Just
Cause 3
Genre: Third-person shooter /
sandbox
Developer: Avalanche Studios
Publisher: www.justcause.com
Website: www.justcause.com
Price: $59.99
I
’ve loved the Just Cause series
since its very beginning. I
remember the first game being
a bit rough, but at the same time
it drove home some interesting
ideas and provided plenty of manic
entertainment. Just Cause 2 was
and still is one of my most-loved
open-world games, because
it presents you with a chaotic,
sweeping playground, removes
any and all barriers between you
and having a good time, and then
tells you to go nuts. Just Cause is
a franchise that understands that
it’s okay to let the player make
their own fun by simply presenting
them with a collection of wacky
mechanics and systems, and then
leaving them alone. Just Cause
3 sticks to that tradition, and
somehow manages to crank up the
craziness even more.
The game sees our hero Rico
Rodriguez – whose job it is to
expel A-hole dictators from their
positions of power using the careful
application of high-powered
explosives and tractors tethered
to fighter jets – returning to his
Mediterranean home of Medici,
where A-hole dictator General Di
Ravello is making a right mess of
things and turning the beautiful
islands of Medici into a warzone.
In order to set things right and
weaken Di Ravello, you’ll have to
make a right mess of things and
turn the beautiful islands of Medici
into a warzone, preferably using the
careful application of high-powered
explosives and tractors tethered to
fighter jets. See what I did there?
30 The OverClocker Issue 37 | 2016
Now, about the game’s story:
it’s not good, but I like it anyway.
I actually feel bad giving it a
hard time, primarily because the
narrative in a game such as this
can get away with being completely
perfunctory, but also because it’s
just so daft and it tries so damn hard
that it’s actually endearing. Also,
there’s a cow, and the cow gets a
kiss. I laughed. There is, however,
sometimes a weird disconnect
between the story’s cut-scenes
and what actually happens in
the missions between them. One
immediately springs to mind where
there’s supposedly an enormous
battle happening on the land and in
the air, but when the cut-scene ends
the situation is impressively calm.
It’s nothing major, but in the moment
it feels bizarre.
The story missions, meanwhile,
are functional but unimpressive.
Most of them amount to the usual
“go here, shoot things, blow stuff
up”, but they’re fun nonetheless.
A few of them actually border on
being memorable, purely because
the objectives within them are
so brilliantly silly – but these are