Rule of Cool: the Just Cause 2 demo

By Reach For The Sky

Rule of Cool: The limit of the Willing Suspension Of Disbelief for a given element is directly proportional to its degree of coolness.

Put simply, when item A is awesome, the average observer doesn't mind if things get a little ridiculous. In this case, item A is the Just Cause 2 demo, now available on Steam, and it is completely awesome. Which is good, because it is also completely ridiculous. First off, this is an example of a good demo. Here's my criteria for the perfect* demo:

-includes tutorial

-shows a good representation of the game

-normal difficulty curve

-healthy amount of content

-plenty of time to explore the demo

I feel it is important to note the AVP demo contained exactly zero of those traits, making it a perfectly terrible demo. But that's another post. JC2 has four, which makes it good. While thirty minutes is a generous amount of time, a timer is a timer, and the demo has too much content for one measly half-hour**. But enough harping for now, I want to tell you what you can expect while you download the demo. That is what you're doing, right?

The tutorial has you blow up explosive barrels and shoot wood targets. Lame. I always base jump off the cliff immediately and get right down to business. Everything after that is an action movie starring you. You have a grappling hook you can use to scale any cliff or building, or snag onto a helicopter. You can tether people to a high pressure gas can, and shoot it so they both fly around like a rapidly deflating balloon. When you want to hijack an enemy vehicle, you jump on the hood, eliminate all the passengers while jumping around the car, and then beat up and throw out the driver like the friggin Transporter (the vehicle is going full speed while you are doing this.) I am quite frankly astounded by all this. The game actually works to make this all seem like something out of a Bruce Willis film. For example, vehicles are incredibly indestructible when you're driving them, but once you bail after a jump, you'll almost always hear an explosion under you. The effect is exhilarating at times.

This makes some of the more...preposterous moments in the game forgivable, if not a little distracting. By spinning a certain way with the parachute out allows for the character to hover forever in place. The game has two distinct falling modes, one keeps you vertical for shorter falls, while the other puts you into skydiver-mode, which brings a level of control similar to that of flying squirrel, making rooftop escapes hilarious at times (the way you fall depends on the distance of the ground immediately under you.) I wasn't digging for bugs when I came across these anomalies, they stand out pretty far. If Halo or (insert preferred generic, yet oddly popular title here) tried to get away with stuff this insane, it would probably result in me giving myself a home-brew lobotomy via a Black & Decker drill. Also, the first (and only) cutscene in the demo was near-vomit-inducing, and the voice acting in general is pretty awful.

In summation, blah blah immersive blah cinematic blah blah thrilling blah. Go play it.

Why am I reviewing a demo anyone can download for free? For one thing it warrants commentary because it's a shining example of an awesome thing in a sea of not-awesome things***. Also the importance of demos is going to go up as wallets tighten. No one is going to shill out $60 bucks for a game that "looks pretty good" anymore. Reviews can't be trusted anymore~. Gamers can only depend on what they play, which means demos and well-off friends that can be mooched off of are in high demand. The latter is becoming short in supply.

"They tell me I am the best"

-Reach

*When I say "perfect" I'm thinking "junior-high essay perfect." the demo could be boring, but as long as it has all the main pieces, it gets a perfect score. The design of the game in question is an entirely different story.

**Yes I'm penalizing the game for having a ton of content. It's its own fault for being so awesome.

***Sue me,I'm getting metaphor-exhausted. Also, triple asterisks! I need to learn how to make that cross thing. Or I could use tildes! ~!

~If you're thinking "this guys a little late to the party isn't he?", know that I'm going to cite that event for the rest of my life. That URL is going on my tombstone.

Rose's Note - The main character in "Just Cause 2" is basically a mixture of Drake (From Drake's Fortune), Duke Nukem, the action hero in "Renegade", and Me and Reach