Playing this in 2019 just highlights to me that game graphics are already good enough that I don’t really care about chasing the state of the art any more. Honestly while obviously not being perfect, they look fine to me even though this game was first released in 2015. This is especially true for this series given that when the sequel, Just Cause 4, was released only last year, many people complained that its production values and graphics seemed to have regressed.

I bought this because I have fond memories of Just Cause 2 but to be honest, I couldn’t muster up much enthusiasm for this one. It’s prettier of course and stuffed with plenty of optional activities, but it all amounts to much, much more of the same. To be fair, the core gameplay loop is still solid and enjoyable: liberate towns and military bases by blowing shit up, In between, participate in races with cars, bikes, planes, helicopters, boats, whatever, and blow even more shit up with particular weapons. There are of course the plot missions but these seem particularly formulaic and uninspired this time around. Everytime you liberate an entire region, you participate in wide-scale battle and doesn’t really feel much like a real battle at all and you need to disable the dictator’s local superweapon.

For me the best part of the game is still the extreme mobility that Rico Rodriguez has at his disposal. After some practice, getting around the various islands is a piece of cake by combining slingshotting with the parachute and switching to the wingsuit when you have enough height. The map is huge and with the day-night cycle and weather effects, there is plenty of beautiful scenery to enjoy. It’s really something for example to be on a parachute above the treeline just when dawn breaks over the horizon. It’s still a good idea to grab a jet fighter to travel really long distances or you could just use the convenient fast travel option but there’s really no point in putting up with the terrible driving controls, especially the motorcycles which seem all but unusable.

Destroying stuff and causing raw chaos is plenty of fun as well. Combat is generally rather easy as Rico can easily escape whenever things heat up too much but it’s not a total cakewalk either. Between snipers, helicopters gunning for you and tanks lobbing explosive shells at long distances, it is possible to die if you’re not careful. But even when you do, you just respawn nearby so it’s no big deal. Between the infinite demolition charges, the ability to tether more objects and smash them together and the ease with which you can scrounge for ammunition, I haven’t even found it necessary to use the gear drop ability. When the army sends tanks against you, it’s just asking you to hijack them. A single Bavarium-shielded tank under your control is all that is needed to wreck even a large military base.

Completionists will of course want to scour the map for collectibles. This is easy as the map will show the locations of all of them once a region is fully liberated. Unfortunately I feel that the map is less fun to explore this time even though the graphics are much improved. The map feels more realistic and consistent so you don’t run into all kinds of weird random things that reward exploration. There are incongruous ruins scattered around the map, but they are all in the same style. One good addition that there are now the giant mining machines that you can destroy. They’re so big that you actually need to destroy them piece by piece. I also rather like listening through the audio diary of how the current dictator Di Ravello came to power. That makes a way more interesting story that than of Rico himself.

This game does have its moments like flying a jet fighter up to the highest mountains or seeing how far you can reel kick an enemy. After being frustrated at first, I grew to really enjoy the wingsuit challenges as well. But for the most part, it’s just way, way too much of the same kind of gameplay as the previous game and I discovered that my interest is already all tapped out. Being a completionist myself, I dully played through the whole thing but I’m pretty much done with this franchise.