Hands-on: Just Cause 3
So many of us play video games to relax. You come home after a long, stressful day, and what do you want to do? If your answer was ‘blow up everything I physically can,’ then Square Enix and Avalanche Studios have you covered with the latest entry in the Just Cause franchise. Let’s get right to it.
The hallmark open-world, sandbox-style gameplay returns with streamlining and improvements in tow. While you’re free to explore the world and wreck everything in sight, you can also flow in and out of missions very easily; while roaming the world, I was able to stumble upon a mission, accept and complete it, and immediately return to free-roaming with nary a loading screen in sight. With this setup, it looks like you’ll have a lot of flexibility to quickly switch between story progression and chaotic, aimless destruction.
Of course, Just Cause loves when you embrace the latter, and this game lets you do more of that than ever. The more densely-packed map, which is sprawling and expansive in its own right, gives you more opportunities to cause mayhem and chaos without needing to travel as far to do so. You can also wreck major pieces of infrastructure, which leads to some of the game’s more spectacular moments; you never do forget the first time you take down a entire bridge simply because you felt like it. An improved mobility system means your parachute, grappling hook, and wingsuit are all easier to use, which means you can move around the map that much faster. I didn’t get to try this myself, but you can also call in new weapons and equipment via ordnance drops, giving you faster access to your favorite tools of destruction. Basically, all of this means you can blow up and destroy even more stuff in even less time, which is great as far as Just Cause is concerned.
It’s not perfect, though. I found clicking the right analog stick to zoom my weapon in a bit clumsy, and it made gunplay more of a chore than I expected. That said, we were using a PC with a controller attached, so I can’t speak to the default setup on consoles or whether the game supports remapping. In addition, there were times where I basically ended up stranded in the middle of bland, wide-open areas of the map, though I did see some people make creative use of the grappling hook and parachute to resolve this issue. Nevertheless, those odd moments can make the otherwise-frantic game feel a touch empty at times. I suppose the same can be said of most open-world games, but given how ludicrous and action-heavy this game is, I hope it keeps those moments to a minimum.
Again, I can’t speak to the quality of the graphics on consoles, but if your PC can support it, this game can look fantastic. Crisp textures, lots of environment detail, and some fantastic destruction effects make this a great-looking game – at least on high settings. For whatever reason, one of Square Enix’s setups had the resolution and quality settings noticeably pared back. Jagged outlines and murky, distant objects don’t do this game any favors, though at least the explosions still looked pretty nice. All things considered, though, Just Cause 3 will likely satisfy your craving for free-roaming, near-endless obliteration, though how much it provides beyond that remains to be seen.
Just Cause 3 comes out for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on December 1st.
