Just Cause (video game)/YMMV

• Awesome Music: This little gem, which has a completely different feel from the rest of the game's Bond-style soundtrack, but just makes you want to go out and shoot people FOR THE GLORY OF PANAU.
• Crazy Awesome: There might be a way to take over a country without car surfing, an infinite supply of parachutes, and a grappling hook gauntlet, but that's not Rico's way.
  • Just for the record, here're an example from the second game: jump from a helicopter and catch up with a dead guy who fell out moments earlier along with a bunch of data cards. Land on the outskirts of a military base with no weapons but proceed to single-handedly infiltrate said base anyway and retrieve the data cards, killing dozens of soldiers in the process. Then hitch a ride on the helicopter you jumped out of by dangling from it on your grappling hook, climb the outside of a pair of twin skyscrapers, and take out an enemy helicopter with only your pistols, a grappling hook, and a rifle if you're lucky. Then make your getaway in a car chase involving about a dozen military hummers while carsurfing and jumping from car to car while gunfighting. Think that's insane? That's the tutorial.
• Ear Worm: It may be somewhat generic as far as dance music goes, but the thumping music that plays constantly around the Mile High Club will stay in your head for days.
• Good Bad Bugs: It's possible to steer some cars while standing on top of them.
• Ho Yay: It's hard not to suspect Sri Irawan may have some special feelings for Rico.
• Misaimed Realism: Aircraft have realistic takeoff runs and turning, but don't have yaw control. This tends to result in large amounts of driving off runways because the player tried to correct their angle during the run up the runway and didn't get up to speed, and/or hopelessly hanging planes up on the scenery while trying to make simple taxiing turns.
• Most Wonderful Sound: When you complete a base capture mission, the Mooks you've been escorting start chanting "SCORPIO! SCORPIO! SCORPIO!". It serves the dual function of letting you know that the worst is now over and making you feel like the biggest Badass on the planet.
• Narm Charm/Memetic Mutation: The entirety of the voice acting, especially in the second game.
  • MY NAME IS BOLO SANTOSI.
    • She even has her own soundboard now.
  • "Oh no... I hate ninjas!"
  • "Try transporting fuel now, you pipeline jerks!"
  • "Real Americans hate commies." (cutscene ends abruptly)
• Polished Port: Just Cause 2's PC release is quite well optimized, running much more smoothly than most Wide Open Sandbox games released this generation in spite of its massive scale while continuing to look really good, and the keyboard and mouse controls are responsive and customizable. Other developers could learn a thing or two about porting games to the PC from Avalanche Studios.
• Quicksand Box: Panau in Just Cause 2 is so huge that even the developers agree it may be too big for some players to handle. Hence, the strictest collection achievement only requires you get 75% of the map. Pity the person who needs to hundred-percent driving all the vehicles though!
• Sequel Displacement: How many of you knew there was a Just Cause 1 before Just Cause 2?
• Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer: And how.
• So Bad It's Good: Bolo Santosi's fake accent is famously hilarious.
  • At least it's good enough to end up in the local news.
• Spiritual Licensee: For its grappling hook action, has been called a better Bionic Commando than the 2009 game.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Just Cause 1 had some nice ideas, but it was overall a clumsily-made, somewhat awkward game, and was actually that development studio's first effort. They have obviously been brushing up since then because while Just Cause 1 could have been easily forgotten, Just Cause 2 is awesome.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • From the sequel's outset you are ordered to hunt down and even kill Rico's mentor, the man who taught him everything he knows, who has apparently betrayed his own country. This sets the stage for a white knuckle confrontation between two equally badass superpowered secret agents with the fate of a nation hanging in the balance. It doesn't quite turn out that way.
  • The side mission "Stranded" could be made into an entire game all on its own. A pilot gets mysteriously downed on an isolated island that no one visits, is always stormy, and is rumored to be haunted by demons or the ghosts of dead cannibals. You are sent to pick him up, but get blown out of the sky by something. The island is actually inhabited by ancient Japanese soldiers from World War II who think the war is still going on, and are defending their territory with an EMP superweapon. You have to disable the EMP and escape the island. So much could have been done with this.