The water looks awful and the hair on the characters is mind-bogglingly gross. I’m honestly not sure if this is a visual step up from the third game. Even on High, though, the fidelity just feels lacking. The game hovered around 45-60 frames per second with everything on High, and that became more stable as I played with the options. The issue is that 99% of the time, that image is marred by a ton of pop-in. As Rico soars through the skies over lush landscapes with cities in the background, it is a tremendous sight. Sometimes, for a brief moment, it’s breathtaking. As you read, just remember that I played on PC (my specs are at the beginning of this review). Again, it’s something that feels like a hurdle towards the goal of freedom in chaos.Īnd then there are the technical aspects. It’s a system that gets more convoluted the deeper it goes, as dealing with multiple grappling hook loadouts that all do different things gets confusing. In a way, it’s unfortunate that the C4 is removed from Rico’s normal arsenal and attached to the grappling hook loadouts it feels like a step backward. As the story progresses, Rico unlocks new gadget to use in tandem with his grappling hook, like balloons, boosters, and C4. The grappling hook works the same as always, but with some tweaks in the form of an upgrade system and loadouts. Heading into a mission area always has me thinking “I wonder what terminals I’ll need to push to complete this mission.” While the lack of varied explosives allows the players to instantly recognize what they’re looking for, it leads to a more formulaic approach to missions that feels antithesis to what the series aims to be about: explosive freedom. Overall, it’s a better system than the previous game, but the missions themselves become tedious quickly. At first, objectives feel somewhat varied, but just a handful of hours in, things become predictable. Completing the mission usually allows for the player to dispatch a “squad” of their own troops, a resource acquired by blowing shit up around the map, and claim the area. The mission design itself hasn’t changed much, either. Progress comes by unlocking new areas of the map, which often require Rico to swoop in and complete some small-time mission to get rid of the baddies in the area. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen the same giant antennae, the same giant propane tanks, and the same radar dish. There are a ton of red explosion barrels of course, but the amount of red, destructible objects seems to have gone down. In general, though, the source of these explosions is all very same-y. In fact, every time I boot up the game I can hear some random explosion happening in the distance, and I love that. All these things are present in Just Cause 4, but it doesn’t feel like they were the main focus in development. What’s your favorite thing about the Just Cause franchise? Chances are the first things to come to mind are the explosions, grappling hook, and Rico’s suave accent. Yes, it is still exciting to master the movement of the grappling hook, parachute, and wingsuit, but when story missions force Rico to drive someone two bazillion miles to a destination while fighting off the same three types of vehicles, an interesting question arises: does Avalanche Studios understand what makes these games so great? Just Cause 4 feels tedious almost immediately. It shoots a straight beam of energy and can also lob a “lightning grenade” which is really just a grenade. And then I unlocked it and it was the most boring thing I could think of. It’s a neat hook the thought of owning the Lightning Gun is very provocative and actively makes me want to pursue unlocking it. The plot centers around it (and some actual plot which falls flat), new weapons utilize it, and it is ingrained into the map as well. The “big thing” in Just Cause 4 is weather manipulation. Framerate measured with NVIDIA GeForce Experience and in-game setting. Rig: Intel i7-4770k 3.50 GHz, 8GB of RAM, Geforce GTX 970, Windows 10. Just Cause 4 (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows ) So what could a fourth Just Cause improve upon? More gadgets and gizmos? Better mission design? Or maybe they could remove stuff for no apparent reason and put the fun gadgets behind a DLC paywall from the get-go? The gameplay was already feeling stale by the time the plot had run its course, so to jump back in for micro-bursts felt like a chore, despite the neat gadgets and gizmos included. I enjoyed Just Cause 3 given how big a jump it was from the second installment, but the post-release DLC absolutely drained me. I went into Just Cause 4 with tempered expectations.
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