Strike missions are also not particularly interesting, rarely posing objectives more complex than hitting a few buttons or defending a point, but I don’t expect too much from such ancillary tasks.
#Just cause 4 series#
Between this and the offputting infrequency of enemies hunting beyond the limits of military zones, Just Cause 4 seems to be losing its grip on the anarchy that makes this series tick. You’d expect the game to encourage Chaos as much as possible, but I earned enough squads from the Strike missions to plow through each region with only a moderate amount of Chaos. The squads necessary to advance the line can be earned from the Region Strikes themselves, or by causing Chaos (destroying select Black Hand structures), but this balance seems a little out of whack. The regions that make up each biome are locked down by the Black Hand, and they must be conquered by advancing the frontline of Rico’s Army of Chaos one adjacent region at a time. The map is massive in scale, but if I’m only motivated to jump to set points of interest, that’s just a lot of wasted space.Īccessing those points of interest across the landscape requires completing Region Strike missions. That level of detail, and the intrigue that came with it, doesn’t have the same presence in Just Cause 4. When you’d dive underwater in Just Cause 2, you’d enter a vast world of reefs that made you feel like there was something new to discover under the surface, even though there never really was. Or maybe it’s the lack of detail in the environment.
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Immense portions are inaccessible by foot, making it harder to appreciate what makes each biome different when all you take away is the color of the mountain you’re flying over. So why, then, does this return to a broader spectrum of environments not resonate with me as it once did? Maybe it’s how mountainous the entire map is. Just Cause 3 was beautiful to look at, but it lacked the same diversity in its setting, which is something Just Cause 4 brings back with four distinct biomes of jungle, grassland, desert, and arctic. One of the hooks that pulled me into Just Cause 2 was its environment design, fitting every climate and terrain variety you could want into its massive map. More important is the “where,” this time being the island of Solís. Rico has his charming moments, but you’ll forget the “why” and “who” of the campaign’s events as soon as they’re off screen. Just Cause games have never concerned themselves much with profound story-telling or characterization, and the fourth installment generally stays this course. This allows him to begin dismantling Espinosa’s weather-manipulation technology, which is being tested on the defenseless population.
![just cause 4 just cause 4](https://bleedingcool.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/just-cause-4-danger-rising-art.jpg)
On a mission to discover the truth about his late father, returning hero Rico Rodriguez arrives in Solís, where he galvanizes its oppressed people to form the Army of Chaos. For Just Cause 4, these are the island of Solís and the Black Hand, lead by the malevolent Oscar Espinosa. There are two ingredients necessary for the start of any Just Cause game: an exotic island nation, and a tyrannical military regime. Balancing change and innovation is a precarious act for any sequel, but while Just Cause 4 is all-around entertaining, it has put some cracks in the Just Cause pedestal.
![just cause 4 just cause 4](https://s1.gaming-cdn.com/images/products/9219/orig/game-steam-just-cause-4-reloaded-edition-cover.jpg)
While Just Cause 3 didn’t check every box, it was sound enough to give Just Cause 4 a good jumping off point. In the following years, Just Cause has established itself as one of the dominant open-world action series of this generation. I was hooked from the moment I put my hands on the demo, and while I never played the first game, I’ve considered myself a fan of the series ever since. I may have put more time into Just Cause 2 than any other single-player game.