So here I am twiddling my thumbs passing time until No Man’s Sky hits PC so I can be disappointed spectacularly (apparently from the reviews) when with less than a day of warning Square Enix push out the last of the 3 promised DLC for Just Cause 3. I reviewed the other two DLC upon their release, with Sky Fortress being a wholly positive addition to the game and Mech Land Assault being nearly the complete opposite, and with such polarising DLC I was hoping Bavarium Sea Heist was closer to the former in quality.
As a final closing DLC for Just Cause 3 you a given exactly what you expect if you have kept up with the other two: A new area to liberate; a new vehicle; a new weapon and absolutely no closure to the story of the other two DLC whatsoever. This is simply more content for the game and if you’re like me who enjoys the game it isn’t a bad thing.
So Bavarium Sea Heist is meant to follow from the mysterious ending of Mech Land Assault, and we learn that the Black Hand has taken over an old EDen corporation sea fortress called Stingray which contains the dangerous ‘EDen Spark,’ a weapon whose fabled power far outweighs its actual applicability in combat. Rico is roped into a 4-man heist with Annika, Sheldon and Looch (who before this DLC appeared for 90 seconds of the game) to steal the weapon and any other bavarium weaponry the Black Hand owns.
What this translates to is the standard layout from the other two DLC: A mission, liberating an area and doing another mission. The missions this time around are a little more fun, letting you hijack an aircraft again in secret agent fashion, though that is the only real showpiece in all of the content. Your area to liberate is, as suggested, in the sea as five satellite stations to the Stingray. However with the way these bases are built it is easier to fly in with the jetpack and salt the ground with lead and missiles rather than attack from the sea which is presumably the way developers were hoping you would go.
This is because while you do have a cool new boat, the ‘Loochador,’ the boat driving mechanics are still utter trash. My one gripe with Just Cause 3 from day one has been the utterly awful driving mechanics for anything but the fastest cars and aircraft. With the Loochador, the boat is far too fast, meaning that getting anywhere is like driving a skipping stone across waves and doesn’t feel fast at all. This accumulates at the final level where you have to fight several waves of enemies and then travel several kilometres to land, with the only mercy being that the missiles on the boat lock on and you can spam enemies to death.
With mediocre to awful content so far I was hoping that when I acquired the EDen Spark it would blow me away. But sadly it did not. The idea is that you can summon lightning upon your enemies from above and move it around laying waste to them. Sadly the lighting is slow to appear and is difficult to move around so it becomes more of a lightning-based sniper than a salting of earth. If you have played far enough into the game you own plenty of guns which just do everything better than the EDen Spark.
There is some fun to be found here thankfully. Parts of the missions are fun and full of humour and the story takes a fun twist at the end. The challenges are fun and some more tapes are littered around the Stingray base to give you some more insight into the corporation owner, Eden Callaghan. But the fun is lacking as was present in other DLC and while Bavarium Sea Heist does not feel like a chore it doesn’t feel like a party either.
Bavarium Sea Heist is not the best DLC yet also not the worst. While there are fun points here and there most of the content is just more stuff to do. While it is not as solid a conclusion to the story as I hoped it does wrap up the story and give you more toys to play with in the big bad playground of Medici to play with.
Bavarium Sea Heist earns itself a 5. It’s not awful, it’s not great, it’s just more Just Cause. And if that is your jam, then this DLC will be worth picking up for an extra few hours of fun.
You must be logged in to post a comment.