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Just Cause is a title that’s never been afraid of
making bold statements, yet the title didn’t even enter the
public’s-eye with any conviction until just weeks before the
game’s launch. Eidos have  been expecting big things for the title
– especially considering the poor sales peak obtained by their
other underground-hit-to-be, Urban
Chaos: Riot Response. However, if Just Cause manages
to deliver on just a handful of it’s promises, they just might be
on to a winner this time.
What would be considered the boldest of Just Cause’s
boasts would be it’s grand scale and Free-Roaming environment. The
title features a small group of islands, some only a small stream
apart, but each with a wealth of variety. Small towns, beaches,
outposts, jungle terrain and a couple of cities all create a vast
array of gameplay opportunities and consequences. The scale of the
Map is as impressive as the Press Release’s claims, with plenty of
scope of exploration. But it’s with this key element that the
games biggest flaw also lies; Save Points are limited to the
unlockable Safehouses – also used to recharge your Energy Meter
and restock ammo – and upon completion of Story Missions. While
the game allows player’s to continue upon death, any progress made
in researching locale will obviously be lost, if not Mission
Progress. For a title which offers such an incredible sense of
freedom, it’s incredibly restrictive.
The “freedom” of the title is tangible. Most of the Story
Missions hinge around several basic objectives, although are often
dressed-up in a variety of guises. The simple reason that these 
Story Missions are limited isn’t a so much problem as more a
distinctive gift for crafting open-gameplay decisions for the
player. Every
Mission
in the game is flexible enough to incorporate every asset in the
game; cars, helicopters, the stealth-approach or an all-out
run-and-gun technique. Should you wish to change tactics between
Missions, you are absolutely welcomed, often encouraged. While there
are simply loads of Takeover Missions, Liberation Missions and
seemingly infinite Side Missions, the Story Missions, unfortunately,
are limited to only twenty-one; more than enough for the average
gamer, but the experienced will fly-through in around eight hours.
The other Missions provide plenty of opportunity to expand on
the gameplay within the Story Missions, with the Liberation Missions
being particularly enjoyable, however, the Side Missions themselves
are often merely the usual dressed-up pizza delivery-esque Missions
seen in most Free-Roaming games, including the recent Saints Row
and the denoted father of Free-Roaming games, the Grand Theft
Auto series.
The weapon variety is very pleasing, at all times Rico is
armed with Twin-Pistols with infinite ammo, however a large range of
Automatics, Shotguns and even a Rocket Launcher are available from
near-enough the offset. The vehicles are also a pleasing feature –
one that has also been touted much by Eidos – as the player is
able to obtain cars, trucks, 4x4’s, bikes, helicopters, jets,
bi-planes, hovercraft, boats and  jet skis, amongst many others. The
variety of vehicles on offer is simply beyond comparison with any
other title to date; keeping perfectly in-line with the grand array
of environment types.
Just Cause also shines graphically. There isn’t a
solitary feature that could be singled-out as excelling, however,
the Draw-Distance is stunning and the Flame Effects are beyond
belief. Each Character Model has been developed very well, with
particular attention having been paid to believable animation – a
trend that hasn’t been carried through many recent Xbox360
releases such as Enchanted Arms and Samurai Warriors 2,
although the latter title is evidently stuck in it’s previous
generation roots, much like the release earlier this year of the
title’s sister series; Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires. It
would be a bold statement to say that Just Cause is the best
looking title currently available on the Xbox360, but it certainly
would be absolutely inaccurate to state that it wasn’t at least in
the running for such an elusive title.
The sound quality of the title is also of a decent standard.
Many of the characters Speech Samples are humorous and varied,
however, the less-important (if not less frequent) reoccurring
characters such as Police Officers  and members of the Montano Cartel
are inherently limited in their vocal offerings. The Score has taken
a key from the classic GoldenEye 007 and, while it may now
have become commonplace for a title to change the music in-keeping
with the style of gameplay at hand, none have done it as with as
much attention to detail or as charismatically as Just Cause.
Just Cause is a triumph. A title in which every bold
statement made has actually come to fruition; each announcement has
been based-upon fact, as opposed to wishful thinking. Further to
this, not only has Just Cause delivered, but it does it with
a certain panache. Not much has come close to offering you an
experience in which you genuinely feel like the world’s
greatest Super-Spy, but more than this, no other titles with
the same Mission Statement have been able to do it with such a
cognitive sense of freedom – a genuinely open playground or the
player to fight through however the players feels is best,
either during Missions or simply when Free-Roaming.
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