Just Cause 4: Dare Devils of Destruction Review (Natjo)
Tl;dr:
Just Cause’s poor physics mess up races, too similar levels, not intense, sweet new cars (main draw), cool art style in cut scenes and art direction for nighttime levels, new island to explore. Generally began to feel like a nice-looking chore.
Note: I call this a racing game a bunch of time because I can’t think of a better word. It isn’t. It’s racing against the clock if anything.
Generally, I like Just Cause. It’s a darn good series. While JC4 wasn’t the best it wasn’t horrible and I in fact liked it. I understood why people didn’t like it (trying to tie story to everything and restricted the player in a sandbox game) I saw it for the moments I really enjoyed: the fast-paced action intensive heart racing badass simulator.
Dare Devils is none of that. Even I hate it and I can explain why.
First of all, the driving in Just Cause is fine. Not the greatest thing in the world but it’s fine and manageable. But the guys who say JC isn’t known for its driving is completely correct: driving is somewhat difficult in the series but totally doable in more relaxed or intense periods. Even a chase with the enemy behind you is fine. But as soon as things start flying that’s when you start having problems and the game becomes a torturous nightmare. Dare Devils does exactly this; forces you into a hectic racing game with physics objects flying left and right, but nor is it really racing. More like against the clock, which is arguably worse since AI drivers also have the same struggle as you but don’t matter.
Look, here’s an example: 
This f**king pillar tower thing is the bane of my existence. I was trying to get S class on the furthest east race level but 50% of the time I couldn’t get past this dumb thing. And you might argue I was using a slow car but that’s also a problem: slower cars tend to get more points since it gives you more time to aim and allows AI cars to overtake you for you to blow up.
Let’s talk more about this DLC: It offers 3 new types of levels; Race (which I somewhat covered but I’ll go into more depth), Survive and what is basically a battle royale but not really.
Race: Goal is to get to each hoop before the time runs out while also trying to destroy as much as possible but there is also AI competing ‘against you’
Survive: Goal is to get to each hoop before the time runs out while also trying to destroy as much as possible but if you die you lose points.
Battle royal: Goal is to earn as many points as possible within the set time but you can go through hoops to get more time also there is AI.
Perhaps you can see my problem with this: They’re all incredibly similar. I don’t really care about this too much but it annoys me.
My biggest problem however is the physics of the game. While I do love JC’s physics, it’s not suited for a racing game. The center of gravity for a bunch of cars feel off, due to some bugs you can go flying, you go flying anyways if you’re hit by anything. Heck, I remember during the same race from that picture before I accidently hit a hidden off poly on a bridge and went swirling into the water before, which failed me because it took too much time to respawn despite having a good 15 seconds.
However, I still think some parts are good. I love the cutscenes art style. It’s actually sick and something I might try to replicate one day. And the colours in the night levels feel vibrant wonderful, arguably one of the things that kept me going during that race to get S class.
(Side note: I know I unlocked something after beating a level, but how do I access it? I don’t know if it got explained or I’m being stupid)
The cars themselves are sick: They seem fully customisable, vibrant again, deadly, satisfying to kill enemy AI cars with. Handling wise, y’know, they are piss poor, but I genuinely like the designs and functionality of them.
We’ve also got a new island to explore (and practice on I guess) which I haven’t yet, but it’s meant for Dare Devil missions, not fighting.
Oh well, I’m getting exhausted from lack of sleep. I’d give this DLC probably a 4/10. It feels like a chore but you get some cool cars out of it and get to witness a pretty neat aesthetic.