bay movie features a dude hanging upside from a helicopter while blowing up a bridge with a missile launcher, you'll know where it came from.
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 understands what the essence of the series is – impressively chaotic sandbox action – and it duly provides mountains of it. Just don't expect too much from the story.
Just Cause 3 is genuinely fun most of the time, but it's the periods where its not that hurt it most. Add to that some mystifying design decisions around progression and upgrades, and you've got a game that attempts to go bigger than its predecessors while forgetting some of the elements that made them so good in the first pace. A fun, albeit flawed game.
Just Cause 3 lives up to the series' standard of high quality explosiveness by exhibiting just how a sandbox game should operate, with chaos and variety.
Just Cause 3 can be a rather fun game, but it's not the sequel we were hoping for. There are some very impressive things to be found within its large-scale and explosive quest, and on its insanely large world of Medici, but technical problems and dated mechanics hold it back from living up to its potential.
Why would I want to drive a car or shoot an assault rifle? I just dropped a tank out of a cargo plane and, while surfing on said tank, blew up a jet that was in pursuit with a rocket launcher.
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.
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.
Just Cause 3 is hardly game of the year material, and it knows it. The game constantly makes fun of itself, Rico has plenty of cheesy yet hilarious one-liners he likes to throw out while watching his exploding handiwork, and the NPCs constantly ask him how he does what he does. The game isn't meant to be deep or perplexing; it's meant to be fun and tap into that inner madman who just wants to make things go boom, and Just Cause 3 succeeds in doing just that.
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.
While Just Cause 3 offers more of the same action blockbuster excitement of its predecessors, it also doesn't do enough new to make it stand out from its contemporaries.
Tying all of this together are the beautiful visuals that stand in perfect contrast against the ugliness of corruption and the ash of flames. Just Cause 3 takes place in a fictional Mediterranean country and, just like you probably imagined, it is gorgeous.
Thanks to over-the-top game mechanics that encourage not just mayhem but also creative ways of unleashing them, the game can be a hoot to play for action lovers who have imagination and a sense of humor. Some parts are admittedly shallow and the game could use a more memorable plot. If you like campy action, however, Just Cause 3 is for you.
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.
Just Cause 3 is a big sandbox that lets you run around with a gun, a grappling hook, and a wing suit and blow up anything or anyone you want.
Just Cause 3 is purely an entertaining game; it’s not trying to tell a complex story with plot twists and deep characters. It knows it’s ridiculously over the top and it has fun with that. If, in your video games, you like explosions and causing serious amounts of destruction, you’re not going to find a better game this year to do so.