Three reasons you should play Just Cause 2’s multiplayer

When you’re reading this article, one of three things will be true. Either you were a very intelligent person and bought Just Cause 2 on Steam sale for the insane price of $2.99/7.49, you already owned the game and are totally awesome for it, or you still don’t own it and so will miss out on what might be the best multiplayer experience or 2010 2013. Below are three reasons for that last really long sentence.

1: Few games are as beautiful as Just Cause 2

So you like Grand Theft Auto V, huh? Isn’t that nice. Can you watch the sunset over a vast ocean from the top of a snow-capped mountain there, then hijack a jet and ride it into that sunset from the mountain itself? I didn’t think so.

Joking aside, Just Cause 2 is simply one of the most beautiful video games I have played in a long time. Every color is perfectly saturated, and like Assassin’s Creed 4, it’s in the Caribbean. Let me tell you, it’s hard to make the Caribbean look bad, and JC2 makes it look even more wonderful. Sunsets, vast and clear blue ocean, snowy mountains that give way to tropical forests — I can go on. The great part is, I don’t have to.

Have some pretty pictures!

That sunset. Much golden, such beauty. Wow.

See? Games can have color!

2. Few games are so crazy just for the sake of it

Games like GTA see a need to go for the gritty storylines and shoehorn in the, “Oh, I’ll go hijack a jet today” with characterization and other narrative devices. Saints Row is crazy in a totally different way, to the point of being lewd and ludicrous in equal measure. Just Cause 2, even as a single player game, acts like a bridge between the two extremes, allowing you to ride jets like horses and parachute-rocket launcher satellite dishes under the pretense that such things are kind of realistic if you don’t think about it too hard.

Add a multiplayer component that promises up to thousands of online players on a server, and the insanity will only escalate to never before seen levels, all within the bounds and strict rules the game presents. I think you’d be hard pressed to not have fun having a roller derby with your friends in a giant radar dish, or having a dog fight from on top of the jets.

3. Few games are as expansive simply because they can be

Again, GTA and Saints Row have this notion that their worlds need to be filled with things to do and people to meet, businesses to create or lives to save. Just Cause 2 provides little of the sort, instead offering an almost pure sandbox where you make your own fun and wallow in the beauty of the world that’s been created.

More importantly, what game world offers enough space for thousands of players? GTA V’s map is around 50 square miles in size. JC2 had that beat three years ago, and I’d say that even now it looks, and probably plays on PC, better than GTA ever would or will. GTA Online is a thing, sure, but it still costs sixty bucks to get your hands on, and isn’t supported by a team of modders who did this whole thing for free. Rockstar is out to make money, and I doubt the modders who made JC2 multiplayer would say the same, at least from the outset of the mod’s creation.

So yeah, buy Just Cause 2, play the multiplayer, love the beauty and craziness that the JC series is known for. You probably won’t make much virtual money, but I guarantee belly laughs and happy tears for hours and hours to come.