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Just Cause Review
review
game: Just Cause
three star
posted by: Sean Hilliard
publisher: Eidos Interactive
developer: Avalanche Studios
ESRB rating: M (Mature)
genre:
platform:
keywords:
date posted: 03:41 PM Wed Oct 25th, 2006
last revision: 07:52 PM Wed Oct 25th, 2006


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Click to read.Who would have thought that parachuting out of a helicopter, latching onto a car and then jacking it after throwing out the owner would ever get old? Well in Just Cause, you\'ll find yourself yawning after doing it for the fiftieth time.

That\'s right, the simple joys in life, right down the tubes.

It seems like in Just Cause even the coolest stuff can be turned mundane. It\'s probably because you have to do the same stuff in every mission. And no matter how cool something is, when you\'re forced to do it over and over again, it will always turn to crap.

I mean, think about it, Just Cause is practically perfect on paper: You get to play as a blatant Antonio Banderas ripoff who is infiltrating a Latin American country to bring down El Presidente. You have a reusable parachute attached to your outfit for crying out loud! You use a grappling hook, can miraculously jump through the rotor blades on a helicopter and are basically immune to the laws of physics in general.

Maybe it would have worked out better if it just wasn\'t so over the top. I want my action to be more Michael Mann than Robert Rodriguez.

And everything in Just Cause is over the top. From your entrance to the country via parachute to the ability to instantly travel from one part of the island to another by helicopter, it just makes you question the developers\' image of a gamer. The average gamer is not going to appreciate Just Cause because the average gamer is more mature than the target audience for the game.

Give us some credit, please.

Gameplay isn\'t bad in Just Cause. The controls are slick and intuitive, although changing weapons in midair from a parachute can be a little tricky. But then there\'s the missions: the story missions and the side missions get really repetitive. You\'d think that with so many options for gameplay, like riding in boats, helicopters, planes and cars, you couldn\'t go wrong with variety.

You would think...

About halfway through Just Cause, I decided that if I had to complete one more item-collecting mission or \"jack this vehicle\" or \"kill this guy\" requirement, then I\'d puke. Of course, the game didn\'t let up, so naturally, my Xbox 360 controller is caked in ick. And it\'s tough cleaning those things, too. You can\'t just stick them under a faucet.

In Saint\'s Row you could only drive cars, but that still had better mission variety than Just Cause. Tragic, considering that game had some truly horrific lines being spouted out by the character you control and no parachute action at all.

And speaking of bad voice acting, Just Cause has it in spades. It seems like every character, from the one you control to the guys who give you missions, are awful. At least the one CIA lady is hot, but that\'s a small compensation and has nothing to do with voice acting.

But that point leads me to the graphics: They aren\'t exactly groundbreakingly good. They\'re very reminiscent of Far Cry Instincts, even down to the motion blur. Basically all you have in terms of environments is either jungle or buildings.

And that just doesn\'t cut it, much like a butter knife in a bad ? or even good ? zombie videogame, most of Just Cause is too little, too late. What begins as some innovative fun quickly becomes tedious and repetitive.

Just Cause? Just avoid it.

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