Just Cause

So I remember seeing this game when It came out but was busy with other sandbox games. Eventually I seen it on sale on GoG and got it. Trying not to compare to modern sandbox games, but even comparing it to other sanbox games at it's time it has interesting elements and in some ways it shines but in most ways it's subpar even for it's time/genre. The game is best described as.. janky.. not quite game stopping bugs but very unpolished in many areas. It starts off strong, you parachute in and killl some bad guys followed by a chase. But it quickly becomes cliche, mind numbing repetitive and with some fairly horrendous voice acting thrown in for good measure. It's like someone played GTA and then watched Desperado and said.. I got an idea. The game just feels low budget, or it was rushed, or both. Either way you'll find your self grinding away at repetitive missions or rinse and repeat taking over village/towns/hideouts. The game is still very playable though, the car physics are simple, and if there is a way to drive by / shoot while driving I sure couldn't figure it out. The ground combat however is actually not terrible, like wise the air combat is actually relatively easy with the lock on system although don't be picky at what it chooses to target first. The map was frustrating to use both the mini and the fullsize, getting anywhere without aircraft is painful.. lots and lots of winding hilly roads, dont' even think of walking, perhaps if you get really good with para gliding maybe but still slow, the towns are cookie cutter copy and paste with nothing interesting in them. I haven't beaten the game got about 3 hours into it, I may nibble at it from time to time but there are a lot of better sandbox games out there and I wouldn't generally recommend this.. It's not terrible it's "Just Alright" (I would have gave it 2.5 that was possible) BTW there is a wide screen fix on git hub.. just google: just cause wide screen fix pack

The sequels definitely deliver on the promise that this shows. But there is still a lot that this nails. Basically, imagine Grand Theft Auto if you replace almost all of the variety in it with more and bigger guns, military vehicles, etc. In this you’re essentially never doing anything other than violence and/or stealth. If your average GTA game is Michael Mann's Heat, then this is Arnold Schwarzenegger's Commando: bigger, dumber, louder, less character and depth, but really scratches that itch. The plot is basically an excuse for you to go around shooting people and blowing things up, but it absolutely owns it. There are some glorious moments of self-awareness. It really does deliver on using tanks, jets and the like. There are missions where you specifically are using them and they manage to make it challenging despite the armor and enormous firepower. I love the shamelessness of the infinite parachutes. I can't even begin to imagine how in real life one would even go about designing parachutes that so easily are deployed, discarded and then redeployed somehow, but it is incredibly fun. The rush of letting yourself drop far before you engage in the parachute is great. Some of the missions have incredible openness to them. There's a Prison Break where you can go in guns blazing using a heavy vehicle, you can sneak your way in with silenced weapons, or you can parachute into the area with the cells because it's that sort of prison - think Sona from Prison Break. The third person shooting is geared towards being fun first and foremost. They do quite well at that. The map has a lot of different areas for you to deal with keeping you engaged for a good amount of time. This is one of the few open world games that I chose on my own to play twice, not only once. If you are playing this to see how the franchise looked at the start, after playing any of the sequels, be aware a lot of the most fun stuff in those is not in this one. No wingsuit unlike the third one.

I feared the controls where gonna be hell, but they are actually very manageable. I have to use mouse and keyboard but it works fine. Game is goofy and the boats are fast as fuck.

I played Just Cause 3 had a lot of fun, so went back to play through the rest of the series. This first game however is very rough. The grappling mechanics are wonky and unsatisfying. The combat is very easy to the point of being brain dead. And the side missions are infinitely skippable. I say this having finished it last night. I am a big fan of 3 and so far am enjoying 2 but I cannot recommend the first one unless you're a completionist and collector.

Surprising and disappointing from GOG that this has no controller support. Yes I could try to remap the 60 different input settings but this seems like a no brainer patch, especially since this game was on consoles, and obviously did support controllers.