Just Cause 3 Hands-On Review: 7 Key Impressions It's Made

By Robert Zak / September 29, 2015

Just Cause 2 was possibly the most therapeutic gaming experience of the last generation. You can keep your Flowers and your Journeys; floating around serene, mystical landscapes has nothing on wreaking mass destruction upon a tropical paradise (purportedly in the name of bringing down a dictatorship). That was the essence of the Just Cause 2 experience, and from my short time spent playing its successor, I can see that the same ethos has been applied to it. The setting has moved from a tropical Asian setting to a Mediterranean one, swapping the sunkissed shores of Panau for the, well, similarly sunkissed shores of Medici - the homeland of protagonist Rico Rodriguez. The archipelago is beautiful, resembling a cross between Tuscany and Corsica. In truth, Medici is similar in size and style to Panau, except with more tourists, and with cute mediterranean villages replacing the more ramshackle settings of the fictional Asian island.When I played Just Cause 3 at EGX 2015, I came away feeling that Square Enix was happy to stick to the formula that worked so well for Just Cause 2, but just add more; more destruction, more explosions when you take out gas tankers, and more weaponry to help you achieve these things. But is 'more' in this case enough? Can a game half a decade on from its predecessor rely on the same old tricks to keep gamers interested? I'm a little sceptical, but can't deny that playing a glossier version of one of the last generation's most carnally enjoyable games has a certain allure. Here are seven key impressions that I came away with after playing Just Cause 3.