Name of the Game: Just Cause 2
Developers: Avalanche Studios
Publisher: Eidos Interactive
Year: 2010
Genre: Action, Adventure, Open World
Format: XBOX 360, PS3, PC
PEGI: 18

That's a game I'm still playing, though it's a 2010 game! I left it aside due to other great games (like Assassin's Creed, GTA etc) and I continued my last save just two weeks ago!   
It belongs to the open world genre and believe me, the game's world is ENORMOUS!! 

Just Cause 2 is the sequel to the first Just Cause developed for the original XBOX and the PCs and ported to the XBOX 360 as well.

STORY: Our hero is Rico Rodriguez, a CIA Agent who's called by the Government to travel to the fictional country of Panau to find a former CIA Agent Tom Sheldon and de-throne the dictator Baby Panay (quite a name huh?) helping the guerilla clans. Tom Sheldon suddenly vanished, taking along some $2.000.000 and leaving no traces behind! The Agency needs that money and they also want to find out what happened to their Agent. But things are quite rough in Panau. Why? Because Baby Panay is a very cruel dictator and steps on all virtues and human rights. He wants to govern Panau in the name of fear. An he has a BIG Army armed with tanks, jet fighters, choppers, numerous troops and Military Police that hunt each and every person who inteferes with their business.    
So Rico has to visit the country undercovered and enter the criminal world as "Scorpio", a codename given by his own Agency. He must fight against Baby Panay's forces, search the whole country for clues and of course, detect and arrest Sheldon. 
Panau is a huge tropical archipelago of Islands divided into districts, from small uninhabited islands to large metropolitan cities. So, Rico has to literally cover....some hundreds of miles...on foot or by driving, piloting, boating...or even...swimming (no worries...no sharks here)  


"Ka-boooooommmmmm"

GAMEPLAY: Just Cause 2 combines great action and exploration. Shoot to kill or be shot and get killed. Sabotage the enemy in order to lessen their potential and avoid any reinforcements. Search each and every place and try to find Weapon Parts, Vehicle Parts and Money Stashes. Weapon Parts are useful to improve the game's available weapons that range from a small pistol to a rocket launcher (unlocked by progressing the game). Vehicle Parts are very vital since you can fortify some means of transportation like a sports car, a small plane or even a light tank. As for Money Stashes....you know what that is. Money is needed in this game since you call a black market dealer to buy weapons, ammo and improve your inventory. Rico can carry up to 3 main weapons (a big one, like a sniper rifle and two smaller, like a pistol or an SMG plus two different types of grenades: hand grenades and triggered grenades). But the most useful weapon is his rappel cable and his parachute. A very innovative combination of tools indeed. With the rappel you can climb anywhere, drag and kill soldiers, hijack any running, flying or boating vehicle, give your parachute some thrust and do anything your mind comes up to. With the parachute you can jump off high cliffs, jump off a plane or fly through the territories and land anywhere!! So, in terms of gameplay, this game is very entertaining for all action games' fans providing some very original details.   


"Jeronimoooooooooooooooooooooooooo"

GRAPHICS / SOUND: The Avalanche Engine 2.0 works greatly. The game is a tropical open world with islands, beaches, villages, cities, mountains, snows, real time weather effects (snow storm, rain, dusk, dawn, night, day......winds...), wide open oceans, jungles, roads, ports, airports...blah blah blah!!! The thing is that each and every place looks gorgeous even in 2014! The game is so colorful that'll satisfy even the most demanding gamer. I'm playing this game on my XBOX 360 and I must say that it's plain beautiful! Sonically, you know the drill. Bang bangs, booms, cries....and more. The only thing I don't like is the repeated lines the soldiers say. So you might listen to the line "For the glory of Panau" more than a hundred times in this game. Apart from that, the game's sound is great! Each vehicle and weapon has its own sound FX and there are some decades of ambient sounds. But the strongest part of this game is its graphics.


"What a view!!!!" 

BOTTOM LINE: So, if you want a game that you can play for hours and hours, shooting enemies, sabotaging camps, unlocking places and easter eggs, exploring and admiring a great setting, this game is for you. Each open world (call me GTA) game fan should give it a try, even today. 

<img style="max-width:100%;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZPD0byQnTsE/UP_tgxNB8eI/AAAAAAAABEU/KiEZOZxPL0c/s1600/Just_Cause_2_CUDA_55.jpg" alt=""><br><i>"The ocean is wide like the Pacific"</i>



MY VERDICT: 
Graphics: 9 (though it's a 2010 game, I still love it)
Sound: 8 (great but with some repetitive music scores and soldiers' lines)
Gameplay: 8 (search, destroy, sabotage, kill, run, swim, glide, drive, pilot, explore, find, improve, travel........free roam!!)
Longevity: 10 (it takes many hours to explore everything so you'll be travelling a LOT!!)

  

Enjoy! 
PanosGR