After finding out that my friend had never played Portal, I gifted him a copy. He returned the favor by gifting me Just Cause 2. I’d watched my roommate play it before and had wanted to play it. I’ve only played it a little so far, but it’s a lot of fun.

Just Cause 2 is full of action – shooting, melee combat, close calls, grappling hooks, parachutes, and explosions. Oh yes, lots of explosions. It reminds me of Michael Bay movies, except that seems like an insult to Just Cause 2.

It’s third-person and involves lots of shooting, but the exploring and moving is the most fun part. You can use a grappling hook to propel yourself (or drag enemies), and you can deploy a parachute at any time to slow down or get airborne. The grappling hook and parachute combine to give you very high mobility.

The other interesting part of the game is chaos. You seem to work for a government agency of some sort, and you’re sent to the country of Panau to destabilize the new, hostile government. To do this, you need to spread chaos. Completing missions spreads chaos, but destroying statues and infrastructure spreads chaos as well. In other words, it’s an excuse to blow stuff up!

I’m looking forward to unleashing a lot more chaos in the future.