Just Cause 4

Try as it might, Just Cause 4 does not live up to its predecessors. In a game that's built around normally fun elements like chaos, destruction, and revolution, Just Cause 4 ends up getting in its own way far too often with extraneous menu-based systems, a wild camera and controls, and (on PC) a litany of performance issues and inexplicable game crashes. It's a disappointment, to be frank, and made me want to give up and play Just Cause 2 instead.

Between the technical issues, the drab story, and the baffling mission structure though I’m feeling pretty disappointed so far. I didn’t necessarily want Just Cause 4 to be more of the same, but I don’t think this new direction works very well either—not to mention it feels like the game needed another few months of development. We’ll keep you updated if anything significant changes between now and release, but at the moment this one’s hard to recommend. [Impressions]

The campaign never manages to escape its own mediocrity, it threatens to open out into a more liberating game of exploration and experimentation, but doesn’t quite make the jump. Yes, doing the Just Cause thing of mixing up modes of destruction is still fun. But this series needs more than a few storms to stay relevant and vital. It should take a cue from its own example: Destroy the established order, and find something fresh in the ensuing wreckage.

I’m just at a loss as to how this has happened. Just Causes have been buggy, sure. But they’ve never felt at least six months from finished. I cannot fathom how this wasn’t lengthily delayed, because it’s in such a dismal state. Although that said, even if the bugs and AI were fixed, it would still leave behind a version of Just Cause that barely changes anything you actually do since the third edition, yet has made every aspect of doing it so astronomically more annoying. What went wrong? How did such an established and entertaining series end up in such a quagmire?