Skip to main content
PC Gamer PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
flag of UK
UK
flag of US
US
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of Australia
Australia
  • Games
  • Hardware
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Video
  • Forum
  • More
    • PC Gaming Show
    • Software
    • Movies & TV
    • Coupons
    • Magazine
    • Newsletter
    • Community guidelines
    • Affiliate links
    • Meet the team
    • About PC Gamer
PC Gamer Magazine Subscription
PC Gamer Magazine Subscription
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe to the world's #1 PC gaming mag
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$32.49
Subscribe now
Popular
  • Essential Hardware
  • Microsoft
  • Dune: Awakening
  • AI
  • PC Gaming Show
Recommended reading
MindsEye third person shooter action game
Third Person Shooter MindsEye: All the key details on the new action game from one of the minds behind Grand Theft Auto
Protagonist Jason Duval in Grand Theft Auto 6.
Third Person Shooter GTA 6's preposterously gorgeous second trailer has me thinking 'no-one does it like Rockstar' isn't just a compliment, but an omen
A large illuminate structure explodes in the middle of a Super Earth city in Helldivers 2.
Third Person Shooter In my first hour with Helldivers 2's new city maps, I've caused millions in property damage, been to several Illuminate raves, and committed treason in the fog of war
Key art of Leonida Keys.
Grand Theft Auto The details and takeaways you might've missed in the new GTA 6 trailer
Best open world games - A warrior on horseback looking at the Scadutree in Elden Ring
Games The best open world games
Revenge of the Savage Planet screenshot
Action Revenge of the Savage Planet review: A refreshingly cheerful dystopian metroidvania that just wants you and your co-op friend to have some laughs
Grounded 2 reveal
Survival & Crafting Grounded 2's starter area is the size of the entire first game, and you can get around by riding ants and spiders—this might end up being my new favourite survival game
  1. Games
  2. Adventure
  3. Just Cause 3

Why you should be excited about Just Cause 3

Features
By Andy Kelly published 13 February 2015

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Last month I visited Stockholm to spend some time with Just Cause 3, the next game in Avalanche’s chaotic open-world series. After half an hour of grappling, parachuting, wingsuiting, and exploding my way around Medici, the new Mediterranean-flavoured setting, I was impressed. It’s not a huge leap from Just Cause 2, but it’s more fun, more polished, and more over-the-top in almost every respect.

Page 1 of 11
Page 1 of 11
Medici

Medici

A crucial part of the Just Cause formula is an exotic setting, and the new game continues that trend with the sun-soaked Mediterranean archipelago of Medici. It’s a vast, beautiful landscape, with a lot more terrain variety than Panau. Along the coast I see natural arches jutting out of the rocks and a town perched on the edge of a cliff. There are fields of dazzling, colourful flowers and in the distance I spot a colossal snow-capped mountain. There aren’t any snowy mountains in the Mediterranean, of course, but Avalanche tell me they decided to take some artistic licence in the interest of fun.

Page 2 of 11
Page 2 of 11
The ‘Fire Leech’

The ‘Fire Leech’

The combat feels similar to the last game, but a little more chunky and satisfying. I tested a few weapons out—a pretty standard selection of machine-guns, shotguns, and so on—but the best was easily the Fire Leech, an absurd missile launcher that can fire eight rockets at a time. Hold the fire button and it locks on to any nearby destructible objects or enemies, then you let go and watch the fireworks. Avalanche told me that this particular weapon was dreamed up by a programmer, who brought it to the producers and suggested it be included as part of Rico’s arsenal. How could they say no?

Page 3 of 11
Page 3 of 11
The wingsuit

The wingsuit

Along with the parachute and grapple, there’s a third way for Rico to get around Medici: the wingsuit. You can transition into it at any time, and its physics are so exaggerated and floaty that it’s basically like flying. Seamlessly transitioning from the grapple to the parachute to the wingsuit feels really intuitive. I found myself ignoring my objectives and just floating around, flying gracefully through underground caverns and emerging at the other side. If you lose momentum it’s just a case of grappling onto something and giving yourself a boost. People are going to pull off some amazing stunts with this thing.

Page 4 of 11
Page 4 of 11
Tether-ism

Tether-ism

Tethering things to other things was one of the best things about Just Cause 2, but it’s even more fun in the new game. You can now use multiple tethers at once (a maximum of three, but modders will deal with that), and adjust their tension at the touch of a button. So say an attack chopper is on your tail. You can tether it to the ground, then tighten the wires so that it pulls it down and smashes it into the ground. Or maybe you just want to tether a few enemies to your sports car and do doughnuts as they scream in terror. The potential for physics-based mischief and mayhem here is huge.

Page 5 of 11
Page 5 of 11
Cascading destruction

Cascading destruction

This sounds a bit like one of those annoying game developer buzzwords, like Battlefield’s ‘levolution’, but it really is the best way to describe how things explode in Just Cause 3. Destroying one thing almost always sets off a chain reaction, and the ensuing parade of fire, explosions, and crumbling physics objects is a sight to behold. I launched a volley of rockets from the Fire Leech into an enemy base and it seemed to explode forever. I played Just Cause 2 immediately after playing JC3, and the destruction felt so weedy in comparison. It’s not as insanely granular as Red Faction: Guerrilla, but it’s close.

Page 6 of 11
Page 6 of 11
The visuals

The visuals

Yes, it’s a very pretty game. Of course it is. I asked Avalanche if they were giving any extra love to the PC version, and they said the water is being co-developed with Nvidia, so expect some very fancy shimmering and undulating. The idea, they say, is to make the water vehicles more satisfying to use, with realistic wave physics to battle against. Again, going back to JC2 just after playing JC3 highlighted just what a graphical leap the sequel is. Everything feels /bigger/ too. One enemy base is like a giant multi-tiered oil rig plugged into the side of a cliff. Blowing that to pieces was pretty exhilarating.

Page 7 of 11
Page 7 of 11
Supply drops

Supply drops

In JC2 you could call in vehicles and weapons, but for a cost. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve spent a fortune on a plane, only to screw up the take-off and slam it into the ground. That won’t be a problem in JC3, though, because supply drops are free. You can call in tanks, choppers, guns, cars, and so on at any time, and there’s no cost. But to balance things out, enemy strength will dynamically increase as your own firepower does. Get into a tank and you’ll suddenly be facing soldiers with RPGs, for example. So while calling in drops will be more convenient, it won’t make the game too easy.

Page 8 of 11
Page 8 of 11
Liberation

Liberation

Rico is fighting to free Medici (actually the country where he was born) from an evil dictator. Toppling dictators is, after all, his thing. The country’s towns have been smothered by propaganda and armed guards, and citizens slump around looking depressed. But once you’ve charged in, killed everyone, and destroyed all the propaganda, everyone is suddenly really happy. Giving Rico a more personal stake in defeating this particular dictator should, hopefully, make the plot a bit more compelling. Story has always been the weakest part of the Just Cause games.

Page 9 of 11
Page 9 of 11
Hijacking

Hijacking

The good news is, they’ve gotten rid of that tedious hijacking QTE thing. But there’s still a risk element when it comes to stealing military hardware. A short animation plays in which Rico slaps a bit of C4 on whatever he’s trying to nick and blows the bloody doors off. This leaves you open to attack, so it’ll be a bit of a gamble if your health is low. This, and the dynamic difficulty I mentioned in the supply drops slide, shows that Avalanche know that something can’t just be fun; it has to offer a satisfying challenge too. Getting that balance just right will be one of their biggest challenges in developing JC3.

Page 10 of 11
Page 10 of 11
Infinite C4

Infinite C4

To help in the process of blowing absolutely everything up, Rico has infinite remote-detonated C4. You can only place five at a time (again, expect the modders to make short work of that), and thanks to that cascading destruction thing I talked about earlier, the results are devastating. I spent a large portion of my playtime strapping C4 to bits of enemy base, then wingsuiting a mile away, detonating, and watching it explode majestically. Then when you discover that you can attach C4 to things, then tether them to other things, your mind races with ideas for creative chaos.

Page 11 of 11
Page 11 of 11
Andy Kelly
Andy Kelly
Social Links Navigation

If it’s set in space, Andy will probably write about it. He loves sci-fi, adventure games, taking screenshots, Twin Peaks, weird sims, Alien: Isolation, and anything with a good story.

Read more
MindsEye third person shooter action game
MindsEye: All the key details on the new action game from one of the minds behind Grand Theft Auto
Protagonist Jason Duval in Grand Theft Auto 6.
GTA 6's preposterously gorgeous second trailer has me thinking 'no-one does it like Rockstar' isn't just a compliment, but an omen
A large illuminate structure explodes in the middle of a Super Earth city in Helldivers 2.
In my first hour with Helldivers 2's new city maps, I've caused millions in property damage, been to several Illuminate raves, and committed treason in the fog of war
Key art of Leonida Keys.
The details and takeaways you might've missed in the new GTA 6 trailer
Best open world games - A warrior on horseback looking at the Scadutree in Elden Ring
The best open world games
Revenge of the Savage Planet screenshot
Revenge of the Savage Planet review: A refreshingly cheerful dystopian metroidvania that just wants you and your co-op friend to have some laughs
Latest in Adventure
Hanna's face, half-lit by a sunset.
Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream review—Beautiful Scandinavian stealth that's too strict for its own good
Sad face standing in front of a crashed plane
'Coconuts will now bonk scouts': Peak's latest update makes fruit even deadlier but has spared other items from the same treatment
peak multiplayer mod
'Hi modders <3': Peak devs know we're using mods to break past the 4-player limit, and they're so cool with it they're even fixing mod-specific bugs
A climber skeleton generated by the Everest mod in Peak.
Peak modder celebrates the grim achievement of generating 10,000 skeletons in a single day with a mod that 'creates a shared experience of failure and discovery' by littering the island with the corpses of your fellow scouts
A woman in a floral dress extends her bare foot to a kneeling man, in a screenshot from Chinese FMV game Revenge on Gold Diggers.
Chinese FMV game about getting 'revenge on gold diggers' plunges the country into online gender tumult
Peak scout posing
Peak re-releases its next update aimed at improving stability and reassures players 'we don't have any issue with sharing video content, including modded stuff'
Latest in Features
Kibellah holds a blade to an enemy's throat
If you've been putting off Rogue Trader until patches and DLC make it better, now's finally the time to jump in
Minecraft - Alex holds a telescope
It's been a year since Minecraft ditched annual summer updates, and I have to admit there's never been a better time to play
Firing a shotgun in COP BASTARD.
Cop Bastard is a retro first-person shooter that's exactly as aggressively weird as you'd expect from a game called Cop Bastard
Hatsune Miku x TUF Gaming collaboration ft. Keyboard, Mini Wireless Mouse, Headset, and Mouse Mat against pale wood background
My desktop has been overrun by virtual pop sensation Hatsune Miku goodies from Asus, but I'm here to tell you that it really is a case of style over substance
New Neverwinter Nights 2 key art of King of Shadows, skeletal figure with horns surrounded by blue fire
Neverwinter Nights 2 is one of the best RPGs you've never played, and if you like Baldur's Gate 3 or Disco Elysium, you owe it to yourself to check out its new Enhanced Edition
Concept art of NWN2 Warlock Ammon Jerro yelling while summoning fire
Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition is an excellent, subtle remaster and my new Steam Deck game of the summer
  1. A pair of PCIe 5.0 gaming SSDs against a gradient red/orange background with a PC Gamer Recommended logo in the corner.
    1
    Best PCIe 5.0 SSD for gaming in 2025: the only Gen 5 drives I will allow in my PC
  2. 2
    Best graphics cards in 2025: I've tested pretty much every AMD and Nvidia GPU of the past 20 years and these are today's top cards
  3. 3
    Best gaming laptop in 2025: I've put the best of this new generation head-to-head and we have a winner
  4. 4
    Best gaming chair in 2025: I've tested a ton of gaming chairs and these are the seats I'd suggest for any PC gamer
  5. 5
    Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads
  1. A white gaming PC built using a Thermaltake PC case, Cooler Master fans, and an AMD CPU.
    1
    Thermaltake S100 TG Snow Edition review
  2. 2
    Cooler Master Hyper 212 Pro review
  3. 3
    Razer Pro Click V2 Vertical Edition review
  4. 4
    Keychron M7 8K Wireless review
  5. 5
    Corsair MAKR 75 keyboard review

PC Gamer is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...