Ever wonder how things went down in the early days of places like Panama or Grenada? Ok, so not really, but a game like Just Cause has to make you stop and think about it. Overthrow the government as one man and secure world peace in this shoot 'em up adventure across a vastly explorable landscape.

I believe that I am becoming jaded to graphics as I am spending more time on the Next-Gen systems and PC graphics. I didn't feel the crispness that I had come to expect with all of the hype. I have still seen very beautiful graphics recently on the PS2, so unfortunately I would have to say that this title has left me wanting. The scenery was well done, but the animations felt boxy and the view distance graphics were pixilated. This doesn't take away from the well done and great looking cut-scene animations.

The Latin-themed music was fun and entertaining. The dialogue was laughable, unfortunately in the wrong way. It just did not flow into a workable part of the gameplay experience. I found myself wanting to get out of them as soon as possible.

In Just Cause, you take on the role of Rico Rodriguez, a CIA agent who specializes in regime change of foreign governments. His latest mission finds him, and thuselly you, in San Esperito, a rather large South American island. There has been intelligence to say that the current ruler has weapons of mass destruction. And, naturally it is up to you to take them out and save the world for another day.

Currently, the political structure of this island is already about to explode. This is always a great time for you to pit warring factions against one another and let them do all of the dirty work in the struggle for rule on the island.

There is very little guiding done for you as you choose whom to pit against whom. You can travel over every inch of this landscape and you can go about any mission as you see fit. If I were to generalize this title, I would say it was the control scheme of Tomb Raider meets the open ended and raw nature of games like Grand Theft Auto III or Saints Row.

You can get yourself into trouble quickly, just with the sheer openness of the island in Just Cause. Because you can head in any direction and the land is not flat, you need to be sure where you are going or spend some time looking for a way around. You spend a lot of time searching for a way to get back on track should you decide to go sightseeing. With the auto-targeting system, you continuously find yourself strafing the whole time durring fire fights.

The game is so short that I didn't find time for it to be too difficult. It was really over before I knew it. Sure I got dead, but most of that was on my own accord just playing around.

Just Cause boasts and has a fun set of stunt features, and rightly so. I loved the parachuting right off the bat. The car stunts where you kicked people out the other side also made for entertaining moments in the game. However, even though these actions were well done, I still felt a very canned motion on normal repetitive movement. Stunting pretty much was used to do nothing more than move from one vehicle to another. It was fun, don't get me wrong, but I just felt a little of "been there and done that" over the course of the game. There were side quests in the game just like the other "open ended" games out there. Most of the side quest missions felt like they were just thrown in to be thrown in. They didn't have much bearing on the very short gameplay of only 21 missions. The bonuses were not worth their effort. Once I ignored them, I finished the game very quickly.

As the smoke clears from San Esperito, I find that I will not be back there anytime soon. The few cool aspects, like the stunts, were not enough to make up for this short, uninspired game. A little more time spent in dialogue and a more adaptable story to fit the open-ended approach would have made for more interesting gameplay. I cannot put my finger on a horrible part of the game, but just not enough good moments to make it good or re-playable. From the resort on San Esperito... I need another adult beverage.