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

7. Rico Is Virtually Indestructible

Whatever alternative dimension Rico exists in, it's clear that it isn't tied down to the same strict rules of gravity as our own. Rico's terminal velocity when falling from the sky is more akin to that of a sugar glider than a human being, giving you all the time in the world to decide on how you want to prevent his fall from being a fatal one. You can use a wingsuit, a parachute, or fire Rico's grappling hooking into the ground to pull him towards it - which by some miracle prevents him from taking any fall damage. If Rico somehow fails to unleash his grappling hook, then you still have a decent chance of survival. In my first fumbling attempt at using a wingsuit, I pretty much sent Rico nosediving head-first into the ground from 100ft in the air. There was a thud and a crunch, but Rico simply rubbed his head and got up as if he'd just fallen out of a chair. Rico's a bullet sponge too, and can take far more punishment than the hapless, flailing soldiers of Medici. His body seems well adapted to massive explosions too, and unless he finds yourself at the epicenter of a blast - usually inside an exploding vehicle - then he's likely to walk away groggy, but alive. So what does all this mean qualitatively? Well, for the most part it works well. Rico's greatest abilities are causing explosions and flying through the air at breakneck speeds - ideally in a single sequence. The flow of these actions would be disrupted if Rico died each time he took a headshot, or broke his neck when falling headfirst from the sky. On the other hand, Rico's Spiderman-esque genetic makeup can make enemy encounters and the rush of flying through the air feel a bit trivial. If he was a bit more vulnerable, then his antics would be far more suspenseful at the expense of how long they'd last. For me, this would be a reasonable trade-off.