Just Cuase 2

Isn't everything more awesome if you attach a gun to it?

After watching The Expendables, my mind started to drift towards Just Cause 2.  Why?  Because the Expendables is Just Cause 2: The movie!

Just Cause 2 is the sequel to Just Cause, but don't worry, they aren't direct sequels.  They use the same characters and universe, but it doesn't take place right afterwards.  I would talk more about the original, but I know very little about it, so moving on.

The story of Just Cause focuses on Rico Rodriguez, an agent for the Agency(CIA).  He specializes in regime changes, taking out tyrants in third world countrys so the Agency can put in governments loyal to the USA.  Rico is sent to Panu to track down his friend and mentor, Tom Sheldon.  Sheldon was in the Asian island of Panua, investigating why the tyrant of Panua, Baby Panay, suddenly severed his ties with the USA.  However, Sheldon suddenly stopped communicating with the Agency, forcing the Agency to believe that he went rouge.  To find Sheldon, Rico will have to get in deep with the criminal elements of Panua.

Sound familiar?  Like, oh... Golden Eye?  The plot is every single James Bond film and action cliche put in a blender.  Which then exploded.  And it is AWESOME.  Whats great about the plot, is that it doesn't even try to take itself seriously.

This is exemplified by the characters, who are a bunch of stereotypes.  Although there are several, the prominent ones are Rico, Sheldon, and Baby Panay.  Rico is half James Bond, half Scorpion from Mortal Combat, and half awesome.  Sheldon is the American stereotype, also known as the Texan stereotype.  Baby Panay is...well...

Get your hands off my lucky charms!

Yeah.

Anyway, the island is huge.  And I mean HUGE, like 250 square kilometers of land or more.  Not only that, the environments are varied too.  Although most of it is jungle, some is a normal city, snowy mountains, and rocky deserts.  The villages and towns also change in appearance, in the mountains there giant Asian castles, and in the desert there vaguely Arabic.  That's not to say that only the towns are interesting, there's other stuff around the island, like ruins, wrecks, and dead whales.

Also, there's alot of vehicles here, 104 in total.  Most can be found driving around, and only a couple are found "hidden" all over the island.  The vehicles include cars, trucks, boats, bikes, helicopters, and airplanes, ranging from civilian to military vehicles.  The driving mechanics are also incredibly realistic, and by that I mean hard.  Most vehicles drive fine on roads, and even dirt ones, but off road, most civilian ones are nearly uncontrollable.  Most driving games have cars that turn on a dime, which isn't how cars work.  Even better, the airplanes act like cars that fly.  What I mean is that there's only four directional controls: up and down, and spinning the plane right or left.  It's hard to control the plane this way, but really fun and realistic.  However, it's almost impossible to shoot with them this way.

The weapons you have available are small, but the ability to choose a left and right hand weapon makes the selection seem larger.  You can call a helicopter belonging to the black market to drop off vehicles and weapons.  Here you can go to towns you already visited and upgrade the vehicles and weapons here.  You find weapon and vehicle upgrade parts in towns, and as rewards for completing missions.  

This sums up Just Cause 2 in one picture.

But what do you use these guns and vehicles for?  Well, the gameplay is this: Explosions.  Either causing them or watching them.  You see, to progress in the game, you need to blow things up, which causes Chaos, which unlocks missions and stuff on the black market.  However, this also causes heat, which will bring soldiers to try to kill you.  It's repetitive, but it's really fun.  

Well, there is one game mechanic that stops the repetitiveness.  The grappling hook, with 75 meters(247 feet!)of rope, which is just awesome.  You can pull people to you, cling to building, slingshot your way from danger, and leap from car to car with it.  Even better, you can dual grapple, which will link to objects together, so you can attach a soldier to a moving car, a plane to a statue, or a guy to an explosive barrel.  It's awesome.

The graphics are good, and the animations are excellent, especially considering that most game companys don't bother with them that much.  Also, as you get farther away, models become less detailed, instead of just disappearing.

If you always wanted to star in an action movie, play this game.  If you like shooters, play this game.  If you can turn off your brain for the duration of it, play this game!  Seriously, try it out.  It has a extremely good demo, expect for the time limit, and that can be deactivated with a pacth.