The Ultimate GTA Alternative 10 Years On

The world of Grand Theft Auto competitors is messy, ill-defined, and rife with games that inevitably feel a little disappointing. It’s hard to cram all of GTA‘s elements into one package, and something usually falls by the wayside, whether it’s the gameplay, story, or fundamental sense of cohesion. The solution? Do what Just Cause 3 did — jettison everything but the chaos.

To be fair, Just Cause 3 does have something nominally called a story. It also has one memorable character, the protagonist Rico Rodriguez. By the time of the franchise’s third installment, however, the Just Cause games knew what they were about. In leaning into the simple pleasure of blowing things up, Just Cause 3 delivered something that nothing has really matched since.

Just Cause 3 Builds On An Explosive Foundation

Float Like A Butterfly, Sting Like A Missile

Like the average teenager with a Steam account in the 2010s, I got into the Just Cause games via Just Cause 2. After growing up on Nintendo games and PC strategy titles, Just Cause 2 was a sensory lightning bolt. The game shares its hypersaturation and giddy energy with Mario, but it ignores such trivial things as level design. There’s a big, beautiful world, an arsenal of explosive weapons, and very little else. What more do you need?

Just Cause 3 loses some of Just Cause 2‘s strengths. Its world is the biggest downside, lacking in terrain variety compared to the diversity of Just Cause 2‘s map. The gameplay, however, is sublime. It takes the most inspired possibilities from Just Cause 2, like Rico’s grappling hook, and refines them to perfection. Walking around the island of Medici is for chumps. Once you master the mechanics, you’ll be grappling between planes, gliding with your wingsuit, and propelling yourself with explosions at every turn.

Speaking of explosives, Just Cause 3 turns them into an art form. Demolition isn’t quite as complex as something like Red Faction: Guerrilla, but it’s enormously satisfying. Rather than triggering a pre-baked animation, each act of sabotage results in a spectacularly dynamic blast, lending variety to the admittedly repetitive mission structure.

Nothing Else Has Just Cause 3’s Spark Of Mayhem

A Tough Itch To Scratch

Ten years later, Just Cause 3‘s sense of dynamic impact is still hard to rival. Mad Max, from the same studio, pairs gleeful vehicular mayhem with disappointingly rote on-foot action. The Far Cry franchise offers a similar gameplay loop, but it lacks the spark of player impact that makes Just Cause 3 so special.

I recently finished up a years-long, on-and-off affair with Far Cry 5, and the comparative lack of reactivity is hard to ignore. There’s some fun chaos to be had, but so many actions lead up to nothing but commonplace animations. Past a certain point, Far Cry 5‘s technical issues start to feel weirdly refreshing, as bugs ultimately provide more genuine surprises than anything intentional does.

The best option since Just Cause 3 is, well, Just Cause 4, another sequel that takes a few steps forward and a few steps back. The gameplay possibilities expand once again, and a varied map and new weather system reintroduce some of Just Cause 2‘s variety. On the other hand, it loses some of the player-driven structure of Just Cause 3, resulting in an experience that can lose its luster more quickly.

Check in with the Just Cause community, and Just Cause 3 tends to take the crown as the most frequent fan-favorite. It scratches an itch that nothing else really can, and few things besides Just Cause 2 and 4 even come close. It’s the perfect encapsulation of the title’s ethos. Rico fights for a just cause, but really, he’s mostly blowing things up just ’cause he can.

Just Cause 3 Is The Best Way To Wait For GTA 6

Let Off Some Steam

Just Cause 3 and 4 both released after GTA 5, filling the anarchic sandbox void in the decade-plus wait for GTA 6. When GTA 6 finally releases, it’ll definitely put both to shame in some regards. The Bonnie and Clyde story of Lucia and Jason will almost certainly have more depth than Rico’s arc across all four games, and the state of Leonida guarantees more diverse sources of fun than the destructive missions of Just Cause.

If Just Cause has one trump card, it’s that the games actually came out. GTA 6 was recently delayed again, now slated for next November, and there’s still no way to guarantee that the latest date will stick. At minimum, fans of the franchise have another year to sit around twiddling their thumbs and speculating about whether it will really cost $100 (it won’t).

In the meantime, a trip to Medici could be just the solution for Grand Theft Auto woes. Just Cause 3 launched on December 1, 2015, and it deserves some love on its tenth anniversary. Not tender, affectionate love, to be clear, but the kind of love that comes in the form of nitroglycerin. Blow up that gas station. Crash that helicopter into a bridge. Destroy it all. That’s what Just Cause 3 is for.

Systems

Released

November 30, 2015

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ // Blood, Intense Violence, Strong Language

Developer(s)

Avalanche Studios

Engine

Avalanche Engine

Franchise

Just Cause