My Thoughts on Just Cause 4

Before I get into the review, I would like to apologize for my hiatus. I’ve been really busy with school the past few weeks, and it doesn’t help that I really didn’t have anything to write about. However, now that the Christmas season is starting to wind down, I should be able to resume my regular upload schedule. Now onto the review.

I really, really, really enjoyed Just Cause 3. I remember putting it down on my Christmas list a few years ago on a whim and when I got it, I had a ton of fun with it. Because of this, Just Cause 4 has some big shoes to fill, and it falls kind of short in a few aspects, but it does surpass its predecessor in others.

Starting with the bad, my biggest gripe about JC4 is the story. I hadn’t played any of the previous games, but I remember with JC3, the game did a decent job of introducing you to the characters and providing exposition. JC4 does none of this, and it really, really should. JC4 has A LOT of implied context. At the beginning of the game, you are introduced to Mira Morales, who is helping Rico Rodriguez (the main protagonist) take down Oscar Espinosa and the Black Hand. I have no clue who Mira and Espinosa are. The game just jumps right into the action, and while this isn’t a bad thing (JC3 did the same thing), it still needs to provide context. These two characters are first introduced in JC4, but again this isn’t a bad thing per say. All of the issues that JC4 suffers from concerning the story all stem from the fact that there is no prior context given. Something clearly happened between JC3 and JC4, but you never know what. Maybe there was a trailer or something that I missed, and if that’s the case, that’s not a good thing. A game should have its story in the game, not as a part of external media.

My second major gripe with JC4 is the progression. I loved JC3 and how you conquered different regions of the map. In JC3, you would take over provinces by dismantling all of the enemy bases and cities located in each area. JC4 completely ditches this for a far worse system. In JC4, you travel around the map causing chaos and filling a bar in the top right corner of you screen. When this bar is filled, you gain a new squad in your army of chaos. You use these squads to advance you control of the map. My biggest issue with this system is that it takes some of the fun away that goes with destroying things. JC3 and JC4 both have amazing explosions. Explosions are a primary feature of these games, but in JC4 they seem to be pushed aside and I really don’t like that. What’s the point of having so many destructible objects if they aren’t properly used?

However, JC4 does do a lot of things very well. For example, all of the different cars that you can drive have multiple radio stations that you can listen to. It’s such a minor detail but it’s so great. Another cool addition is the introduction of secondary firing modes on the different weapons. There’s an assault rifle that has an under-barrel grenade launcher. There’s a grenade launcher that can also fire all of its grenades in one single burst. There’s even a gun that shoots lightning. It’s the little things that JC4 does that really blow me away. It’s also nice that the game has dynamic weather, like tornadoes and thunderstoms, that genuinly effect your character.

JC4 also gets rid of the awful mod challenges that JC3 introduced. Well, not all mod challenges were awful but they were a rather irritating inclusion, especially for a perfectionist. In JC4, you unlock mods by just playing the game, and you only use mod points to upgrade and customize the grappling hook. At first I didn’t know how I felt about the customizable grappling hook, but it’s definitely a feature that I like.

However, I’m really not very far in the game, so these are all just my first impressions. I’ll probably revisit this game in a later, more polished review, but as of right now I wanted to at least share my initial thoughts. I am enjoying Just Cause 4 a lot right now, and I can’t wait to see what else it has in store.