Just Cause 2 Demo Impressions

Just Cause 2 didn’t really feature heavily on my gaming radar until fairly recently, when I watched a couple of the trailers. I have to say that I was amazed by what I had seen, so eagerly awaited the demo; When it hit the digital stores I downloaded it and took it for a spin, and it was everything I thought it would be. The main objective of this game is just causing as much mayhem as possible, so what’s not to love?

Starting off on the top of a huge cliff, you’re given everything you need to cause havoc right at the beginning. From explosive canisters and barrels to boxes of guns and ammo, there’s enough to get you started for the real mayhem you’re about to be causing in a few moments. Once you jump off the edge of that cliff, the demo timer starts and you’re given half an hour to do whatever you like in a given area of the map.

There are two main items that need to be mentioned first and are essential to your survival, having fun and blowing stuff up: your grappling hook and your parachute. The grappling hook can be fired at pretty much anything, and, seeing as how it’s now a dual-grappling hook, can attach whatever you like to whatever else you like. Feel like attaching someone to the back of your car and then dragging their body around? Can do. Want to dangle someone from a wall whilst you mercilessly fill them with bullets? No problem. There’s literally an infinite amount of possibilities, and the only limit I’ve found so far is my own imagination and what dastardly activities I can think up.

Next up is your parachute; These things are one-time-only use, right? Wrong. You have an unlimited amount of them available to you, meaning that you can open your parachute as many times as you need. You can fly up in the sky with a helicopter, jump out and freefall for a bit, open your parachute up, grapple onto the helicopter, get back in it and do it all over again. You can activate your parachute in a moving vehicle to instantly shoot up into the sky, which is useful for getting out of a tight spot or a car that’s about to explode; Once you’re in the sky you can spot a new vehicle, grapple down onto it, get in and make your getaway.

Doing certain actions, such as destroying government property or killing military personnel, will gain you heat of varying levels. The higher the heat level, the stronger opposition you’ll face. Where many could see this as a problem, it’s really just another excuse to have more fun. You’ve raided a base, destroyed some equipment and are escaping in a helicopter – the only problem is is that they’ve sent a one after you, and that one has guns. Is this a cause for concern? Nope. Just bail out of yours, open your chute and grapple onto theirs. Swing up to the front of the fuselage and take out the passenger with your gun, then pull the pilot out and get in yourself. You just obtained a free chopper. With guns.

Causing mayhem adds to your score, with different items and missions unlocked as your score gets bigger. New weapons are unlocked in the Black Market, which can be airdropped to you at any time, wherever you are. Missions, as you’d expect, generally involve blowing things up and killing people, and, being a sandbox game, can be tackled however you like. You probably won’t notice the graphics as you’re being destructive, but the game looks pretty good. It’s col0urful, bright, and the draw distance is phenomenal. Get yourself to somewhere high and just admire the scenery.

The demo is huge and has massive replayability, but words just don’t do it justice. For a sample of what you’re able to do, take a look at the video below, put together by Hodgi92.