Posted by I finally beat Just Cause 4 today, so now I feel that I can do the game justice and adequately review it.
As I said in my other article, JC4 just abruptly starts with little context being given to the previous game, but looking back, I don’t think that JC3 had a serious narrative connection with JC2. Besides, while it may be a bit annoying and confusing, it could be worse. I have played other games that are far more confusing despite being standalone games. As for JC4’s narrative, the story focuses on liberating the South American country of Solis while taking down Oscar Espinosa and Project Illapa, which allows people to control the weather and can be used as a weapon of mass destruction . The story is fine but nothing really stands out.
As for the gameplay, it’s pretty good, but it does suffer from a few serious flaws. The biggest flaw in JC4 is how the map is liberated. I already complained about it in my other article, but I feel like bases and villages aren’t used to the fullest extent. I feel like the developer wanted to make the game less repetitive by making it so that in order to liberate a region, you had to complete a mission and take over a base in that region. However, this is actually more repetitive and not nearly as fun. Most of the time these missions boil down to find this specific object, interact with it, then defend a radar dish. And while it varies from mission to mission, they all still have the same basic pattern. I’ll admit that JC3 wasn’t the greatest thing ever when it came to combing a military base until you found the last fuel tank, but it was fun exploring the map and blowing up everything that you came across. JC4 really de-prioritizes these explosions and pushes this aspect of the game completely to the side, which totally wastes the most unique part about the Just Cause series (I think, I haven’t really played a whole lot of JC2 and I’ve never touched JC1). All in all, I feel like both map liberation systems do have their merits, but JC3 ultimately had the better system.
Something that I do like about JC4, however, is the expanded importance of the grappling hook. In JC3, it was just a transportation method that could also be used to make things collide. In JC4, it does both of these things, but it can also be used to make things fly with balloons or boost things. This can lead to some really funny shenanigans, as you can see below.
Honestly, JC4 is a lot of fun when you don’t take it seriously. The game is all about over-the-top explosions, ridiculous weapons, and having as much fun as possible. JC4 has some really crazy weapons, namely a lightning gun, a rail gun, and a wind gun. All three of these weapons are incredibly fun, but even the normal weapons are a ton of fun, especially the SMG and the slug shotgun. Something that JC4 does very nicely is its inclusion of alternate firing modes for the different weapons. For example, the normal assault rifle has a grenade launcher while one of the rocket launchers can lock on to targets. These alternate firing modes are great additions and really diversify the weapon pool, especially considering the fact that JC4 doesn’t have nearly as many weapons as JC3 did (14 vs. 24 give or take).
Another thing that I really like about JC4 is that it ditches the tedious mod system present in JC3. I felt that while the mod system was great in JC3, there were just so many challenges to complete that it was just too difficult to complete absolutely everything. Maybe some day I’ll go back and 100% the game, but it looks like JC4 will be far easier to fully complete. JC4 does have its fair share of side activities, but most of them are quite simple (i.e. drive *insert vehicle name here* through this ring). They aren’t too painful and I really don’t mind them.
Overall, Just Cause 4 isn’t a terrible game. It’s a decent game, but don’t go in with the expectations that it will be like Just Cause 3 but better, because it isn’t. Both games are good in their own ways, but Just Cause 4 does fall short of its predecessor. Still, Just Cause 4 is a fun game that I would recommend picking up, especially because it looks like a Just Cause 5 may be just around the corner. I give Just Cause 4 a 7.5/10.
Broad Scope Entertainment 