The Therapist Gamer

My wife said she heard me laughing while playing Just Cause 3 more than during any other game.  I think there's just something inherently funny about goofy things happening in a game, and doubly funny if it's because of the physics engine.  Just Cause 3 is the ultimate over-the-top game, and it delivers.

 

You play as a guy named Rico and, as is past games, you are trying to cause as much destruction as possible on an island nation run by a ruthless dictator.  All of this destruction is ultimately designed to destroy the regime, but in gameplay terms it means lots of explosions. Lots.  Of explosions.

 

Getting around in Just Cause 3 is as unique as it is fun.  You have a grappling hook that shoots quite far and as you are zooming towards your target you can hit a button to instantly release the grappling hook and deploy a parachute.  You can also press a button to deploy a wingsuit with admittedly unreal aerodynamics.  These three techniques combined allow you to traverse practically any terrain quickly - and it never gets old.  It's fun to see how far you can go without touching the ground, or how close you can wingsuit through the flowers.  I had to make sure to play a non-open-world game after this because, after playing Just Cause 3, I wanted every game to have the same methods to get from point A to point B.

 

Speaking of traveling, there are a ton of vehicles to try out - my favorite being the helicopters.  The vehicles feel distinct and it's fun to drive around like a maniac knowing that you can just parachute out of the car at any time, including right before you run into a building or off a cliff.

 

The real star of the game, though, is the tether system.  With the press and release of a button, you can tether any two objects together with the strongest cords known to humankind.  As you progress you can have more and more of these tethers launched simultaneously, making you eventually capable of having six tethers active at once.  This makes things fun for a number of reasons.  If you're being chased by a car, hop onto the roof and tether the enemy car to the road.  BOOM!  More often than not it'll flip over or swerve violently to the side.  You can tether an enemy to a propane cylinder and then shoot the cylinder, shooting it into the sky and taking the enemy with it.  This endlessly fun mechanic is further enhanced with the ability to retract the tethers.  What this means is that if you have a tether connecting two things together, you can hold a button to have the tether pull in both directions.  In other words, if you tether a soldier to a building, you can retract the tether to have the soldier fly towards the building.  Whatever has the bigger mass will attract the smaller object.  I had hours of fun with these mechanics and they are the source of most of the laughter my wife heard.

 

There really is no other game quite like Just Cause 3.  The tether system, the parachute, the wingsuit, the vehicles . . . it all adds up to a fun time that doesn't take itself too seriously.  And sometimes we just need to play games like that.