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

3. The Destruction Is More Satisfying Than Ever

The bread and butter of Just Cause is in the destruction. It's all about laying waste to big, explosive objects, ideally in ways that cause chain reactions for other destructible objects to blow up in their stead. Just Cause 3 has upped things on this front, in large part thanks to the improved tethering mechanics I mentioned before, but also because the whole system of destruction is more physics-based. Where in Just Cause 2, destructible objects essentially had a health bar showing you how close you were to blowing them up, here no health bars are visible, encouraging you to use the game's physics engine to lay waste to things. The statues of General Di Ravello that loom over each town, for example, can be broken up in any way you wish. You can blow its legs away and send it hurtling to the ground, or tether its raised-up arm to its crotch then tighten the tether so it smacks itself in the balls; a massive symbolic gesture that's sure to inspire more people to rise up against the dictatorship. Destroyed objects lie around in pieces afterwards, and you can use these in turn to blow up even more stuff in your bid to liberate the island (though the sheer fun of destroying things far outweighs any narrative incentives to progress through the game).