Sandbox Special

Just Cause 2

 

Well the first impression of this game wasn't the greatest, and it's still not even close to praise. The cut scene graphics are actually worse than the in game graphics, and have a definite unpolished feel to them. The in game graphics are good though, nice and clear and the contrast in the environment is good. The story also leaves a lot to be desired, and the voice acting is pretty poor almost to the point of being funny, so you can tell they definitely didn't spend the big money on that end of the game either, and the characters so far aren't very good either and I just don't find them all that interesting. So I can see where people that hated this game came from. Do I hate the game you might ask? Actually no, I'm not loving the game, but I do like it and I am finding it just plain fun, and even though I'm early on in the game I would still suggest it to you, but only if you are a big sandbox game fan. Why? Because the game map is just plain huge, and everything about the game so far is large or a lot. It's a procrastinator's dream game basically. So if you're not into that style of game then yes you will get bored, yes you will find it repetitive and yes you will most likely think the game is crap because of it's unpolished feel and generic story, and middle of the road characters. It's not top end, so if you're looking for pristine scenes, polished characters, dynamic controls and other top end features like an immersive and fantastic story then this game is not for you, don't even bother, you will hate it and you shouldn't even have picked up a Sandbox game to begin with.

 

Now on to the good stuff. First of all, it's HUGE!!! There is literally tons of things to do, I played the game for about 5 hours yesterday and it doesn't even feel like I touched the surface. Literally thousands of things to collect and destroy and discover. Over 100 different vehicles to drive alone. 370 locations to discover and complete (which I have only 4 done). Faction Missions, Agency Missions, and other various side missions and mini games. Tons of weapons, and upgrades for the weapons, and as I said earlier just plain fun. Once you get past the learning curve of the controls and figure out how to utilize cover without actually being able to "take cover" there is a lot of fun to be had. It's a sandbox game, and if they did anything right it was making a damn good one, so far the missions have been pretty varied, with a lot of information to unlock as well such as character profiles that are pretty interesting to read through even if the characters so far aren't all that interesting. Information about locations you have discovered, and just tons of stats, stats, and more stats as well. Everything is kept track of and you really do have some amazing combat and stunt options, along with some really impressive explosions that seem to be pretty unique to what you are blowing up and not the same explosion look for everything you blow up to create chaos.

 

I will be spending a lot of time with this game, like I said, I spent about 5 hours with the game yesterday and still have a lot to do, where with most games you could probably have it halfway done in that time. If you played GTA IV and thought that was huge, you'll still be shocked by this game. Although compared to GTA IV it is definitely graphically inferior. But as I said, I'm not impressed, or blown away by the game, but it's just plain fun and addictive the more you play it. So I won't be ranting and praising the game but I will be spending a lot of hours on it and will keep those of you interested up to date with some stats I compile at the end of my sessions now and then until I've completed this massive game I have stumbled onto. :)