I finally finished Just Cause 3 and honestly, I had a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ great time with it. This isn't a game I'm going to praise for having an incredible story or the deepest open world, because that's simply not where it shines. The story is decent, Rico Rodriguez is a fun protagonist, and the characters and humour fit the tone, but the narrative is clearly secondary to the gameplay. General Di Ravello works as an over the top villain, but I was much more interested in what I could actually do in Medici than in where the story was going next.
Medici is easily one of the best parts of the game. You've got towns, villages, mountains, countryside, military bases, airports, harbours and islands, all spread across a huge Mediterranean inspired map. It looks great and travelling through it is genuinely enjoyable, especially once you get comfortable with the wingsuit. The world is more of a sandbox than a deeply simulated open world, but that works for Just Cause 3 because almost everything is designed around giving you something to interact with or destroy.
The grappling hook, parachute and wingsuit are the real stars of the game. They completely change how you move around the map and make travelling much more fun than simply driving everywhere. You can grapple onto buildings and vehicles, use the parachute to gain momentum and switch into the wingsuit to cover huge distances. Once you get used to the movement, you start thinking about traversal differently. Getting somewhere isn't just about reaching the objective anymore, it's about finding your own way there.
And obviously, there's the destruction. This is where Just Cause 3 feels different from most open world games. Military bases, towns and enemy infrastructure are built around things you can actually destroy, and you have a ridiculous number of ways to do it. Guns, explosives, tanks, helicopters, aircraft and the grappling hook can all be combined, and the physics can create some genuinely ridiculous situations. That's the part of the game that never really stopped being fun for me.
The liberation system is good in concept but definitely repetitive. Destroying regime infrastructure and watching an area change from occupied to liberated feels satisfying, but after enough settlements the formula becomes very familiar. The challenges and side activities can also start feeling repetitive, although some of them are genuinely fun because they encourage you to use the game's mechanics differently.
The combat is enjoyable but not exceptional. The shooting works well enough, but it isn't going to compete with games built specifically around gunplay. The same applies to driving. There are a lot of vehicles and they are useful for getting around and causing destruction, but the handling and physics can be inconsistent. The AI can also be pretty stupid, and there are technical and performance issues that are hard to ignore, especially when a lot is happening on screen.
The Bavarium Sea Heist DLC was a good addition to the game for me. It gives you a different area, new equipment and more of the sandbox experimentation that makes Just Cause 3 fun. It doesn't completely change the formula, but it adds enough new content and toys to make returning to the game worthwhile.
What I like most about Just Cause 3 is that it doesn't always feel like I'm playing an objective. Sometimes I'm just flying around Medici, messing with the grappling hook, finding a military base and deciding to destroy it for no reason. That's where the game is at its best. The freedom to approach situations however I want is much more memorable than any individual mission.
Just Cause 3 definitely has weaknesses. The story could have been stronger, liberation becomes repetitive, some missions feel restrictive, the shooting and driving are only okay, and the technical side isn't perfect. But none of those problems changed the fact that I had a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ blast with it. The combination of the wingsuit, parachute, grappling hook, destruction and open world freedom is still incredibly fun, and there aren't many games that give you this exact kind of sandbox.
For me, Just Cause 3 is one of those games where the overall experience matters more than individual flaws. It isn't perfect, but it knows exactly what it wants to be: a massive destruction playground where you can move through the world however you want and cause as much chaos as you feel like.
Main Game: 9/10
Bavarium Sea Heist: 8.5/10
