14 DAY TRIAL // 
Since the success of the movie Desperado, there's been a lack of Latin super heroes. We have Superman, Spiderman, Batman and all the other good men, but now there's Rico to save the day. From Sweden's ice cold climate comes a free roaming action game that offers you the chance to travel across the islands of the Caribbean archipelago in an attempt to liberate San Esperito from the evil El Presidente. Rico Rodriguez will glide, shoot, fly planes, blow up barricades in order to bring freedom to this jungle paradise.
Story An outstanding CIA field operative and quite a playboy, Rico gets parachuted to San Esperito. He must infiltrate drug cartels and gain the trust of rebel factions in order to kill the President. He must first save his former commander, Sheldon from some serious gunfighting on the beach of this exotic location. Maria Kane will also help the hot-blooded agent in his mission by providing gadgets and vehicles. It will not be hard for the latin hero to cause chaos in this hot climate, where men loose temper quickly, and bullets fly like birds in the sky.
Concept Any car and weapon that you see is accessible. Drive more than 100 vehicles, ranging from the rustiest van to an angry monster truck, jet fighter, helicopter, speed boat and God knows what else. But there's not only driving to do, but also racing and shooting. You'll be able to participate in all sorts of time trials, that's what I'll call them, although they were named races. No competitor, no race if you ask me. San Esperito is filled with a bunch of merry guys just waiting for you to fill them up with lead. Not all of them are merry, especially the cops, as they don't seem to quite like a sudden change of regime. Playing Rico, you'll have to complete 21 story missions and dozens of other bonus missions that you'll probably want to check out. If you're not using cars to get around you'll have to walk barefoot or swim for about 250,000 acres of territory.
It won't take more than 6 to 8 hours to complete the mission and get rid of the sleazy El Presidente. Scattered around the island are safe houses where you can replenish health, grab a few new shiny guns and vehicles. Driving a car and flying a plane is addictive, I know, but you'll discover that crashing them can be addictive too. Specially if there are stunts involved. The physics of the game is quite chaotic, when cars almost float on the road at high speed but the leap they take off the cliffs is nicely done in slow motion with the action movie style and all. Some of the cars or boats you'll drive pack firepower and you'll use turrets or fire rockets to create some more chaos and destruction in this tourist paradise.
Feeling lost? Use the PDA to take a look at the gigantic map and the political map. You'll also have a more practical version of the map on the top right corner of the screen. The packages you must pick up in order to become friendly to the cartel guys appear as blue dots on the map. The main missions and objectives are marked with red stars (communism anyone?). Look mom, I'm hanging from the wings of a plane! Now, I'm using the parachute! Weee! It's kind of weird to have a reusable parachute that you can pack and unpack at any time. The game's engine is similar to a version of GTA's engine with a little bit of Far Cry environment added to it as well as Oblivion's huge liberty of movement.
Gameplay Viva la revoluci?n! You'll find yourself flying a plane just to make a quick drop at the strip club built in the middle of the jungle. Rico is quite a playboy and you'll notice the ladies trying to pick him up. The handsome agent will use a grappling gun, a magnetic one to grab onto any vehicle he needs. It's quite fun to be driven around by another boat or ride. Motorcycles seem to be the coolest thing to drive in San Esperito.
The game is clearly designed for the console experience if you look at the controls that rely very much on the R button in the shooting segment and on the analog stick in the walking part. Whenever you'll enter a vehicle, its name and model will appear on the right of the screen. You might kill 20 cops at a time, blow up 2 of their cars, 5 of their cars, 10 of their cars, but if they keep coming you'll start to feel frustrated.
There will be times when you'll be convinced that Rico is a Latin Spiderman when you'll watch him hang on to a chopper using his grappling gun or parachuting of the roof of a car to start floating in mid air over a beautiful valley. There are fun parts in this game, as it is not a dramatic piece of action. You'll kill a soldier exactly when he was making out with his girlfriend, you'll hear some funny lines from Rico or exploit the fun that killing cops brings you. Most of the game you'll have to assassinate people, deliver packages and blow up road blocks.
I suppose that you have a slight idea about what to do to get the first two things done, but blowing up road blocks implies using grenades, throwing and shooting them in the air. I found the targeting system to be a bit of problem because it is done automatically when you the enemy enter your sight. Once you get used to this, displaying true firepower will be a ball considering that the enemies die very quickly. You'll even use a tank, that has a slight problem with the turret as you'll see in the game.
Video The producers declared that they chose Avalanche as a name for their company because they think it's a cool name. And so is Rico, a cool guy with leather pants, and wearing a cross at his neck, trying to impersonate Antonio Banderas. The big Caribbean archipelago is very well drawn, but if you played Just Cause on PC and XBOX 360, the Playstation 2 version will surely let you down. The mountains for example are just piles of brown pixels gathered near the jungle. You'll be the witness of a vegetation parade because the jungle is the main environment of the exotic location. There are some urban environments that have the handicap of not offering the gamers some in-door experiences.
The scenery is pretty amazing sometimes and Rico will walk under the romantic light of sunset enjoying the cool water reflections and the sight of beautiful women. A problem of the NPC-s and the foes is that they all look alike. Soldiers are dressed in black or gray, policeman wear blue and rebels wear green. It's so cool to fly a plane at night or jump from a tower and sky dive at sunrise just to watch the beautiful landscape. This is for the romantic ones that need to do this between the gutting of a president and blowing up a road block.
Sound Welcome amigo! Care for some Spanglish? That's what the characters in Just Cause speak: a mixture between English and Spanish words. Rico looks and sounds way too much like Antonio Banderas, but doesn't convince as much as the actor does. The music is cheerful and very "guitar-ish" having a Latin sound to it. Mouths won't move with the dialogs, and the lines don't have what it takes for an action game.
Conclusion Just Cause is a fun game to play without having the obligations of completing missions in order to proceed through the various environments. The world is yours and any area can be accessible as well as any vehicle, location or weapon. Having a huge fun factor, this game will capture you for a week or till you kill the president. Ending the task will end the game as sooner or later you'll get bored of shooting, driving and gliding.
