Just Cause 3: A Masterclass in Open World Destruction
No other game has better captured the feeling of making your own Michael Bay movie
Open-world games have largely fallen off during the current console generation. The spirit of simply trying things ‘cause it’s fun has largely been shifted to indie and AA games. It’s honestly a really sad shift. When I was growing up, AAA games were built around innovation. Whether it was introducing crazy new gameplay mechanics, genres, or even graphical fidelity, it felt the best and biggest games were built around one core principle: make it fun.
Making games ain’t cheap, though. So innovation is largely out and safe bets are in. A game can’t just be a game, it has to be a consistent part of your life.
I don’t have rose-tinted glasses. I grew up in the PS2/360 era and I distinctly remember the period where it felt like every game was trying to be a “Halo-Killer” or “GTA-Killer”
Sometimes you’d get a series like Saints Row which started as a blatant GTA clone before developing a fun, anarchic identity of its own. Other times you get a Killzone which had some solid handheld spinoffs, but the core series could never seem to be anything more than Not-Halo.
One such series born from the era of GTA clones was Just Cause. Keeping it a buck, I never played the first Just Cause because the cover didn’t grab my 14-year-old imagination. I only discovered the series by random chance while at a buddy’s house in high school. He loaded up the Just Cause 2 demo and handed me the controller, explaining “Bro, you gotta try this game. The grappling hook is fucking insane!”
And reader. He was absolutely correct. That grappling hook was devoid of anything resembling sanity.
The moment I used it to tether a soldier to a hydrogen tank, shot the tank, and then watched the man go flying around the map like a deflating Wayne Knight is when I understood the transformative power of video games. Just Cause 2 was the perfect 7/10. It’s got some jank and while it doesn’t quite fully execute its vision, it built an incredibly strong foundation.
Just Cause 3, though? Just Cause 3 is the soulDecision of open-world destruction because No One Does it Better.
Just Cause 3 feels like developer Avalanche played The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction and said “Okay. But what if this nigga could fly?”
In the years since Just Cause 3, open-world games have largely followed two paths: Breath of the Wild clone, or a continuation of the Rockstar and Bethesda formulas that have defined the genre.
I mean, there’s also the Ubisoft open-world formula, but who really gives a shit anymore? (That said Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a game I have a lot of feelings about.)
Just Cause 3 is unique in its focus on high-flying mobility, environmental destruction, and emergent gameplay. Take the tropical locale of FarCry 3, mix it with the nonstop destruction of Red Faction: Guerilla and you get Just Cause 3. The gameplay loop primarily revolves around “liberating” Medici, a fictional country that’s fallen sway to a dictator, by blowing up as much shit as possible.
The game takes everything its predecessor did and elevates it to an absurd degree. The wingsuit is equipped off-rip as opposed to being an unlockable. The grappling hook has far more versatility and effectiveness, taking what was already a unique part of your toolkit and turning it into a remarkable tool of destruction
There are fucking jet boosters on the explosives. Do y’all understand why I love this game?
Aesthetically, the Mediterranean influence makes it still unique among open-world maps. Medici is a massive island with a strong diversity of scale, and the wingsuit makes exploring it a blast. A game is cooking with a different type of gas when it makes getting from point A to B just as fun as combat.
An aspect that I’ve grown to appreciate is equipment being upgradable through challenges. This was a point of contention during the game’s initial release, but I’m honestly not mad at it now.
Straight up, no one is playing a Just Cause game for the story. To their credit, the story missions have some insane spectacle that takes full advantage of the destructive tools provided. I can’t deny that. But it feels like the developer Avalanche realized that they cooooked with this open world. They built the ultimate playground of destruction and knew people were gonna get lost in that sauce. As such, I think it’s smart that gear progression was largely divorced from the campaign.
Mostly.
Some of the upgrades are a little ridiculous. The ability to aim down sights being an unlockable is one of the few moments where the game made me ask “the fuck are we doing here, bud?”
The challenges remind me of the first Crackdown game, where progression is largely driven by just doing shit in the open world. Challenges unlock after liberating an area and each one focuses on a specific part of your toolkit. The better you perform, the more gears you earn to upgrade and expand your arsenal. It’s an incredibly satisfying loop once you get into the game’s rhythm. Once you’ve unlocked a solid amount of upgrades, the fun in Just Cause 3 is only limited by your imagination.
Wanna tether a car to a helicopter and use it as a makeshift wrecking ball? Go for it.
Wanna slap an ass-ton of rocket explosives on a gas sphere and turn it into a makeshift Titan ship? Why not.
Wanna crash a plane into two radio towers to recreate that one historical event from 2001? You’ll probably get put on a list, but you can do it.
Being able to blow up gas stations, derail trains, and blow up entire bridges makes the open world truly feel like a playground for destruction. One of my favorite things to do is plant a bunch of explosives on a bridge and then max out my wanted level. I lead all the soldiers to the bridge and get into a big ass shootout. Once enough of the soldiers are on the bridge I leap off, hit the wingsuit, detonate the explosives and watch the destruction unfold.
Every play session feels like I’m directing my very own 2007-core
blockbuster.
The vibes constantly oscillate between incredibly badass and hilariously stupid. Wingsuiting away from an explosion only to slam into a mountainside and ragdoll down it will always get a solid chuckle out of me.
It’s somewhat tragic that a nine-year-old game has a more dynamic and vibrant open world than many current entries in the genre. Just Cause 3 was probably a cheaper game to make than Starfield yet it has far more interesting ideas on how to interact with an open world. I’m someone who’ll take a sticky, mechanically satisfying gameplay loop over robust scale and hyper-real graphics. Just Cause 3’s core gameplay loop is so strong that I keep coming back to it almost ten years later.
The game is always on sale for dirt cheap, so if you haven’t played it, get it and have the time of your life.