Just Cause

Written by James Dauer  on August 29, 2006

Hands-On Preview: Going hands-on with the demo might not give you a just cause to buy this game.

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Just Cause is out to wow you. Created by the up and coming development team Avalanche Studios, Just Cause is a mish-mash of popular sandbox titles seen through out the last couple of years. In fact, after having played through the demo, I would say the game feels quite a bit like Mercenaries meets the airplane and parachuting aspects of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. But does the demo do the game justice? I wish I could say yes, but if this is all Avalanche has to offer, we may be in for a disappointment.

First, for those who missed our earlier preview of the game, Just Cause thrusts players into the role of Rico Rodriguez. Rico is a Latin heart-throb mercenary sent to the corrupt island of San Esperito to stop an imminent threat to world peace and force the country to dismantle its WMD production program. Of course things aren't quite as clear cut as they at first appear. Much like Lucas Arts' Mercenaries, there are numerous factions around San Esperito that are all looking to get a piece of the power, and all are willing to take each other down in order to get it. The demo only shows us one faction of guerillas trying to overthrow the government, but it has been said that there will be more to come.

Just Cause will of course feature numerous vehicles. Everything from casual cars and planes to military tanks, jets, and helicopters will be at Rico's disposal. These cars all handled fairly well in the demo, but I was a little upset with the motorcycles. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't pop a wheelie on one. Also, the cars tended to over steer a little, which took some getting used to.

The game will feature a parachute, much like Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. However, while GTA's parachute was a one time use item, Just Cause makes much more use out it. Just Cause makes the parachute a more integral part of the game. While it is wholly unrealistic, Rico can control the parachute to retract once it has been released- sealing back into its pack and awaiting its release once more. This parachuting ability in conjunction with a special grappling hook that can lock on to darn near anything make for a great means of transportation across the island. See a car? Lock onto it and pull the parachute to parasail. Players can even parasail from vehicle to vehicle, getting them across town just that much faster. Sadly, the demo doesn't feature the grappling hook, so we were unable to try this feature out. However the parachute is a very fun item. It's great to take a plane, fly it as high as possible, then bail out and fall back to earth. When parachuting, if Rico gets near a vehicle, the game will prompt the player to land on top of the vehicle and commandeer it. This works great if a mission requires Rico take out a mobile enemy.

Rico is a completely insane stuntman and the vehicle work in Just Cause is what really makes the game cool. While GTA would let you hijack cars, then bail from the moving vehicle only to land face first on asphalt, Just Cause lets players leap on top of their moving cars and leap to other surrounding vehicles, or pull his parachute and glide around. If Rico is airborne in a plane, he can leap out and hold onto the wing, then either parachute back to earth, or leap to another nearby aircraft. All of this lets players get around the island just that much faster, and with relative ease.

As far as gunplay is concerned, Rico will find quite an interesting arsenal. Everything from handguns to RPGs (rocket propelled grenades for those less military inclined). Rico starts out with twin handguns that are given an unlimited amount of ammunition- something that is very welcome in this game. The shooting works a lot like Max Payne with the familiar 3rd person perspective with 1st person controls. Sadly, I didn't notice any special stunts or bullet-time like effects. Something that has become quite common in shooters these days. Basically the shooting just feels really dull. There is a lock-on feature that actually doesn't suck. Players just need to move the aiming crosshairs over an enemy, and voila, that enemy is now locked on. Actually, Rockstar North could take a lesson from Avalanche's targeting scheme. At least no one can complain about a glitchy lock-on system this time around.

One shouldn't scoff at the size of the game, either. San Esperito covers roughly 400 miles of virtual real-estate. Players can expect to be using aircraft quite a bit with so much wilderness to traverse. Also, much like GTA San Andreas, the game features no load times, so the environment will be constantly streamed from the disc- something much needed considering the fact players will be busy controlling Rico in mid-air. It really is something to soar up high above the island and see the entire thing free of load screens. Expectedly the game does have one initial load time when first starting the game, and it is a little lengthy, though not nearly as long as the Grand Theft Auto San Andreas load screen.

The game features 21 main missions that follow the initial story of Rico trying to clean up the WMD situation by removing one government official after the other. This is why the game feels like Mercenaries, however while in Mercenaries you got paid depending on how you took out the governmental leaders, Just Cause instructs you to kill them with haste. It's not overly creative, and it doesn't lend itself to as many options as Mercenaries, but I suppose when you're blazing after enemies in a high speed boat chase, the last thing you will be thinking about is slapping handcuffs on perpetrators. The game also features around 300 side missions giving gamers plenty of bang for their buck. The developers expect the main game to clock in at 20 or so hours. One problem with the demo I found was that missions tended to fail very easily and very fast. One in particular involved chasing down an airborne enemy. If Rico didn't make a straight bee-line for the supplied helicopter and go straight for the enemy, the mission would fail, and the demo would end. This got to be very obnoxious. Hopefully Avalanche will be a little more forgiving in the final game and not just pull the plug on more adventurous players as they have in the demo.

The visuals are very nice so far. The use of tropical colors is jaw-dropping despite the fact that the game features rather simplistic stylized character models. The game will look amazing in-motion in High Definition.