There is only a select few sandbox games that have hit a mark with me. Grand theft auto (obviously) and Crackdown. Things like Saints Row and true crime haven’t really done it for me. Ok I admit I haven’t played enough Infamouse to justify saying its a worthy sandbox title so I’ll just leave that one on the fence with prototype for now.
Yesterday I got my gaming mitts on Just Cause 2. I had seen a trailer on this game a good while back at it looked pretty damn good. But in the past I have been known to get excited about a game then have my expectations squashed when I played them. Lets face it, some games do look shiny before they are released, but when you eventually get stuck into them they seem like they are missing a lot. But that’s a totally different conversation right there.
Back to the subject in hand, Just Cause 2 is the next in the just cause franchise, developed by Eidos interactive and published by good old Square Enix. This is yet another sandbox title which I do believe does the genre some justice, you are the Scorpio and your job in the demo is to help the reapers, who are a rising force against the countries government. Your main mission is to destroy all government property, officials and buildings basically whatever is labeled with a white star on a red background needs to be destroyed. This in turn will up you chaos meter.
Increasing your chaos meter will unlock missions and new things to buy on the black market. The black market is the place where you can buy new vehicles, guns and upgrades for your character. It is a nifty thing to have, as you don’t have to go to a specific location, all you need is somewhere in the out doors and you can call them up, next thong you know a helicopter drops off your goods and you good to fight once more. But like in real life, stuff costs money, and you find that as you play through the game.
What I really did like about this game was the grapple hooks and the parachute. Remarkably if you are a mercenary in this game you have an unlimited supply of parachutes! Not to shabby. The grapple hooks and parachute work well together, and in small towns where you are surrounded by gun fire they are the perfect way for getting round. You do feel like a supped up spider man as you can duel wield the grapple hooks for extra mobility, the other cool thing here is that you can use the grapple hooks on enemies and watch them fly across the air. Awesome.
I need to spend more time with this demo. But as first impressions go, this is defiantly a game that any sand box gamer out there will want to play. And yes, there are a lot of explosions.
Garv
