Tuesday, April 13, 2010

My thoughts on a game I bought last month

I've been playing "Just Cause 2" for about three weeks now and well am still enjoying it I'm finding the game to have more cons than pros. You do have a grapple hook, and those are always fun, that you can use in conjunction with a parachute for an entertaining form of travel. There is a very big really good-looking environment to travel across said parachute and grapple hook. And the whole game was built around mischievous espionage via blowing things up. What's not to like?


Wile "Just Cause 2" is fun most of the time there is a good deal not to like: weapons are very ineffective until upgraded, the controls while on foot are sometimes bad, the controls for vehicles are really bad, there's an obligatory upgrade system tied to fending collectibles, finding these hidden collectibles just to "earn" an effective weapon, you will almost always respawn somewhere far away if you die, few missions make good use of the game's unique features (or encourage the player to use them), some of the missions or VERY frustrating, and it has a story so bad it makes "Family Guy" look like Monty Python.

That last one bugs me the most, Avalanche Studios (the game's developer) clearly did not try to make the story enjoyable. Of course most people would tell me "why would you complain about the story in a game lol". My response is of course "why would you passively accept something as bad when it can be better". I'm beginning to think that "Just Cause 2" missed his calling as a political spoof.

At least that's what I thought until I reached the end of the game where it is revealed that I've been destabilizing a fictional Southeast Asian nation so that America can get more oil. And that China (who are badly stereotyped), Japan (who also badly stereotyped) and Russia (same as the last two) are using terrorist factions to claim the oil. And the dictator of the games island nation is a mad scientist bent on using the oil to control the wall. I realize that the game's story is beyond redemption and anyone who buys this game better off ignoring the, kindly marked, missions that advance this despicable tale of American imperialism.

But hey, if you want a game where you can jerk around and cause all the trouble you want I guess it isn't so bad.


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