Just Cause

When I bought this game on GOG, I bought mostly out of nostalgia. I thought, hey, remember Just Cause? It was a pretty decent game. I played and beat it three times, first on the original Xbox, then on 360, and just now on PC. I never properly bought and kept a copy of the game, but I can see why. Something happened. I don't know if it's the PC version or if it was always... that. It did not age well. I'll get the good out of the way first. The graphics looked pretty good and I'm still impressed that some of the effects are all the way back in 2006. The trees especially look gorgeous. Some of the vistas look great, and the soundtrack is bopping when it plays very occasionally. The game is otherwise a jank piece of trash. It is VERY frustrating to play to the point where I was rushing to finish it as a side of effect of irritation at it. The game starts off fine enough, it's simple and easy, but the farther you go in the more it starts to crack. Between the wonky controls, the auto aim that gets in the way, the repetitive and simple environments and missions, the AI just spawning en masse. The game ends up being unfun. The sandbox isn't fun, the gameplay loop isn't fun, the presentation is muddy. The endearing simplicity of it comes to a fault, and it just ends up acting as a tech demo for its large environments and decent graphics. And I say decent. As said, some of it is downright beautiful, but presentation leaves something to be desired. The prerendered cutscenes are ugly as sin, the women look like creepy blow-up sex dolls whose clothes keep clipping through their bodies, but then so do the men. The story isn't even worth talking about, it's such a joke. I do not recommend this game beyond a curiosity purchase. It is functional, but I can see why it was left on the wayside and why I never kept a copy of this game. This is an okay game by 2006 standards and maybe I would give it 3 stars if it were better, but it is just simply too flawed for its own good.

Take the golden oldie 'Mercenaries Playground of Destruction' for PS2 or Xbox and swap out North Korea for a fictional Latin American tropical island. Well, that's the gist of 2006's Just Cause. Huge open world, jack vehicles, various mission types, lotsa side missions...you get the picture. Much like GTA3 for PC, Just Cause also has rock bottom hardware requirements so it'll run on anything from the past 15 years. Guaranteed to scratch that GTA or MPOD itch! The only flaw here is no multiplayer, but the single player is still a blast regardless.

It's an okay game that has a fun story, but this version is barely functional. The PC port was based on the original Xbox version rather than the 360 version, which means all of the 360's graphics and QOL improvements are missing. In addition, no widescreen support, no controller support, clunky controls, and overall frustrating gameplay that has aged quite badly makes this a very tough sell, even for the very very low price it sells for. If you can endure these flaws, you might find some value in this game, but overall I'd stay away from this one.

If GTA Vice City were on a tropical island it'd be alot like Just Cause. The sandbox gameplay, gigantic open world, plethora of vehicles and weapons, morally grey protagonist, mission variety, dark satire. All present in Just Cause. My only complaint is the vehicle handling can be iffy. I definitely forgive the graphics given the tech at the time (2006), which was standard for games on the PlayStation 2.