AC6: Random Video Game Series Review - Just Cause

We've looked at the Hitman, Tomb Raider and Deus Ex games so I thought its time to look at another franchise from Square Enix's western developers (though Hitman only counts as it was part of them for a while before its developer became independant) of which they bought following their takeover of Eidos Interactive. So in that regard, today's series is Just Cause a series of games about various different factions trying to take over very small nations. The player plays the character of Rico Rodriguez (voiced by Robin Atkin Downes in 1-2, Kevin Collins in 3 and [insert name here] in 4) who in each games is tasked with taking down a soon to become dictator who is known to be a threat to the world and does this by basically blowing s**t up and anything else he can muster up. They are pretty big but fun games so let's get to it:



Just Cause

In the first game, Rico who works as an agent for an organisation called the Agency, is sent to a tropical Caribbean Island called San Esperito and must take down its dictator Salvador Mendoza (voiced by Fred Tatasciore) who has been reported to have access to weapons of mass destruction. So the game has Rico work with his fellow agents and those who rebel against Mendoza as well as some kind of drug cartel. Its an open world game with Rico being a capable fighter with guns, fists and other weapons. He can drive almost any vehicle that's thrown his way, he can perform stunts and can pretty much do most of the activities that later Far Cry games would use in their games. As with most non-linear games, players can progress through the story at their own pace while also taking on various side missions and liberating people from Mendoza's control and taking over drug cartel bases. So this series is known to have the best version be on PC and for most of the series, that is indeed correct. There are console versions out there definitely, but for the sake of graphics and customisation, PC is the way to go. The first game has a few technical issues which were only ever addressed on the PS2 version, but its not as bad as most games that are released nowadays where it takes the first couple of months before all the bugs have been fixed. Its a fun game with plenty to do. But the technical issues may spoil the experience. Though that being said, its been over ten years since this game came out so many of those issues will likely have since been resolved. 8/10

2

So following how the first game played out, the developers sought to have the next game be an improvement over the first. They went about this by adding things that were missed opportunities in the first game and address the many bugs the first game had. Four years have passed and Rico is on his next mission which this time is set in Panau and the dictator is a man called Pandak "Baby" Panay who Rico and the Agency believe that his handler Tom Sheldon (voiced by Vincent Marzello in this game only) has sworn allegiance to and therefore has gone rogue (though this is later proven to be false). As he investigates, Rico discovers that there is a massive oil reserve of which Russia, China and Japan have been interested in for a while which could put Panau in danger of being overrun with those nations. As with before, the game is open world and lets you take part in three different types of missions; Agency missions will progress the story, stronghold missions will let players take down bases and liberate them and faction missions are just missions that let Rico help the games three factions advance in taking over Panau. As with some games, most missions require a certain amount of actions done in order for them to be active. Along with the missions, players have a big open world map to explore with plenty of things to do such as race challenges and exploring settlements among other stuff. Players are once again given an array of weapons and vehicles to use over the course of the game and also get a chance to have those things delivered via some black market shopping. This is also the first game of the series to introduce the grappling hook which not only can pull Rico somewhere, but can also be used to flip road vehicles, pull down helicopters and so on. Again the PC version is the best version, but I'd say the console versions are almost on par with the PC version as far as how much better the game is compared to its predecessor. Some can argue that it may even be more superior to other open world sandbox games due to its urban environment and the use of the grappling hook of which I agree but would also say those games are great too. This one is definitely worth a play though for sure. 9/10

3

Six years after the last game, Rico returns to his home Medici which has fallen victim to its dictator General Sebastiano Di Ravello who rules with a military iron fist. As usual, Rico teams up with the rebellion and goes about freeing his people from Ravello using whatever it takes to do just that. Almost largely the same gameplay as before with improvements on graphics, weapons and use of the grapple hook and parachute. New to the series is a wingsuit which allows for faster gliding as well as tethering in which players can use the grapple gun to pull things towards them or somewhere else. There is also an infinite supply of C4 but only three at a time can be used. Also currency from previous instalments is non-existent which makes for more accessible supply drops especially if you are in a pickle. Chaos is a massive feature in this game as you get a variety of things to destroy and a variety of ways to do so. And supply drops add more customisation this time as you get what you want instead of random stuff. While multiplayer is not included this time around, there are still leaderboards and challenges to take part in. Overall, this is possibly the best of the series at the time of its release. It vastly improves and upgrades many aspects that the last game had and has a huge empathise of blowing s**t up. A fun game definitely worth playing just as long as you get over some of the many bugs the game has and have a working Internet connection. Sorry for those who don't have those luxuries. 9/10

4

In a change of pace for the series, Rico travels to Solis to bring an end to the Black Hand said to be the world's most powerful private army and have previously worked with two of the three dictators that Rico put down. The game brings with it several elements from the last game and with it we have some new forms of tethering such as rockets and balloons. Also as the many promotional material have shown, the game also takes advantage of weather based weapons in which Rico can unleash things like tornadoes, storms and the like. While not much else to say other than those things, its possibly the most epic and fun game of the series just because of the extreme weather things. Graphics can be improved upon and some enemies end up being more stupid than others. But a fun game nonetheless with plenty to do as always including things like performing stunts, freeing prisoners and so much more. 9/10

So I guess you could say that this series is like doing your very own Michael Bay film as most will have lots of explosions to do and some do feel like following a one trick pony of the hero going against a dictator to take him down which I'm glad they did something different for the fourth game. But other than that, a very fun series that is definitely up there as being one of the best stress relievers in gaming. 9/10