Just Cause Mobile

I'm surprised, and confused

The Just Cause franchise has something of a unique allure to it, doesn't it? These are games that do have stories, characters and dialogue; but none of it is what get's folk through the door, not at all? No, people just want to shack up with their favourite destructive playground and go ham, with no one telling them "You can't do this, the laws of physics don't allow it". In that sense, Just Cause is almost like GTA to most people, except a GTA where you can fly around and blow up massive base facilities. I think that might be the reason why Just Cause never really stood out until the second game, where the destruction was fully embraced. The first game, though I've played it, doesn't really stand out in my memory as anything special, kind of like the first Hitman. (Although I think that game had a slightly better grasp of what it eventually wanted to be.) Nowadays, however, the series is a pioneer in pyrotechnical feats of destruction that push current gaming tech too (and sometimes beyond) it's limits. So I have no idea how that's going to translate into an isometric multiplayer mobile game.

That's right, in the middle of the Video Game awards show, surrounded by big reveals and high budget juggernauts, a mobile Just Cause game just sort of jumped out of the shadows to announce itself with absolutely no fanfare. I even went to look it up, this isn't a case of me just being out-of-the-loop like with 'Back 4 Blood', the VGAs were the literal announcement slot, and they played it so low key that I forgot the game existed. I think that may stem from the way that this very concept seems to not make sense on a base level; thus my brain rejects making it solid in my memory. How can a mobile phone attempt to replicate the glory of the main games, whilst attempting to be a multiplayer title too? Who imagined such a thing? Why weren't they stopped? And it's a Free-to-play with up to 30 players in competitive multiplayer? Okay, stop. This is all just too much.

So let's start by looking at the trailer... and it's mostly just CG without gameplay... great. From here we can see there's a whole cast of characters who look so frightfully generic it surprises me. (Then again, this is from the series which can't seem to settle on a face for its main protagonist, so I shouldn't be too shocked) Even the supposed villain teased looked like he was pulled right from the premade assets in Source Engine. ("I need a Scientist; first one you see!") But there was some actual gameplay mixed in there and thus I can see that the game looks graphically: rough. Which, again, is somewhat representative of a series that has never been on the forefront of graphical prowess, but even then this is a clear stepdown from Just Cause 4. The graphics look closer to Just Cause 2, to be honest. Though by the standard of what one would expect on a mobile device, they've done a good job. One must always remember that developing for Mobiles means creating software that works on a ludicrously vast array of hardware limitations for various different models of phone, that the game doesn't look like absolute trash is an achievement.

As for how the gameplay compares to the mainline games; things don't look brilliant from the getgo. Though it's hard to get a great look, from the trailer it seems like there's some sort of arcadey twin-stick vibe to the game with a fixed isometric camera that makes the game look like a 2000's era shoot-em-up rather than an action adventure sandbox. In fact, I'd wager that all allusions to a sandbox are devoid from this trailer altogether, with the game looking like it shapes into 'stages' instead. That being said, for the limitations I am surprised that the destructive heart of Just Cause seems to be beating down there somewhere. Destructible containers are painted in that telltale red stripes and their explosions seem satisfactory, and the helicopter combat I saw was practically indistinguishable from the base game. (Provided you played the game with the camera forever titled downwards for some reason.)

I think my biggest point of contention with the existence of this thing, or points, would be firstly "Why". Just "Why". Does anyone really want to play a game where you have to fight through enemies to blow up bases all day? Isn't part of the fun of Just Cause just being so overpowered that you don't even really need to deal with enemies? Or in the situations when you do, handling it in a creative way? In the trailer I didn't see a single takedown involving pulling a tower ontop of some enemies or sticking jets to them and blowing them away. And secondly; does it have to be a Free-to-play? I get is, that's how they justify the existence, right? If they charged then one could just argue that the base Just Cause is better value, but I think we all know how 'free entry' is just an excuse to open up the flood gates.

Even now as I look at the screenshots on the website I can't help but notice a certain UI featuring 'level' next to pieces of gear, and suddenly I'm sent flashing back to 'Ghost Recon Breakpoint', 'Avengers' and every other game that uses a tiered gear system. Now to be clear, there's nothing wrong with tiered/levelled gear inherently, it's just a perfect microcosm of every problem that a F2P's typically face. Levelling gear is typically something which starts out as not a problem, the kind of thing you forget about, until it creeps up on you and eventually becomes a barrier to profession. Maybe the game itself will take pity on you and offer you an ability to save the inevitable grind by supplying handy microstransactions. It's all just so predictable and tired, can't there be some sort of new twist on this sort of presence by now? It's so prolific that the game design has leaked into AAA's, time to dream up a new system, no?

But perhaps I'm just being a hater and allowing my general biases to seep into my opinion. Quiet honestly, I've never really held all that high regard for Just Cause and find the series to be a fun distraction for a couple hours but never really worthy of a dedicated playthrough. Thus I see a mobile game that strips what little depth the game had to it's bare bones, and I can't help but scoff a little. However, I do recognise that there are those out there who love the freedom of Just Cause, and maybe this little bite-sized free chunk of that is exactly what they what; carnage with all the fluff between cut out. I'm not sure if creativity has been exorcised from the development process or something, (I certainly can't seem to find any evidence of it) but maybe that alone isn't enough to sully the package for those who'd love normal Just Cause.

Allow me to remain the constant sceptic, however. Mechanically I have to appreciate what's on display here, but I think by now we're all aware that decent mobile games are often the exception, and never the rule. What's more, this game isn't even being developed by Avalanche Studios, but an entirely new Square Enix team that they haven't even gone to the trouble of naming yet. Call me a negative nancy, but I can't help but get weird vibes off of this game, from the casual way it was revealed to the manner that you'd probably not even notice this was Just Cause game unless you were specifically told. Maybe I'm dead wrong, and I'd love to be, but I wouldn't recommend holding your breath on this title. Just pick up JC2, looks about the same.