Just Cause 4

I you can't enjoy its over-the-top charms, there's precious little hope for you.

Just Cause 4 amps up the chaos and fun to well past 11. Gamers have never before had the freedom to cause mayhem on this grand of a scale.

Despite issues in several areas, Just Cause is ultimately about the scale of its action moments over which players have complete control, and the freeform sandbox in which players run amok, and to these ends Just Cause 4 is the best in the series.

Most of my favorite moments in Just Cause 4 had nothing to do with the story missions, and instead emerged out of playing with Rico’s ridiculous toolset – like turning a dumpster into a humble airship with a couple of balloons and riding it across the island, or rigging the horses on a merry-go-round with rocket boosters and watching it spin out of control.

Just Cause 4 is fun, wild and crazy, and fans of the series will love it, but it can get repetitive faster than it should because of a very poor mission design and a progression system that makes it feel even more repetitive. It’s full of amazing tools to make its map your playground, but there is little incentive to use them.

Just Cause 4 is easily the best game in the series, seamlessly combining its freedom of experimentation with its signature, action-packed concept. The addition of extreme weather effects, together with the game’s redefined functionalities, go hand in glove to produce wildly entertaining gameplay opportunities from the get-go. Unfortunately, the game’s weak story and its grindy structure ultimately pulls it just shy of greatness.

Just Cause 4 is a success at the same things that made the third game great, but a failure when it tries to improve its narrative, variety or polish. Finally. it's a fun game in short bursts but not much else.

Just Cause 4 keeps on with the series' tradition of over-the-top explosive action, thanks to an even more refined physics engine and lots of new tools at Rico's disposal. Unluckily, though, it fails on propelling the series to higher grounds, mainly due to a very repetitive mission structure, bad AI and a predictable plot.

From heat-pumping action centered around its extreme weather system to a traversal system that will keep players entertained for hours, Just Cause 4 delivers an experience that's likely to make any fan of the series up to this point happy. More importantly, it's far better than the lackluster affair that was Just Cause 3 and sets the series back on the right track, even if both games still don't do multiplayer.

Just Cause 4 feels every bit the game that Just Cause 3 did, yet it pales in comparison due to its lacklustre presentation, stilted design and derivative story. While Rico’s adventure is all about liberation, it fails to inspire and comes back down to earth with a bang.

Just Cause 4 certainly isn’t a bad game, but it feels a bit like a wasted opportunity. The fun you can have outside of the game’s campaign shows that the world and the tools you’re given work in harmony with each other, but you’re never given the freedom to really make use of them during missions.

Just Cause has always done, and still does, one thing very well, but it has long lost its novelty and desperately needs something - a reboot, a visual upgrade, a good story. Adding interface and systems complexity does nothing to make core experience more compelling or less familiar. Bugs and opaque mechanisms aside, fans who love the Just Cause games for their unadorned mayhem and destruction will find it once again, but it is hard to imagine anyone coming away excited for another sequel.

Just Cause 4, on consoles, is a totally free sandbox experience, suffering from technical issues. Unluckily, the repetitive aspect of missions objectives will disappoint those who seeks more than a physical playground, even if combat system has evolved.

Other than laughter and the occasional satisfaction of seeing a crazy plan come together, Just Cause 4 doesn’t illicit much of an emotional response. It’s ugly, monotone, and almost feels incomplete. Even some of the character animations look lazy, as though the characters themselves are saving their energy for something. The game isn’t without its charm, certainly, but that charm doesn’t amount to much when it is marred by a plethora of other issues. Just Cause 4 approaches its potential, but doesn’t quite seize it. Considering how well the game performs at its peak, that is a real shame.

Whether it is fatigue or poor implementation, Just Cause 4 doesn’t feel like a true sequel. The issues I had with the third game have been fixed, but I still fell off this game much faster than I had anticipated. I adored the second game, dealt with the third one, but this fourth entry just lost its appeal far too quickly. It might be time to rethink and restructure the series, or perhaps move on to a new idea.

Just Cause 4 may be a maniacal sandbox full of explosions and action, but it’s a world that feels dull, repetitive and hollow inside as it missed the mark on being the perfect vehicle for some much-needed Christmas Catharsis.

Just Cause 4 presented some interesting new elements but failed to use them properly and frequently. overlooking the technical shortcomings and repetitiveness, the game still presents an action-packed experience.

Just Cause 4 is a fun game full of explosions and crazy action typically seen in Hollywood movies, beyond that there is nothing. Its graphic section is horrible, although it is mitigated by the physics engine and the global performance of the game.

Just Cause 4 had so much more potential than the final product we were given.

A sequel that on paper had huge potential, Just Cause 4 is unfortunately a bit shabby and light on genuinely new ideas, beyond the novelty of lightning storms and tornadoes. The core gameplay remains good, explosive fun, but Rico is evidently running out of steam.

When you embrace the chaos there can be a lot of fun to be had, but it's when you look deeper at the nuts and bolts it isn't a bustling sandbox you find. It's more of a litter tray, full of waste.

Just Cause 4’s thrills give way to repetition and a dull mission structure, but it’s a ridiculous roller coaster while in full swing.