Just Cause

Just Cause is able to justify its relative brevity and disrespect for physical law with some extremely visceral and often satisfying action.

Overall, on the scale of sandbox games, JC falls somewhere between True Crime and GTA: Vice City. Rico Rodriguez' San Esperito is definitely more impressive than Nick Kang's Los Angeles, but the storyline is nowhere near the Vercetti's Vice City.

The stunts, however, steal the show, and really elevate the game beyond its limitations. From skydiving and parachuting onto the top of moving vehicles to jumping out of helicopters or launching tow cables at passing cars, Rico can do some things that games haven't allowed players to do before, and there's a lot to be said for enabling new frontiers.

The lack of depth really comes through once you get more than about 10 hours into the game and the monotony of doing the same side quests over and over takes its toll. After that, it comes down to how much fun you can create by yourself.

The finicky grappling hook controls lack the intuitive ease you'd like from such an integral control element (never mind the fact that you can't hook onto buildings or trees...wha--?). Even by the game's end, I'd still stumble when trying to sling from car to passing helo.

And the world is huge. If it was more packed with opportunities for us to use those tools and stunts, this could have been a GTA-killer.