Just Cause

Played a little over an hour of this game and it made me realize just how terribly g@¥ modern games have become

No morality system or over the top puzzles

No "collect 10 flowers, help 5 grandmas cross the street and kick Macron's wife in the balls to unlock the secret ultimate true good ending"

You run and shoot and run and shoot and do all sorts of zany acrobatics

The story is also straight forward and doesn't try to be overly the top complex

Even thought it's dated i recommend it wholeheartedly

9 Justs outta 10 Causes

Note: To play at a higher res paste /width=1920 /height=1080 into the launch options

I expected this to be bad, but it's actually a pretty good time. There is a level of freedom to this chaos one can't help but adore. It's old yet still very playable, with a kind of unpolished brilliance that modern games rarely capture. The jank, rather than being a flaw, becomes part of the experience, making even failure entertaining. It’s the kind of game that doesn’t care about perfection; it just hands you a sandbox of insanity and says, go have fun. And somehow, against all odds, it works.

Very fun Game to play. Didnt get too far into the story but just gonna watch a youtube video on it. moving on to just cause 2

best start for the game series

one of my best childhood games

HELI=HELL
the 1 thing stopping me from giving this a good review is the helicopters if they did 1/2 or 1/4 of the damage that they currently do this game would be a 4/5 (it would be a 5/5 if you could grapple onto anything)

I wanted to play the game for nostalgia's shake, however, it's unplayable on my current PC. 12 hours in and the game gets stuck on a certain mission and exits on its own to the desktop. Plus there is a bug where I couldn't drive any of the cool agency's vehicles. The map is huge and the gameplay gets repetitive after a while mostly due to the big distances between missions. The graphics are really nice considering the year that this game was released.

The game shows it's age, a lot. Don't like it.

We can't judge a 2005 game with 2025 standards.
Actually, it was pretty fun at that time.

The game is so bad that it is good, just try this and go play JustCause4 and gahdamn.. how far they gotten since. its fun but looks hella shitty lmao, would recommend.

unrealistic the CIA would never support a Socialist revolution

Bike+Dirt+Guns=Just Cause 1

its not the best but its good 9/10

This game is in the middle of dislike and like i would not recommend this game but nor not recommend it. the enemies in this game are hell, they shoot at you with helicopters while your trying to swim to sure, when your helicopter is about to explode you don't even get to react fast enough to hop out you just die, only play this game if you want to see the history of just cause, if not skip to just cause 2 3 and 4

Remember I tried this game on PC when it released and I already thought back then that this game is not the best. It was fun for a couple of hours, but it was very repetitive and boring.

Now jump into 2025, I gave this game another chance. Thought maybe I was just too little to understand and appreciate what the game can offer. I was wrong, this game is even worse today.

I'm not downvoting the game for the technical issues, 'cause a lot of good game needs some tweaking for modern system. But, if you want to "enjoy" this game properly, you need some widescreen patch from the web and also need to cap the framerate to 60, because above 60 the aim gets very weird.

Let's start with the good ones: The graphics okay, but what really impressed me, was the landscape. It's a PS2-era game and the world is still amazing looking, especially from a helicopter or a plane. The skybox is very nice, they really nailed the sunset too, overall it's a good looking game.

Aaaand that's it. Everything else is bad or average at best. IMO the world is just too big. They did what Ubisoft openworld games doing these days, they made a huge map, but it's empty and it has super repetitive side quests and collectable items. But I have to say it's even worse than Ubisoft games, the french company at least trying to implement a decent story with variable characters, here...it's not exist. There are no characters, and there is no story at all, just a frickin synopsis: "There is this latino island with a bad dictator. Go put him down and his government". That's it, that's the whole story.

The driving is awful. There are no difference between asphalt and dirt roads, you will crash a LOT. Braking a little on higher speed? You will spin. I actually had more fun with boats and planes. The planes and helicopters are very good actually, I had some fun with those.

Shooting is meh. Not the worst what I ever played, but it could've been better. There a lot of guns in the game, but honestly I didn't notice any difference, looked and felt all the same. And what really pissed me off in combat that the enemies respawns constantly. The game is not eveny try to hide it, they respawns from anywhere, even front of you, and it's infinite, they keep coming back, until you finish your mission. I guess the devs wanted chaos and mayhem with this, but I think it's not went well.

I tried to reach at least 10 hours, but I gave up on 6 hours. It's a very bad experience, especially today, in 2025. If you consider to try out the whole series, listen to me and just skip the first game!

if you own all other just cause games get this game when its on sale

This is the first in the series and one to avoid. Your skills do not matter in this game because enemy spawns are entirely random. You could raid a military base and get incredibly lucky wiping it in seconds or unlucky and die before you even destroy the first barrier.

Forget having skills its pure random chance if you actually win a fight. Helicopters automatically respawn if you destroy one so don't waste your time fighting them you literally can't destroy enemy helicopters.

If you use a vehicle the enemy will focus you with a vengeance. Stay away from motorbikes they're completely useless. Your best friend is the attack helicopter, literally every other vehicle is garbage and suicidal to use. It is safer to travel on foot than in a tank because enemies start spamming rockets at you if you're in any vehicle and you can still get hurt inside them.

The storyline is largely boring, there's like 15 missions in the entire game at most and they're all forgettable and extremely short.

The zipline mechanic doesn't work properly and you're far more likely to lose your momentum or get shot off in a random direction than actually stealing vehicles you want.

The characters are boring and you will get tired of hearing the same dialogue "Marco, this is the policia" over and over and over again because every single NPC says it.

Gun fights are a frantic mess, you are far better off just tanking the damage and running through the crowds because enemies will spawn infinitely

The cities are bland and copy pasted, they all look identical and the roads are a pure mess, there are no shops to buy or sell anything so they're entirely pointless. The map is covered in trees and if you fall in a forest you will be stuck there so you may as well call an evac instead.

I made it to the end of the game and still hadn't unlocked the personal helicopter or boat on my PDA because I'd have to do a million side quests to get enough EXP to unlock them.

The driving mechanics are wack, all the cars have insane oversteer and it feels like the roads are made of frozen butter. One wrong move and you will spin out. The guns and vehicles are also pure weird and look out of place. They look like something from a sci-fi video game than a Caribbean city. El presidente has better tanks and guns than the US. Military.

You will die a lot, usually from explosive spams that are caused by tanks who are your worst enemy in this game. Its better to run up and steal a tank than try fight one since it wastes your rockets and stealing a tank happens instantly.

Overall really unpolished game and you'd be better off playing a later one in the series

When i first got the game i would play it non stop, this game is the reason why ive made a few favourites on the way such as just cause 2 and 3.

the best

The game is extremely janky. This game seriously did not age well for me. Do not get this game even if its on sale, if you are not here for nostalgia. This game is probably the worst game that I have ever played.

I did not play this game because of nostalgia which is probably why I seriously did not like this game. I am aware that the game is old but gta 3 or far cry 1 is way more better than this game.

There are so many annoying missions like the last few missions being extremely broken. Very messy and weird. There was so much chaos and it felt so unfair. The tank glitch driving is the worst part of the game, it would just flip like crazy by just aiming different locations. It was super annoying.

How you heal in this game is annoying, it is luck based, sometimes they will drop med kits, sometimes rarely. It is super annoying.

I would have been ok with the old graphics but the game play is just broken and janky. So many annoyances. Do not waste your time at this game.

This might be the most dumb, stupid, empty mess I've played. Don't play unless you find this thing kinda funny or for the history of games (like me)
4/10

Game is alright, can have weird bugs and glitches but once you get past that it is almost like Far Cry 2 mixed with GTA San Andreas.

Honestly it's time's like this I really wish Steam had a neutral review option. Let me start this of by saying you really don't need to play this entry in the game unless you like playing everything in order for whatever reason.

This game has a really dated feel and the story is pretty uninteresting. There's so much to do in the world but honestly one you've done a couple of the side missions they all felt pretty much the same. The open world was really cool to see in this game considering the scale of it and how old this game was. It felt pretty impressive in the beginning but never really grabs you in a way to make you want to stay. If you want to play this to get into the story I would just recommend blowing past the story as its pretty short. Not a terrible game but nothing to go crazy about.

100 Backlog Games of 2025 Challenge: 5/100

On its own, it's pretty meh. Just a boring open world action game. For 2006, it has a pretty expansive map, but not much to actually do except liberate tons of settlements in the most boring missions ever made and collect random shit. With JC2 and JC3 existing, this game has no purpose, as those games replicate the model of this game, but make it actually fun. I'd suggest just watching the story clips on Youtube, but even then, the story is the blandest thing ever.

play just cause 2 and forward

Love all the just cause games. JC2 and 3 are probably the best in the franchise, but this one is still enjoyable and gets credit for starting the franchise. Definitely recommend for fans of open worlds and freedom in games.

Not Recommended

Nostalgic game for sure. Bought as soon as i saw it.

Hmm, I have a bit mixed feeling about this game.
The open world setting is great, and you can use, destroy or kill everything.
But the big down side is infinitely, rapidly and closely respawning enemies.
So it makes no sense to fight them, just run past them towards your goal or back home.
And the second you get in any car, you get attacked ten-fold infinitely,
so I ended up just running towards many goals on foot.
Just focus on the main goals and there's fun to be had.

Game doesn't work, don't buy. OH and steam won't give you a refund either, even though you haven't played it long enough. FUCK STEAM. scamming bastards!

This game is great. I love playing the game so much. I hope steam fix just cause 2. But just cause 1 is so fun.

pretty gosh darn fun

stuck on load screen, can't play on windows 10, 2070 rtx, ryzen 6 core, 32gb ram

Skip to 2 and 3, Visually, it looks impressive for 2006 game, but the gameplay is just straight up garbage.

No.

I tried. I really tried.
However, I'd played Just Cause 2 first and this one just doesn't hold up. It is extremely dated and the user interaction feels wrong.

With that said, if you really want to give it a go, catch it on a sale. It's super cheap right now.
However, I'd say to completely skip it and go and buy Just Cause 2 right now as it's also super cheap!

It is a best sandbox type game highly recommend, i know some missions might make u lose ur patience but if u manage to figure out how to complete it u will enjoy this game, it will be worth it at the end .

Unplayable garbage. You're better off pirating this shit because the fucking drop-off cars won't move.

Edit: If this bug happens, cap to 60 FPS.

Ok... TO BE FAIR, its the first one in the series so the I can forgive some mishaps...
Graphics were great for that time but COME ON! It's time for a remaster, update the controller PLEASE!
Story - not enough played, but it feels off... no real background for relationships.
Gameplay - standard for the series...
Price - GET IT WHILE ITS ON SALE!
On a note of idea(s)... Rico is young, but how did he come to meet Sheldon and the Agency? What is the Agency? Could someone consider making a game about the time period when this guy was growing up into a full fledged warrior from just a hatchling?

Nostalgic game to me. This is the game which lead to whole series of the just cause. If you wanna experience what first just cause game is, or you wanna play it to feal nostalgic, go for it. If dont, i wouldnt reccomend to buy this game

You can skip it tbh. it's not that great. it's got way too much PS2 jank it's not even fun anymore.
just watch all cutscenes on youtube and you're ready to play JC2

this game has the Best soundtrack

Good action game, but very hard at certain points.

This is the most difficult recommend/not-recommend I write. So, in the hope of coming to a solid decision, let's continue with the review first.

Starting with the story. Absolute joke. And somehow, it feels intentional. But the almost-parody nature of action-hero story feels to be trying to laugh at the action-hero tropes, while embodying the worst aspects of such tropes. It is basically a simple story about helping rebels overthrow a dictatorial regiment. A lot of games have done it. Some popular games on top of my head are the recent disappointing Far Cry 6, Ghost Recon Wildlands etc. However, a non-original story isn't necessarily a bad one. This is not the case for this game though. There are no stakes, or more particularly - the story can't build any stake. The characters are egregiously shallow. The ladies - Maria Kane, Esparanza and Imma-whatshername (the red dress wife of the gangster) are all nothing but eye-candies. I am all for eye-candies, but they need something more for them to be memorable. The male characters like Tom Sheldon, Jose, el presidente Salvador or our protagonist Rico are as shallow due to their religious allegiance to the tropes they represent. And then again, this was not he main draw of the game. And I am usually very lenient on the story when it isn't the main draw, this game messes it up so bad that it actively brings my attention to it. So that wasn't enjoyable during a non-negligible part of my playthrough.

The gameplay is what is supposed to draw players in. And I found it extremely fun...for a while. The core gameplay of brainless shooting, coupled with pretty dynamic vehicular combat was pretty fun. However, the set pieces that populate the world are extremely one note without variety. That gives very little diversity in actual gameplay and that sores down the experience within the first playthrough itself. In the very few situations where there are vehicular set-pieces, I found that a lot of fun can be had with the game. Replicate such gameplay outside of the main storyline is extremely difficult and isn't worth setting up due to the lack of vehicle density in the world - which is kind of a unique problem I came across. But when the action pops off, it really pops off.

I guess that's all I want to say about the game. Do I recommend it? I don't think so. Play from the second game onwards I guess. I don't remember the game from my childhood even if it is one of the games I still have the og disk preserved.

I'll give this a 4/10. Is this an unpopular pinion to have? I don't know.

Still fun to this day. Missions are quick but the story is fair, mainly just playing for the lore. Buy when discounted.

Edit: Just skip all the side missions they are the most repetitive thing in any game I have ever played, WORSE THAN ASSASSINS CREED 1!

Don't look at the release date. Just do it.

Not bad. Its exactly like Just Cause 2 but slower and harder to look at. I do think this is one of the more impressive Ps2 games as the maps are large with tons and tons of missons. The fights so far are more scripted. In 2, you would just blow up everything with a flag on it. I do think your getting a lot of bang for your buck but if you do have the newer ones, theyre really no reason to get this. I am shocked by how sexual this game is consider the time it came out. Anyways good but you should really just get the newer ones. Also this game takes up more space than 2 which is pretty insane.

Infinite enemy spawning

anyone make a rtx remix to this legend

You might be mislead by the age and graphics of the game, but it is a really fun game. Note, only buy it when on sale, I bought it for a dollar, and it's a good game for the price point. Good for low end PC's, and still a good game.

this game's map is probably bigger than gta 6 map, and this thing ran on the ps2. THE FREAKING PS2