Is Just Cause 1 Difficult?
Just Cause is a franchise of open world video games, often set in vast islands, in which players take the role of special agent Rico Rodriguez. In Just Cause video games, players are able to adventure in vast landscapes, use different vehicles, including cars, motorcycles and planes. Just Cause provides a freedom of gameplay in a sandbox open world environment, a reason why these games are praised and played by thousands of gamers worldwide. The first game of the Just Cause franchise, Just Cause (2006), which in this article will be referred to as Just Cause 1, features many of the traditional gameplay aspects of the Just Cause series: an open world environment, many vehicles, side missions, a main story, different weapons to use and an action gameplay. Mnay players who first started playing the Just Cause franchise with more recent games wonder about the gameplay differences between the first Just Cause game and more recent entries. New players who have not yet played Just Cause (2006) wonder whether it is a difficult video game.
Just Cause 1 is not difficult or hard in general, presenting a standard difficulty of action-adventure video games of the 2000s during most of the gameplay. However, some main story missions may require multiple attempts.
In my experience playing Just Cause 1, there were only very specific points during my playthrough in which I felt the game was quite difficult. To put in numbers, my playthrough of Just Cause 1 lasted 30 hours, and in those 30 hours, there were maybe 1 hour or 2 hours in which I felt the game was actually difficult. Due to this experience, I consider that Just Cause 1 is not a difficult game, it is a game with some specific difficult moments.
Overall, I would not describe Just Cause 1 as a difficult game. It is a game that provides a standard and adequate difficulty for most of its activities, and it has some really difficult moments in some main story missions, but these are very punctual and very specific. Most of the gameplay presents a standard difficulty. It is also noteworthy to mention that players that have started playing Just Cause games with more recent entries may be used to certain gameplay systems that may either not be present in the first Just Cause game, or not be as refined, which is expected when playing more recent games before playing an older game of the same franchise. While this is not a difficulty of the game itself, it may require some practice of the players to getting used to the gameplay.
Difficulty of Side Missions
Side missions in Just Cause 1 are not too difficult and present a standard difficulty or adequate difficulty, presenting just enough challenge to the player. In general, Just Cause 1 game features a sandbox open world gameplay experience. In Just Cause 1, there are infinite repeatable and replayable side missions in which the main character must complete specific tasks for factions in the game, and these tasks include hijacking vehicles, obtaining items and attacking specific targets. In general, these side missions are not difficult, they have a standard difficulty such as seen in other video games. As long as the player keeps the health of the main character full through the abundant healing items available in the game, as well as keeps the main character with enough ammunition through the abundant ammunition available in safe houses throughout the game, these side missions provide a standard and adequate difficulty.
Difficulty of Main Story Missions
In my experience, the main story missions presented the greatest difficulty in the game, providing a difficulty greater than the one found in side missions and other side activities. While this is to be expected in main story missions in a game, I found that some parts of the main story missions were very difficult. I had a greater difficulty completing some of the main story missions than I had completing side missions. In general, most of the main story missions presented a difficulty slightly greater than the difficulty of the side missions of the game, and some of the main story missions presented a serious difficulty in which I had to repeat the mission several times. Most of the main story missions I was able to complete either in the first or the second attempts, but there were two or three main story missions which I had to retry several times. To give some context to the reader, I do not consider myself a casual player, having played hundreds of games before and many of these games on the highest difficulties. In my opinion, perhaps the greatest difficulty of the later part of Just Cause 1 is the fact that the main game character always has the same amount of health throughout the game, it is not possible to increase the maximum health of the main game character. While this may seem like something that does not make a difference, at the later parts of the game, it is quite common for enemies to use certain weapons that can take a lot of damage of the main game character, making the game more difficult. However, as noted, there were only a few of the main story missions that presented a serious difficulty for me, and most of them offered either a standard difficulty or a difficulty slightly greater than standard, which is adequate for a main story mission of a game, which is expected to be more difficult than a side mission.
Difficulty of Collectibles
Finding and collecting the collectibles in Just Cause 1 is not a difficult task, with most collectibles being easy to find and collect. In general, the collectibles of Just Cause 1 are displayed on the map, and thus the player is able to simply follow the map in search of these collectibles. It must be noted, however, that searching for some of these collectibles may involve adventuring into territory that is owned by the enemy faction in the game. For this reason, before searching for the collectibles, it may be better to first dispute the game territory and conquer some of the settlements owned by the enemy factions. This will make the task of finding the collectibles much easier in the game. In my experience, most of the collectibles in the game are quite easy to collect, and there are a few that are very difficult.
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