Gameplay - 9/10
Blowing up enemy bases is fun but does get a bit repetitive especially if you go for 100% completion (which I did and fully recommend doing so that you can get the most out of your experience)

Sound - 10/10
No sound compression as far as I could tell and the explosion sound effects are great.

Story - 3/10
Don't play this game for the story as it is pretty 'meh' but still better than Just Cause 4's and I only played the story missions to get 100% completion.

DLC - 8/10
Again, Don't play the DLCs for their stories, but the weapons you get from them however, are great. The wing suit that you get from the Sky Fortress DLC is really fun and can rinse a small base in a few well placed rockets. The ship from Bavariam Sea Heist DLC can beat all the sea races with almost no difficulty. The Eden Spark that you also get from the Bavarium Sea Heist is so fun as you literally summon lightning down on your enemies. The mech that you get from the Mechland Assault DLC can one shot the final boss (Just use the rebel drops to drop it in and chuck Di Ravello into the lava) and is also pretty much needed to get a boat that is stuck in a lake that you need to transport to a garage to chop (You can do it with a helicopter but it is like 10x easier with the mech.

Price
The XXL edition, which includes the base game and all of its DLC, is the one I recommend and is I think £55 but usually goes on sale for about £3 (that's how much i bought the XXL edition for)

Enjoyment - 7/10
Difficulty - 5/10

Action man recapturing little towns and military fortresses from baddies. Traversing the islands is the best part about this game. Excellent sense of freefalling and gliding. Story is a bit pish, but explosions, tether grapples and flying makes it worth it.
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After playing it again recently, now with a more mature mind that can actually spot when a game has flaws as opposed to how i was when i was first playing this game, it’s got a few flaws.

The story is just eh, doesn’t feel like much is happening. It’s not bad though. Characters are also eh, except for Mario of course.

Another thing i’ve noticed is that the voice acting is incredibly weird. Like Rico cannot sound normal at all. It’s probably just a forced accent from the voice actor doing a little too much.

And driving certain cars, especially motorcycles, feels like driving on ice. Like holy hell this driving sucks. Tip from me, liberate Citate Di Ravello and then do the City Sprint to get the F1 car, which can actually turn like a normal car.

Game is also really buggy. Some of them are funny while others are just kinda exhausting.

I din’t think Just Cause 3 is bad at all though. It’s still great despite it’s couple flaws, and totally worth it, even today.

Originally this was the only game in the series I had played and I was very excited to come back to it having played the first two. Having finished it again it builds off of everything fun about Just Cause 2 and makes it better. My favourite of the series and I don't see it changing.

First off the story, shock horror Rico is thrown into a politically unstable country and has to kill the dictator. However Just Cause 3 makes its main story much more interesting than the previous two. The Mediterranean island of Medici is where Rico was raised, coming back to it for the first time in years to kill the ruthless dictator General DiRaviello. This is my favourite version of Rico by far as he isn't just a one note action star that only speaks in one liners, he actually has relationships with the side characters and seems to care about who he is fighting against. Once again both Rico and Sheldon have been recast, I'm not sure as to why this is but the actor does a good job to not make Rico as one note as the previous games. DiRaviello is by far the best antagonist as he appears frequently enough so you don't forget about him. The small cast of side characters make for good interactions in cutscenes and it is nice to have meaningful characters other than Sheldon.

The gameplay is the best part of this. This game is a blast to playthrough. Everything great about 2 is here with updated fluidity and fixed the janky controls. Thankfully instead of the chaos system which Just Cause 2 had where you had to get a certain amount of chaos points before the next main mission unlocked, Just Cause 3 uses a liberation system where certain missions are locked until you have liberated enough provinces on the island. This is a way better alternative as it is just the dumb fun that this game is best known for. Rico can zip across power plants blowing up everything in his path and its the most entertaining part of the game. The gun combat is a little bit tricky to get the hang of as there isnt really a lock on feature and most enemies are armoured so it takes a while to kill them.

Visually the islands of Medici are stunning to look at. A lot of inspiration from Italian style architecture can be seen primarily in the villages. A couple decent tracks on the soundtrack but nothing I would seek out. Im very surprised for a 9 year old game that I experienced no frame drop even when loads of things were exploding around me.

There are a few things that I think bring this down a bit. I think that Rico is far too weak in this game. They switched up the health system where Rico no longer needs medkits to heal and will heal automatically and I suppose to balance this they made his health a bit lower. However pair this with the bullet hells that are clearing out bases and you will find yourself dying quite a lot. I also found a lot of loading screens that took especially long which kills the pace a bit, especially after dying. Ill put this more down to its age than anything else. Ironically there is a bit less fluidity in the animations, mainly when skydiving, I suppose this is to make grappling in mid air easier but its a shame when Just Cause 2 had very fluid animations for an older game.

Just Cause 3 is the perfect amount of dumb fun mixed with a fairly interesting story. If you want to play a Just Cause game but don't want to play the whole series, just play this one. You get everything good about the last game, without any of the bad the next game adds. Solid recommendation

The best Just Cause game, simply because it has the best story, world, and gameplay loop. It's a game that feels extremely focused, with all of the systems in place working smoothly with each other. Visually vibrant, much better looking than the first two games, and also has more likeable characters, including improvements to Rico himself. And traversing around the map with the wingsuit just feels awesome. It's not a masterpiece or anything, but a huge improvement for the series, and just a great time overall.

Upon revisiting JC3 years later, my perspective has shifted significantly. I no longer view it as a disappointing follow-up to JC2. I have come around to loving it due to stuff like the wingsuit, which makes traversal very fun, as well as the endless arsenal of weapons that are both enjoyable & satisfying to use when conquering bases or villages.

I have also found the side challenges to be engaging now, which is a stark contrast to years ago. This newfound appreciation is likely due to my increased enjoyment of the gameplay loop & unlocking meaningful upgrades. All of this is complemented by the presentation, which still holds up nearly 9 years later with the soundtrack being surprisingly good & crunchy sound design.

Even though I have developed a greater appreciation for this game, it unfortunately also highlights why it falls short in comparison to JC2 in my eyes. The main issues lie in the map design and story missions, which are such downgrades. The story missions lack the consistent bombastic moments that JC2 threw at you and the map seems to not have been designed with them in mind.

Medici looks beautiful but lacks any personality that Panau oozes with & having such diverse environments prevents it from feeling repetitive, which Medici does unfortunately suffer from. There are so many locations in JC2 that I can still recall years later, but after only recently replaying JC3 again, I can barely remember any locations because they all just blend.

However, these flaws didn't completely derail my revisit journey, which has made me realize that the game is truly great, contrary to my initial mixed feelings when it was first released. I can see why it's considered the best one in the series for many people, although for me, JC2 still holds the top spot in the series. Nonetheless, that shouldn't discredit the stuff that JC3 has done right, and I still give it a strong recommendation if you are looking for a simple but fun open-world game.