Just Cause 3 Hands-On Review: 7 Explosive New Details

A Just Cause game with a story as fun as its destruction? Perfect.

By Robert Zak /

My latest play session of Just Cause 3 at Square Enix's HQ was far more enlightening than my first crack at it at EGX 2015 last month. The first time I played it, I didn't get an huge amount of time with Rico's latest ultra-explosive adventure, but despite that I felt like I'd 'got the idea', and seen enough to make a lukewarm early judgement of the game. It was fun, but it didn't feel fresh like Just Cause 2 did when it first came out. It was brighter, more explosive and more... 'wingsuity', but for the most part it was offering me the same experience I'd already done to death back in 2010. Now, after a more in-depth hands-on of Just Cause 3, I had mechanics and gameplay elements explained to me that I didn't even know existed. The light but solid storyline gave some context to my actions, and I realised for the first time that I could do that awesome thing with the tethers; why the hell did no one tell me about this before? In short, a longer sit-down with Just Cause 3, getting familiar with its characters and story, and more clarity on the vast amount of sandbox chaos you can just... cause has u-turned my early feelings about the game. Here are seven of my latest explosive gameplay impressions you need to know about.