Just Cause 3 was met with mixed reviews. While Invision gave the game a 4.0 (now 8/10) quite a few reviews slated the game for its lack of originality or sophistication. Personally I fall in the former category: While it was an experience with the recycled cheese of the 2nd game the mechanics were nicely overhauled to make even flying around aimlessly such good fun.
And for those of you that fall in this category with me there is some good news. Three DLC are planned over the next few months up until the summer, titled the Air, Land and Sea Expansion. The first of which being the air expansion brings a whole new mechanic to the air action in the game and is a damn nice improvement considering you will spend a large portion of this game flying around.
So Sky Fortress introduces a new story arc into the game available midway through the story. A mysterious company called ‘eDen’ are attacking the not-so-peaceful island of Medici with flying drones and it’s once again up to Rico to remove them from the face of the earth using whatever explosives are nearby. The story arc of this game is nothing particularly new, and plays out like the rest of the story of the game; albeit with comic strips as opposed to cut scenes and the 3 missions locked behind area liberations to bulk out the gameplay although they use the new flying mechanics to great effect.
The arsenal addition to the game is the new rocket-powered wingsuit. Rather than the permanent grapple act I had been doing through the whole game to gain momentum you now have a small rechargeable booster attached to the suit. The suit also comes equipped with a machine gun and missile launcher, both of which have unlimited ammo and a relatively quick recharge. While in theory this fits with the over-the-top nature of the game and doesn’t seem practical it fits into not only the new mission but the old gameplay extremely well, opening up options to commit bombing runs on unsuspecting bases with high speed. Various other flying mechanics have been optimised to work with the wingsuit; landing is now capable at all speeds as opposed to unlocking the gear mod through challenges and in-air recovery can be done by hitting Y and launching right back into the action.
Mods are added for the new wingsuit, in keeping with other mods. While they are overall simple, boosting improvements and improved weapon cooldown, they are acquired through 4 new wingsuit challenges located around the Sky Fortress. These are not incredibly difficult challenges and sadly don’t really utilise the new mechanics bar the drone terror mission.
The whole DLC can be completed in about 3 hours, which doesn’t add much to the overall length of the game. However the modified flying mechanic gives the temptation to restart the game and apply the new mechanic across the original gameplay. Theoretically this could add another 30 hours on if you are tempted to do this. But rest assured the 3 hours or so of this DLC will be plenty enough fun for most people.
If you still haven’t picked up Just Cause 3, the Sky Fortress DLC is a damn good excuse to get it. The new mechanic is fun, well implemented and fits with the over-the-top nature of the rest of the game. You can pick up this DLC with the rest of the expansions arriving in two month intervals and if this DLC is any predicator of the next two you will not regret your decision. For the mechanical overhaul and extended fun on top of a personally well-enjoyed game this piece of DLC gets a 10. Here’s hoping the next two DLC additions add more fun and insanity on top of this one.
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