A new addition to the Xbox Live Marketplace is here, the Just Cause Demo. Here's the scoop...
Just cause is a third-person shooter. The environment setting is Central/South America, in an area rife with corruption. Your character roughly resembles Antonio Banderas from Desperado, complete with hispanic accent. Your job, obviously, is to eliminate corrupt officials hitman style. Your weapons at start are simply 2 handguns, and you have the "easychute" parachute that resembles the Battlefield 2 parachute. When you're done with it, it magically folds itself up to be used again.
Graphically, the game seems very solid. As mentioned before, the Central America setting is complete with rolling hills, tall cliff faces, dirt roads and palm trees galore. As you cruise by the water, it looks beautifully clear, and you can even see the coral reefs under the water as you pass by. The trees have their individual leaves, and the tall grass waves in the breeze. When I first started to play, I was amazed at the scale of the territory, as the demo starts you on one tiny island of the map. I would say it's about 5% of the total gameplay area, and it took me about 15 min. to traverse it on foot. I was by no means interested in the mission at first, and I headed up the nearest cliff for a vista view. Standing on top of this cliff, the view was spectacular, and I decide to jump off. Immediately, I am prompted with an option to "open parachute", which I thought was pretty cool, you can base jump off of just about anything. Parachute controls are excellent, but tricky to control. The physics are pretty close, to turn your character pulls one cord and you swing way out to one side, allowing for crazy bank turns and such.
All vehicles are usable, you procure them GTA style. In other words you rip someone out and "borrow" the vehicle. While driving, there is a "stunt position", which is your character on the roof, from which you can deploy your parachute at any time. This makes for great excitement, as I took one car off a cliff, climbed out on the roof and pulled chute in the middle of the whole thing. Every vehicle has a stunt position, even the helicopter. Your character will bail out mid-flight, and grab onto a rear fin, from which you can hold on until the chopper goes down, or pull chute and float blissfully away. While parachuting, if you pass over a car, you are given the option to "jump to roof", from where you can parachute again or jump off. Not included in the demo is the ability to use a grappling hook, which you can affix to a vehicle passing by, parasailing a ride somewhere.
Weapons are very common, killing local guerillas and soldiers gives you a wide variety. Grenades, Rocket launchers, Assault rifles, AR's with armor peircing bullets, it's got it all. The only drawback is you can't really see who you're shooting, most times the enemy is too far off to tell, but the games gives you a GTA style auto-aim, making it easier to take down opponents.
All in all, I was very impressed with this demo, from graphics to gameplay. If it wasn't for the mission timer (you must take out 4 marks before sunset) I would probably explore quite more extensively. I would highly recommend this demo, even for those who dislike the 3rd person view. It can be tricky to get used to, but after a few runs, the game is very exciting. Check it out in the XBLM.
Just cause is a third-person shooter. The environment setting is Central/South America, in an area rife with corruption. Your character roughly resembles Antonio Banderas from Desperado, complete with hispanic accent. Your job, obviously, is to eliminate corrupt officials hitman style. Your weapons at start are simply 2 handguns, and you have the "easychute" parachute that resembles the Battlefield 2 parachute. When you're done with it, it magically folds itself up to be used again.
Graphically, the game seems very solid. As mentioned before, the Central America setting is complete with rolling hills, tall cliff faces, dirt roads and palm trees galore. As you cruise by the water, it looks beautifully clear, and you can even see the coral reefs under the water as you pass by. The trees have their individual leaves, and the tall grass waves in the breeze. When I first started to play, I was amazed at the scale of the territory, as the demo starts you on one tiny island of the map. I would say it's about 5% of the total gameplay area, and it took me about 15 min. to traverse it on foot. I was by no means interested in the mission at first, and I headed up the nearest cliff for a vista view. Standing on top of this cliff, the view was spectacular, and I decide to jump off. Immediately, I am prompted with an option to "open parachute", which I thought was pretty cool, you can base jump off of just about anything. Parachute controls are excellent, but tricky to control. The physics are pretty close, to turn your character pulls one cord and you swing way out to one side, allowing for crazy bank turns and such.
All vehicles are usable, you procure them GTA style. In other words you rip someone out and "borrow" the vehicle. While driving, there is a "stunt position", which is your character on the roof, from which you can deploy your parachute at any time. This makes for great excitement, as I took one car off a cliff, climbed out on the roof and pulled chute in the middle of the whole thing. Every vehicle has a stunt position, even the helicopter. Your character will bail out mid-flight, and grab onto a rear fin, from which you can hold on until the chopper goes down, or pull chute and float blissfully away. While parachuting, if you pass over a car, you are given the option to "jump to roof", from where you can parachute again or jump off. Not included in the demo is the ability to use a grappling hook, which you can affix to a vehicle passing by, parasailing a ride somewhere.
Weapons are very common, killing local guerillas and soldiers gives you a wide variety. Grenades, Rocket launchers, Assault rifles, AR's with armor peircing bullets, it's got it all. The only drawback is you can't really see who you're shooting, most times the enemy is too far off to tell, but the games gives you a GTA style auto-aim, making it easier to take down opponents.
All in all, I was very impressed with this demo, from graphics to gameplay. If it wasn't for the mission timer (you must take out 4 marks before sunset) I would probably explore quite more extensively. I would highly recommend this demo, even for those who dislike the 3rd person view. It can be tricky to get used to, but after a few runs, the game is very exciting. Check it out in the XBLM.
