Just Cause 2

Welcome to Panay, a dictatorial republic populated by different Asian people and led by a guy who is frustrated by his appearance that he builds all sorts of statues of himself in order to compensate. The country of all bananas, filled with military bases.

Rico Rodriguez, the revolutionary maniac from the first game is back. And we are not talking about Che Guevara – Rodriguez is not a romantic fool who runs after hippie things like the nationalization of the transportation means. Sent by the Agency, the international hand of the United States which slaps anyone who turns his back on them, Rico has the ordinary task: to remove the little “Baby” Panay from leading the country and to serve him to his boss.

Saboteur, assassin, pilot, driver, skydiver and sapper – you would say that Rico is handling all the necessary knowledge for systematic breaking of the military enclaves of Panay. But he could not hijack even a school bus if he did not have a pistol with a hook and a James Bond parachute. No, not that kind of parachute.

The athlete qualities of the hero are not uncommon, but the mentioned gadgets allow you to travel relatively fast no matter the place, and the quick travel system is represented by a place which throws you in any previous explored area. This besides the weapon and vehicle delivery service, in exchange of a generous amount of money. Not to mention the 104 air, water and land vehicles which by the way are not hard to pilot – on the contrary, they are really to manipulate even at high speeds, the only impediment in the path for arcade mechanics perfection is represented by the collision system, which is the main reason for the boats to bounce off the smallest obstacles, as unnatural as the cars do.

With all these, the moments in which you will feel his problem are related with some of the 75 racing challenges, because in rest you are not required to travel across landscapes with boats. Although I suggest you not to fear these challenges because many of them are entertaining and innovating. They use not only transporting means but also the skills of the player to control the character in free fall or with the parachute, from going through the tight alleys of the Panay cities and up to exploring the swamps from one corner of the map with a motor boat.

Of course, the races don’t represent the central element because only in a movie with Paul Walker and Vin Diesel you could start a coup with a V8 engine in stead of a V4 rocket. So, you will split the approximately 100 hours of game play in missions, working for the Agency.