This is a game that lets you grapple to a helicopter; beat up the pilot; hijack the

chopper; shoot up a military base; set the helicopter on a collision course for a fuel

tank; and then parachute away from the bird right before it crashes and burns in an enormous

explosion. There's a lot of crazy fun in here, and when Just Cause 2 gives you freedom, it

soars. Unfortunately, targeting issues drag the gunplay down, and many of the missions

simply stink. There are a lot of little glitches and annoyances that might get on your nerves,

but when you're soaring over the mountains in a fighter jet or leaping from the roof

of one vehicle to another, the frustrations are easily forgotten.

The game's best asset by far is its gargantuan size. Just Cause 2 takes place on the island

nation of Panau, and it's just enormous. You could spend countless hours in the capital

city alone, and that's just a tiny corner of map. From snow-capped mountains to hidden

forest villages to sun-drenched beaches, the game's got an incredible variety of areas

to explore. And it gives you a ton of vehicles to do it in. Motorcycles, helicopters, speedboats,

firetrucks, passenger jets, and loads more. There are over a hundred different vehicles

to use, though if you want to make a quicker trip, you can extract quickly to a location

you've already discovered. The vehicles handle mostly fine, though the crazy physics and

loose aircraft handling can make some race challenges a frustrating hassle. The most

fun way to get around, however, is to use your parachute and grappling hook in tandem,

which makes you feel a bit like Spider-Man, swinging around without a care in the world.

Just Cause 2 is at its best when you're just tooling around looking for items like money

stashes, upgrade kits for your weapons, and generally causing havoc. You earn chaos for

blowing stuff up, and it works like a sort of currency, unlocking new missions and new

weapons and vehicles you can order up from the black market dealer. Besides, blowing

stuff up is what Just Cause 2 is all about. Fuel containers, SAM installations, oil refineries,

antennas--it's all there for you to destroy, and since your goal is to undermine the government's

influence over the people, there's even a story reason for making things go boom. Besides,

if you want to get 100% completion credit for any towns and bases you explore, you're

gonna have to tear things down.

Of course, blowing stuff up draws the attention of the local authorities. You'll deal with

them a lot, in and out of missions. At first you'll feel like ammo is much to scarce, but

once you get into the swing of things, you won't be scrounging too often. The gunplay

is loose and the autotargeting is forgiving, which is in keeping either the broad and ridiculous

nature of the game. When you're just running around and mowing down the cops, the action

can be fun. When you try to pull off more specific stunts, however, you'll realize how

broken the targeting is. It's awesome that you can hang from the front of a speeding

vehicle and shoot the passenger as he leans out the door. It's not awesome at all that

you can aim directly at his head and unload multiple clips and not register a single hit.

If the auto targeting doesn't want you hitting a dude, you aren't hitting him, making this

one of the few games that punishes you for being a good shot and rewards you for being

a bad one. Still, as long as you're playing loose and spraying bullets, you'll have fun

with the shooting. And thanks to the grapple hook and parachute, not to mention how easy

it is to steal a vehicle, you'll have even more fun making a quick getaway.

There is a throwaway story holding all of this together. Like in the original Just Cause,

you play Rico, a gun for hire working for a US agency called, simply, The Agency. To

get to the bottom of some shady business you'll gain the trust of Panau's three gangs, which

will send you off on various missions. The story's pure fluff, more interesting for the

so-bad-it's-almost-good voice acting and so-offensive-it's- almost comical accents, than for any plot

developments.

Some of the missions are sort of cool, like one that sends you into a Bermuda Triangle

type zone. Others have time limits or make you escort AI characters that do stupid things,

which leads to some trial and error restarts. The free-and-easy mechanics that make free

roaming so awesome aren't so fun when the game wants you to be precise. For example,

jumpy physics lead to awesome stunts. But they also lead to a mission failure when hitting

a little bump causes all the important cargo in your truck to fly out. Or make your speedboat

go careening everywhere in impossible ways during a race that forces you to cross land.

Some bugs might also get in the way of the fun, from sound stutters to crashes, but these

issues aren't overbearing, just occasionally annoying. But in spite of the drawbacks, Just

Cause 2 is a fun and attractive game that gives you a lot to do and a huge playground

to explore. It's crazy and silly, so you'll spend a lot of time grinning and not so much

time cringing.

Besides, this is a game that lets you grapple to a moving motorcycle, throw the passenger

onto the street, drive off a cliff, parachute down to a military base, get in a tank, and

blow more stuff up. And sometimes, that's all you need to have a good time.