Just Cause 3 Review (snoopymg1020)
Love this game just for it's sandbox shoot-em up. Just as a quick summary, you play as Rico Rodriquez in which you fight with a freedom force to free Medici from a dictatorial General Di Ravello and his army. That's essentially the whole plot of the game. But you don't play for a compelling and complex story, but more for the explosions and gun action, which I like. The open world is fantastic and you'll immerse yourself in it's chaotic and unpredictable nature.
Because it's a sandbox open world, you can essentially do what ever the hell you want. Wanna strap a bunch of rockets to people, vehicles or a cow? yes you can. Wanna skydive from a helicopter with a rocket launcher, blowing up towers and armor? yes you can. Wanna send enemies flying into the sky like a catapult? yes you can, with Rico's grapple hooks.
The intro of the game might feel slow at first and linear given that it provides a short tutorial on what you can do. You're given a grapple hook early in the game, and you're first objective is to liberate a nearby town. most towns have speakers, antenna's, billboards, forts, and other objectives that need to be destroyed in order to free the town. There's also a number of heavily armed fortresses that need to be liberated and disarmed (disarming their defenses is done through the story missions) throughout the map, progressively getting harder the further you move up north.
The great thing about the game is how you can approach these towns and enemy bases. There's no restrictions on how you can liberate a base or town, and thus you're given free reign on how you want to free it. The only limit is your creativity.
Destruction is done very well with JC3 and makes you feel like a heroic bad ass when blowing stuff up.
As you progress through the game, you can upgrade Rico and his grapple hook to be more powerful, taking on Di Ravello's forces as a one man army. However, your not alone in the battle; as you're assisted by AI allies who are rebelling against the same enemy.
Here are some of the PROS that I have with the game:
-Tanks and other heavily armed vehicles are designed nicely and feel weighty
-controlling Rico feels natural albeit some awkward walking (since there appears to be no sprint key-bind) when not using the grapple or wing-suit
-explosions and effects are beautifully rendered and half the game you're spent just looking at buildings explode and collapse
-guns feel pretty balanced and aren't a major issue I have
-the game excels in replay-ability
-Loved the radio guy, David Tennant. wish there was a mission where you could free him at the end.
A few CONS I have with the game
-AI in the game feels incredibly stupid, most of the AI usually never take cover when being fired at. Allied AI will often walk to their deaths into enemy fire. The rebels ability to aim is beyond horrendous as they will miss point blank shots at enemies and most often than not, you're the one who'll have to clean up the fight. They are next to useless and are 99% of the time used as cannon fodder.
-Civilian vehicles, you almost never use except out of necessity.
-Tedious challenges and collectibles (I know, some people like this stuff and do it for the 100% completion. However, personally I see it as game padding)
-The towns start to feel repetitive and tedious to the point where it feels more like a job just liberating the last remaining ones on the map.
-The actual war missions part of the game feels too rushed and short.
What I would personally love to see in the game:
-the option to customize Rico and have different skins for him
-the option to have a personal vehicle that can be customized, either with having different paint jobs (Transparent images that could be added to a folder as well) or adding different exterior features like rockets, turrets, and armored plating.
-Reworked (improved) AI that can have more of an impact in their roles.
-maybe add a naval battle mission? (like entirely open waters, and Rico can grapple to different boats)
-option to add a continues war that works in real-time, meaning enemy bases can be captured by rebels and recaptured by enemies at the same time.
This may seem far-fetch or too big of a request:
-Add the ability for Rico to lead a squad or platoon of rebels to take enemy bases instead of random encounters.
Overall, this is one of my favorite open world shooters.
10/10