I haven’t played Just Cause 1 or 2, so I can’t say how it compares.
Just Cause 3 is a prime example of a sandbox power fantasy. It gives a gigantic world filled with enemies and environments to destroy and the tools to do so. All of this is held together by a narrative that I honestly barely paid attention to. This is not a game to play for its story, it all about explosions and carnage. If you aren’t rushing to the end, then you will have plenty of opportunities to do just that. However, that does also mean it becomes quite repetitive and none of the side content is that good either, so you must really enjoy blowing stuff up to really enjoy Just Cause 3.
Story
Can’t say how it relates to the previous Just Cause games.
Set in the Mediterranean republic of Medici, that would fit right in with Latin America, you play as Rico Rodriguez. Who is the one-man army of the resistance of the dictator General Di Ravello. Not that he is alone, it’s just that no one else does anything. You go about liberating the island by just blowing up anyone loyal to the dictator.
I feel as though this is a storyline for the sake of storyline. It’s just there to drive the player forward and give them an end goal. I honestly don’t mind games with basic plots and narrative structure, that is as long as they have something else to back them up.
Mechanics and gameplay
Gameplay in Just Cause 3 goes something like this: you look at your map, pinpoint the nearest enemy base, go there, then destroy all enemy structures and soldiers conveniently highlighted in red. This can be done in a wide variety of ways – you can shoot them, explode them, fling them into the air, fling them into the ground, burn them and much more. After doing that to everyone and everything in your vicinity – base liberated, and now the surrounding area is highlighted in blue rather than red. At times, a story mission will have to be done in order to progress, but they are hardly much different.
All makes for a nice gameplay loop which is quite fun. The problem lies in that while you do unlock more gear as you progress, there isn't much incentive to do better. At a certain point, it goes from how can I destroy this base in the most fun way, to how can I do it most efficiently. This leads to relying on repetitive methods, some of which are available from early on.
That isn't all the content though, there are plenty of side objectives to complete. Let's just say they aren't that interesting. It is the usual open world game time padding - collectables, race mission (side note - driving physics are bad) and more. The only thing that caught my eye was collecting all the vehicles, since it allows you to spawn them in later.
Graphics/Artstyle
Graphics wise it's a great looking game, nothing state of the art by today's standards, but I can't complain.
The world can be very pretty at times, although it did start to blend in, from it all looking very similar.
Immersion
You play as a resistance fighter that has no sense of urgency, laws or physics. As you can probably guess, this means there isn't much immersion in Just Cause 3.
Soundtrack
It's the type of soundtrack that I believe could have been really good had it been given more attention. For now, it's just generic action music. Favourite part is “Exploration Lave”.
Final Thoughts
There is 100% speedrun of this game.
Just Cause 3 is a prime example of a sandbox power fantasy. It gives a gigantic world filled with enemies and environments to destroy and the tools to do so. All of this is held together by a narrative that I honestly barely paid attention to. This is not a game to play for its story, it all about explosions and carnage. If you aren’t rushing to the end, then you will have plenty of opportunities to do just that. However, that does also mean it becomes quite repetitive and none of the side content is that good either, so you must really enjoy blowing stuff up to really enjoy Just Cause 3.
Story
Can’t say how it relates to the previous Just Cause games.
Set in the Mediterranean republic of Medici, that would fit right in with Latin America, you play as Rico Rodriguez. Who is the one-man army of the resistance of the dictator General Di Ravello. Not that he is alone, it’s just that no one else does anything. You go about liberating the island by just blowing up anyone loyal to the dictator.
I feel as though this is a storyline for the sake of storyline. It’s just there to drive the player forward and give them an end goal. I honestly don’t mind games with basic plots and narrative structure, that is as long as they have something else to back them up.
Mechanics and gameplay
Gameplay in Just Cause 3 goes something like this: you look at your map, pinpoint the nearest enemy base, go there, then destroy all enemy structures and soldiers conveniently highlighted in red. This can be done in a wide variety of ways – you can shoot them, explode them, fling them into the air, fling them into the ground, burn them and much more. After doing that to everyone and everything in your vicinity – base liberated, and now the surrounding area is highlighted in blue rather than red. At times, a story mission will have to be done in order to progress, but they are hardly much different.
All makes for a nice gameplay loop which is quite fun. The problem lies in that while you do unlock more gear as you progress, there isn't much incentive to do better. At a certain point, it goes from how can I destroy this base in the most fun way, to how can I do it most efficiently. This leads to relying on repetitive methods, some of which are available from early on.
That isn't all the content though, there are plenty of side objectives to complete. Let's just say they aren't that interesting. It is the usual open world game time padding - collectables, race mission (side note - driving physics are bad) and more. The only thing that caught my eye was collecting all the vehicles, since it allows you to spawn them in later.
Graphics/Artstyle
Graphics wise it's a great looking game, nothing state of the art by today's standards, but I can't complain.
The world can be very pretty at times, although it did start to blend in, from it all looking very similar.
Immersion
You play as a resistance fighter that has no sense of urgency, laws or physics. As you can probably guess, this means there isn't much immersion in Just Cause 3.
Soundtrack
It's the type of soundtrack that I believe could have been really good had it been given more attention. For now, it's just generic action music. Favourite part is “Exploration Lave”.
Final Thoughts
There is 100% speedrun of this game.