In a technically astonishing achievement, the video game’s world reacts even from a distance. And all of this scenery reacts when, say, you knock a train off the mountain side, careening through trees, flower beds, and into the sea. While swaths of land still appear to have been meticulously created once, then replicated elsewhere on the map with help from a cloning device, you’re never more than a short helicopter flight to something wholly new and striking. Its foliage is lush and dense, and a screenshot of where the forest meets the frothy ocean water could serve as a postcard.
You can see where the money went - after a lengthy series of load screens. A five-year development cycle this time around, lengthy even by industry standards, implied a financial and creative commitment to elevate the franchise above its cult hit status - a funny label, since that game sold millions of copies, but a true one nonetheless when put alongside competitors in the genre. Just Cause 3’s roadmap to success seemed to be a straight line: be a more accessible version of Just Cause 2, a truly revolutionary game hamstrung by fussy controls, repetitive missions, and a shabby advertising budget.
But the vibrant locales and cheeky script of Just Cause 3, in which locals practically beg you to destroy their homeland, undercut any moral complexity with the patois of a GI Joe rerun.Īnd yet, every other moment is tinged with dull frustration. Released six years ago on the previous generation of game consoles with a dramatically smaller budget and shorter time frame, Guerilla’s creators still found a way to say something about its hero, a not-so-subtle cipher for fringe terrorists. The game’s unapologetic wanton destruction of a tropical island nation is awkward, sure, and one does wonder why a game about the obliteration of public utilities fails to best Red Faction: Guerilla.