Just Cause 3
2015 · Avalanche Studios
Has it aged?Why ↓
Just Cause 3 is a third-person, open-world action game where overthrowing a dictator is mostly an excuse to misuse heavy machinery. As Rico Rodriguez on the islands of Medici, you wingsuit between military bases, destroy fuel tanks and propaganda, and tether vehicles together. Pulling a tank off a cliff is more compelling than the revolution.
With over 1000 km² of complete freedom from sky to seabed, Rico Rodriguez returns to unleash chaos in the most creative and explosive ways imaginable.
The publisher’s description, from its Steam store page.
What it looks like
the trailer, then the store's own shots
The verdict
Play it for the grappling hook and wingsuit, not for the campaign. Connecting two objects and pulling them together makes destroying a military base an experiment rather than just a firefight; escort missions squander that freedom. The movement is what holds up, not the prospect of liberating every town. The 2015 console performance reports are a serious caution: explosions caused severe slowdown, precisely where this game needs to feel effortless.
Play it if
You abandon mission markers to practise wingsuit runs, hijack aircraft just to attempt an absurd landing, or spend ten minutes arranging a stunt that shooting a fuel tank would resolve in seconds.
Skip it if
Anyone who needs each liberated town to offer a substantially different task, or who stops playing when a campaign repeatedly makes them protect NPCs and vehicles. Destroying propaganda is a recurring obligation, and escort missions are not an occasional exception.
Common questions
- How do I unlock improvements for Rico's gadgets and vehicles?
- Liberating locations opens scored challenges that award Gears. Those upgrades are tied to the challenge type: vehicle races improve vehicles, while wingsuit courses improve your aerial abilities.
- What does Rico's tether actually do?
- It attaches two objects, then retracts to pull them together: you can haul soldiers towards ceilings or drag tanks off cliffs. Gadget upgrades let you maintain up to six separate tethers.
- Does the Just Cause 3 Multiplayer mod let friends play the campaign?
- No: the Nanos mod's 2017 release was a separate multiplayer sandbox without NPCs or story, offering races, battles and custom modes. It launched on Steam, but these sources do not establish whether its servers remain active.
- What do the Air, Land and Sea expansions add?
- The 2016 additions lean into extra machinery: Sky Fortress adds a jetpack, Mech Land Assault a spider-mech, and Bavarium Sea Heist the Loochador rocket boat. Bavarium Sea Heist also adds an offshore-base mission to acquire the Eden Spark lightning gun.
What everyone else said
we link, we don't reprintHas it aged?
How does it hold up today? Based on recent reviews, how opinions have changed since launch, player activity and updates.
% positive each month, last 4 years.
Reviews via Steam ↗Peak: 8.7k in Dec 2015.
Player counts via SteamCharts ↗Better liked than at launch.
No update in the last year.