The gaming community bestowed generally excellent reviews upon “Just Cause 3”, a sandbox style third-person-shooter game developed by Square Enix and
Avalanche Studios. The game was praised for its highly destructive terrain following its December 2015 release. Despite this, Just Cause 3 is also branded as having a severely underdeveloped storyline.
The story unfolds with protagonist Rico Rodriguez returning to his home on the island of Medici, only to find it under the tyrannical control of General Di Ravello. Di Ravello is an evil dictator with a fearsome plot for total world domination. The game struggles to engross players in the conflict between Rodriguez and Di Ravello but the real meat of the game lies in potential for mass destruction.
The game’s goal is blatantly obvious: chaos. With some exceptions, each item in the game has the potential to be part of Rodriquez’s destruction as he fights to defeat the Di Ravello. Rodriguez is equipped with a slew of weapons that make him irrationally powerful to a fault, such as unlimited C4 explosive and several powerful rocket launchers. Levels of possible destruction are limited only by the player’s imagination: more and more chaos is required to progress in the game.
As with all sandbox games, character interaction within the world is a major point of interest. Rodriguez has several abilities from operating an array of vehicles like cars and airplanes, as well as a handy assortment of gadgets that can be used to increase destruction.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x1q7wY0koE&w=560&h=315]
One of my personal favorites is the fixed wingsuit accompanied by a deployable grappling hook and parachute. This allows players to bring Rodriguez to full speed, fling him upward using the grappling hook, then blast off in the wingsuit. It is a fun and fast experience.
Just Cause 3 is really designed for players interested in blowing off some steam, as it allows players to do anything they want. While this style of gameplay is interesting and amusing, the story falls short of engaging players interested in pure destruction. I personally logged more than 25 hours on Just Cause 3 and I promise that it was time well spent.
