Just Cause 2 demo: Just…ugh
Sandbox games. Yup.
The main component of any sandbox game is the transportation. Planes, trains, automobiles. How else are you supposed to get around the game world? Prototype and Infamous tried to do away with “driving cars around” by making the game world fit into a city, and make getting around “fun” or something. I guess it worked. people liked it. There’s also the issue of making the game world interesting and dynamic enough to make hanging out in the game fun. By hanging out, I mean going on rampages, driving around, and generally jerking around the map.
Just cause 2 makes this “jerking around” the focus of their demo. You basically get 30 minutes to screw off in a large section of land. I’ve played it about three times, with only one session that was really fun throughout. I’m having issues duplicating this “fun” session. Basically: it ran smooth. The game sorta switches between 30fps and 60fps, and it does this no mater what you’re doing in game, and it’s a buzzkill. When it doesn’t do this, and you have a good controller, the game is fun.
Although, it’s hard to gain perspective from the demo of the real game. You’re in an isolated island nation (complete with desert, tropical, and mountain areas…odd) and I guess you have to assist some rebels overthrow the government. So: bay of pigs, but with one guy. And you’re invincible. I guess the game assumes that “blowing shit up” is going to be the player’s main reason to keep playing.
You know. the US probably gave this fictional island nation all of it’s guns and shit. It’s like Iran Contra, or shit like that. What is this country’s main export? I guess that’s why it’s military dictatorship. Where is the public transit? Why are there Tuk-tuks in the middle of the desert? I assumed those were for urban areas but oh well. Why are there so many taxis in the middle of the desert?
Okay; at every town there’s, like, a roadblock. A military roadblock. Fairly realistic. Occasionally there will be a bunch of civvies in the “Oppression position” while the guards…wander around. And they shoot at you when you shoot at them!
So, your character is supposed to save the whole country, probably by himself. In order to do this (in the demo) you have to cause “chaos” by destroying infrastructure. Like water towers, gas stations, and power stations. But wouldn’t this just make living in the country worse? You’re basically a revolutionary prankster, except you’re killing everyone instead of egging people’s cars.
But, I guess that’s what gamers want. I guess the developers realized most gamers are infantile sophmoric dumbasses (Have you READ kotaku? or destructioid? no wonder Roger Ebert doesn’t consider games an art) and decided to play to those impulses with the game. It’s very polished, very impressive, and it’ll probably sell a lot of copies.
I had the most fun tooling around in cars. The physics are a treat, as well as the graphics. I giggled as I ramped my car off of curbs and hills, making it tumble across the desert. Exploration and transportation are things the game does well. I don’t know why I haven’t picked up the game “Fuel” as driving around is that game’s main goal.
So yeah. I’m probably not going to buy it, unless I get it to run on my system without it going to 30fps.
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