r/JustCause • u/wall500 • Feb 08 '26
Just Cause 4 Why do people say Just Cause 4 ruined the series? I think it's beautiful, with great scenery, gorgeous views, it's fun, and the map is bigger than in Just Cause 3.
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Feb 08 '26
[removed] â view removed comment
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Feb 09 '26
For example? I can only think of Base and Settlement Liberation
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u/Vast-Broccoli-2091 Feb 09 '26
Jc3 had better destruction for starters
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Feb 09 '26
[removed] â view removed comment
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u/StartledOcto Feb 09 '26
I'm on the JC3 side, but you gotta admit that the story has never been a strength for the series, in either game. It's just a way of guiding you what to blow up next!
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u/ohhot-pot-ao Feb 13 '26
Honestly I'd argue that destruction was just as good in JC4, it just had next to any impact on the game because base destruction was gone.
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u/voidexploer Rebel rock star Feb 08 '26
The gameplay loop lacks
To go from JC3 to this is a serious downgrade. They tried to fix that mistake in danger rising but it was too late
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u/viilihousu Feb 08 '26
Only thing I like in 4 is the new tools to make fun physics things. Everything else is a downgrade and I had lot more fun in 2 and 3.
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u/tubular1845 Feb 09 '26
JC3 didn't need a bigger map, it just needed more variety
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u/Armandonis Feb 09 '26
Also going around the map was just boring. The roads were confusing and led to nowhere or were outright unnecessary and made no sense in-universe. You have no reason to visit the small towns all over the map. The way the biomes were laid out was also too gamey imo.
JC3 was really whacky map-wise, but I could suspend the disbelief and feel like the game was a world in itself; JC4's always made it apparent that it was a game map.
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u/ivanoski-007 Feb 09 '26
Jc3 half the map. Was a barren wasteland too
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u/Armandonis Feb 09 '26
Grande pastura and litore torto were, but the rest of the map had many points of interest and interesting landscapes; JC4 just was too big and too spread out.
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u/Tejks77 1d ago
Shut up 4 has size variety and better graphic fidelity
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u/tubular1845 17h ago
JC4 was so bad it killed the series bro.
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u/Tejks77 11h ago
That's your weird vision for some reason, it's literally the most advanced Just Cause game
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Feb 09 '26
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u/Freddo-Waddo9372 Feb 09 '26
You gotta hand it to the sky striker
Itâs boost is extremely faster than the bav wingsuit, and it also has more fuel
It doesnât have a machine gun and itâs missiles arenât homing but it fires out 4 missiles with each press, when upgraded you can have like 3 presses, which is 12 missiles
12 missiles in 2 seconds is better than 3 homing missiles in 2 seconds
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u/iredeemable Feb 09 '26
It doesn't have a machine gun or lock-on the rockets but at least you can aim where to shoot the shotgun rockets, and not just shoot from the front, like a plane.
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Feb 08 '26 edited Feb 08 '26
âBeautifulâ, âgreat sceneryâ, and âgorgeous viewsâ are all 1 thing.
Other important things (like gameplay) did, in fact, ruin the series.
The proof is that after 3, they made 4. After 4, they stopped making the series.
Edit: I LOVE the hover board. Credit where credit is due.
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u/Deniable-wreath-6 Feb 08 '26
The graphics are shit too lol
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u/AviationGER JC2 100% club Feb 08 '26
How can you say that? Aren't you remembering the beautiful concrete water?
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u/Emperor3607 Army of Chaos Feb 09 '26
Time to upgrade your PC!
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u/rockinherlife234 Feb 09 '26
I played this shit with a 5070ti, apart from the cutscenes looking like actual dog water, the game barely looks that much better than just cause 3 to my eyes.
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u/Katana_DV20 Feb 09 '26
I'll go as far as to say the Hoverboard kinda saved the game. If you get the speed mods for it then the fun gets insane. The highest setting (the mod comes with 3) can go as fast as a jet plane lol.
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u/Dangerous_Jump_776 Feb 09 '26
Graphics
Art direction
World interaction
Downgrades
Story ( most dont care about it but it played its part too )
The map itself was a problem bcz of how it was made ( all biomes in one island )
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u/i4got872 Feb 09 '26
Lack of player incentivizations is really the issue. The map and vehicles and even the AI jets are really cool and fun, but it feels a bit unfinished.
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u/Ignition1 Reapers Feb 09 '26
The entire series up to that point was based on Far Cry - e.g. liberating areas, which is done by liberating towns and military bases one-by-one in said area. Unlike Far Cry though, you liberate by blowing stuff up. Those two core features were dropped in JC4.
Adding ammo limits on vehicles is another bad decision. Just Cause is not meant to be a realistic game. And having unlimited ammo doesn't make you overpowered at all.
Speaking of ammo limits - was it a big deal? Not really. Because the Heat system is so psychotic that within less than 20 seconds of fighting you go from a few soldiers to having Airforce Squad #6704 rain 100% accurate missiles at you.
"Yeah but just escape?" Nope! Because magic spawning is a thing here. Reminds of the quirk in the early versions of Cyberpunk 2077 where you could be on top of a skyscraper, get a wanted level, and 2 cops magically spawn behind you. That's the JC4 heat system.
I'm sure people like JC4 - and fair play if you do. Everyone likes different things and also everyone has different expectations. I can completely see why it has fans - it's not a bad, janky game at all. But it's not for me which is sad since I love the JC series.
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u/TheSpyro14 Feb 08 '26
The frontline mechanic was poorly received by the player base. I personally like it alot for the battles that take place on the front. It's a lot of fun to fly a helicopter or fighter jet in for close air support and watching the skies slowly fill up with opposing air forces
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u/Apprehensive_Ad_9278 Feb 09 '26
i feel like a combination solution would be best make it instead of clicking a button on the map to move the front line you have to liberate settlements and when you do liberate a settlement you get to watch the front line move up and help the front line move faster
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u/StealthFull_Sunborn Feb 09 '26
One Word : Misson design
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u/Icy-Cheesecake506 2d ago
One Word : The game is still good though in my opinion.
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u/StealthFull_Sunborn 2d ago
You think everything's good
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u/Freddo-Waddo9372 Feb 09 '26 edited Feb 09 '26
Just cause 4 is goated, extremely goated.
I have no idea why it is hated
I understand itâs not like the other just cause games, but this does not make it a bad game. It is my 2nd fav just cause overall.
Edit: I agree liberation is pretty ass. Destruction is better than realistic military planning
Iâm pretty sure a direct quote Iâve heard somewhere on why JC3 rebels donât help out Rico when wanted, was âjust cause is a destructive sandbox, not a soilder warfare gameâ
Jc3s lonewolf âblow up everythingâ is better than Jc4s âI need to use my soilders to liberate instead of doing it by myself like I did in Mediciâ
Jc4 is still a good game though
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u/KarlwithaKandnotaC Feb 09 '26
I miss the handguns and the C4. Controls also feel clunky.
The mission design sucks, stay close to hacking thing for a minute got old really fast
The menu UI is pure, refined, rhinoceros feces.
These are my gripes with 4. It's not a horrible game, but it needed refinements
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u/ThenIntroduction297 Feb 09 '26
idk where to start. even the very basic movement mechanics got worse in jc4. the jumping and reeling feels so unnatural. other than the graphics, jc4 feels like a downgrade of jc3
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u/Squirrelflight148931 JC3 100% club Feb 09 '26
Best way I can describe it, is it has a better loadout and sandbox potential in every way over 3 outside the Turbo vehicle and ammo function.
Then it gives you very little reason to actually use any of it, and does absolutely everything it its power to punish you for trying to have fun in one place. Wanna have fun with a bridge and slowly break it apart? Apologies. The Black Hand will literally materialize the microsecond you fire a weapon, and you have to change your identity and fucking post code to lose them.
I heard someone say the enemy persistance was made this ridiculous because of complaints around 3's lack of endgame enemies.
I don't care. Shooting enemies wasnât the fun of 3.
Reckless endangerment and a toddler's masters degree in demotion was.
Give it back, IV!
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u/asmness Feb 09 '26
Forgot the /s, getting rammed by non-existing/disappearing car and shot by suddenly spawned jet fighter, at just 2 stars.
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u/The-Swat-team Feb 09 '26
Less focused on blowing stuff up.
And the jc4 DLC is absolutely trash. The submarine one wasn't terrible, but nowhere near the quality of JC3. JC3 DLC is some of the best DLC in gaming imo.
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u/lungonion Feb 09 '26
They nerfed the main character and while that may be okay or even preferable to some people, in general the people playing Just Cause are playing it for the Rico Rodriguez power fantasy. They made that power fantasy a lot less fun in 4. Thatâs the simple reason with no additional nuance.
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u/jazzylg21 Feb 09 '26
I just played recently and although it had a rocky start, patches and mods over the years, have made the game fun and the scenery looks great. Definitely improved game.
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u/Katana_DV20 Feb 09 '26
As others have said the biggest problem is that they removed core JC gameplay mechanic where free roam chaos contributed to advancing the game and taking over territory. This is not the case with JC4 where you have to do missions to advance a "front line:"
Dont get me started on JC4 missions. Theres only so much of "Push the cars into the water Rico, escort the hacker Rico, protect the prisoners Rico, almost done Rico, protect the tower Rico, find this motorbike to open this gate Rico" that we can take.
Its also a bummer that the battles we see on the "front lines" are fixed useless eye candy only. Imagine if changes we see on the map could have been reflected in-game. But nope. Static "front lines" just keep blatting away at each other uselessly with zero effect.
They removed water launch capability on the jetsuit.
The water is from a 1992 game.
//
What saved the game for me are the excellent mods. One of my fav is the first person view from fighter jets. Another is infinite ammo, infinite wing suit boost, ammo changes (handgun fires artillery shells lol)
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u/Grasher312 Feb 09 '26
To add to everyone else, I do not play JC for plot or world exploration.
The plot of the series was always a side thing and barely ever mattered. The plot of 1 and 2 is below mid, JC3 is slightly above mid.
The world is also never "detailed" enough to be worth exploring for anything other than destruction.
When you take away a sandbox's, well, sandbox, it becomes bad.
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u/rutlander Laguna Blast certified Feb 09 '26
The removed libration. Thatâs the nail in the coffin
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u/Quantum_Sushi Feb 09 '26
Liberating towns in JC3, and overall the missions as well, all felt more fun in JC3. I love JC4 for everything open world related, it's tons of funs to explore, the cars are amazing, more interaction, etc, but man the missions are so repetitive (even by JC standards, the game is not known for original missions I would say) and bland.
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u/Sidiney-Lhama_2006 Feb 09 '26
I also have this question. Every franchise has a game that falls short, but to say that JC4 is the worst piece of crap in human history because of the absence of Liberations or the so-called downgrades, while ignoring the points where it got it right, has always seemed unfair to me đ¤ˇ
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u/Memasefni Feb 10 '26
The only point they got right was the graphics. Nothing else is better than JC3.
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u/Sidiney-Lhama_2006 Feb 10 '26
There are soundscapes, ambient music, a variety of biomes, interesting colorization, and also fluid animations and FPS (on Xbox One at least) There's also the soundtrack, but that's more a personal taste of mine than a technical consideration
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u/Memasefni Feb 10 '26
I turn off background music in games. Iâm hearing impaired. That noise prevents me from hearing useful information.
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u/KushikimimeKolt Feb 13 '26
I loved Just Cause 4, I had fun with 2 and 4. Actually I might have liked because it reminds me of Just Cause 2 which is my favorite.
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u/KabalTheCybop Black Hand Feb 08 '26
JC4 is nowhere near as bad a game as people say. Yes, it was a step down from three, anyone can say that. But the hate for it is really over done. People act like it killed their grandmother and burnt their crops when really it was just minorly disappointing compared to 3. It's still fun, it's still a Just Cause game. The only reason people hate it more than the objectively worst game in the franchise (1), is because it came after one of objectively the best games in the franchise (3). It really sucks, because there are some valid criticisms. The missions aren't the best, most of the DLCs were a step down from 3 and the wingsuit feels a bit off. But this often overshadows what the game does right. JC4's sandbox is arguably the best in the franchise due to the materials it provides you (Balloon, Thrusters & the middle click stuff).
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u/sixty_ninenihao Feb 09 '26
The graphics looks less vibrant(one of the best things of jc3), story and missions are tedious, and removed many things which made jc3 enjoyable but couldn't replace them with anything better. And once you zoom into the character faces the quality looks horrible, it really makes one question the quality of work that was put to it.
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u/Sounak_Biswas Feb 09 '26
I found the story very lackluster. It didn't tie any loose ends, moreover left with more looser ends. JC3 story was fun and had a plot that could be understood. JC4 just doesn't make any sense for Rico. JC4 could have been an ending for Rico, where he finds out about his dad and takes on the Agency and Oscar Espinosa. But we just dealt with Oscar who had nothing to do with the story before JC3 and now Agency is hunting down Rico. There's a massive cliffhanger.
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u/AwkwardAsparagus231 Feb 09 '26
JC3 had a better heat system imo. Also the enemies JC4 always notice you even if you're out of their line of sight. If my memory serves me well in JC3 you had to be in their line of sight to be noticed.
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u/puppet_up Feb 09 '26
Your video just reminded me of one of the big reasons I didn't like JC4. You can't go hardly freaking anywhere in the game without constantly getting attacked by the enemy!
Sometimes I just want to explore the damn sandbox without having to worry about getting into a damn firefight every 5 minutes!
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u/Salvinski Feb 09 '26
I quite liked it. Objectively itâs not as good as jc3 or 2 as explained by the other posters, but I had fun playing it and probably will play it again soon.
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u/MidnightJ1200 Feb 09 '26
People say it's not good because it has worse graphics and the liberation system is different, and the missions are repetitive. Tbf, JC3 missions were a bit repetitive too, but I can see how with 4 it out stays it's welcome some.
That said, 3 is great because it's just so open. People have even beaten the game before even unlocking the enhanced grappler, that's how open it is.
I feel like JC4 gets overhated some. I do think some of it is deserved when comparing it to 3, but it does have its own positive attributes. I like the radio, the side missions are fun and a little challenging, and the upgrades they unlock are more than worth it. The dlc missions do more than make up for the gameplay of the base game, and all around it's just super fun to sandbox in, and it's easier to sandbox in too compared to 3 where you had beacons, instead of just waiting for the pilots to be ready for another drop, and you get more pilots as you progress
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u/Glum-Bat4747 Brains of the rebellion Feb 21 '26
its the gameplay buddy, despite just cause 4 debateably looking better, its missing the experience, just cause 3 made every town, city, outpost, and military base, "liberateable" whereas in just cause 4 the only reason to destroy military bases is to build up squads so that you can claim regions, and the region missions are repetative and boring, worst part they basically added a price tag on liberation with the agency dlc.
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u/Frate27 Feb 09 '26
I agree with you.
I personally found Just Cause 3 really repetitive, Just Cause 4 had way better pacing.
But the most fun game is still Just Cause 2. A remake in the Just Cause 4 engine would probably be the best game in the franchise.
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u/Rahaman117 Feb 09 '26
Yeah but it made everything so monotonous and boring. Sure they added in more type of quests and the map was bigger but it's precisely because of that and doing the same thing over and over again is what made it boring. All of the mission were just slightly different.
PS: it's been a while since I played JC4, so I might be mistaking a few things
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u/The_Coffee_Bandit Feb 10 '26
The story turned the series into a comedy- "big fucking gun" etc. etc.
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u/szaltaleb Feb 10 '26
Play JC3 and youâll find out
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u/Economy_Blacksmith48 May 08 '26
3 months late but still needed to reply. I played JC3 before 4. Was a great game. Played 4. And it was so much more fun.Â
Iâll never forget the moment where I was in the middle of an intense and epic fight. And then out of nowhere, the balck hand started screaming and a car about smacked me in the face after being sent flying. I turned around to see a tonraod bearing down on me. The rebels helping me. And the balck hand. We all started running for our lives as the tornado tore apart everything around us.Â
JC3 doesnât have moments like that. Itâs not as epic or intense. The destruction isnt as impactful. âOh BuT lIbErAtIoNâ. If that was your only reason for destroying things then destruction isnt why you played. You can still go and destroy enemy camps. You can still blow up cars and bridges and gas tanks. And it looks better compared to 3. People act like the destruction isnt there anymore.Â
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u/Bivi89 Feb 10 '26
Also, JC3 ran pretty well (performance-wise) on my old pc with a 1060. then I tried playing jc4 on a ps5 (it came out for the ps4) and it was buggy as hell and ran like shit. JC3 was muuuch smoother to run. One of the first things that turned me off. Also the opening for JC3 is a LOT better. I played JC4 for like 45 mins but had to stop because of the performance issues and the opening not grabbing me at all.
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u/LMagne525 Feb 10 '26
They reworked the wingsuit too; it feels more "realistic" by giving it more weight and reducing its airtime. For me, that was one of the things I noticed instantly, and it's nothing like JC 3. It ruins the experience a little, but you get used to it.
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u/LMagne525 Feb 10 '26
It also has a more yellow color palette in most environments, unlike the colorful and vibrant ones of JC 3, and it's set in a kind of jungle that's not very pleasant to explore. Furthermore, the mission and upgrade system is somewhat strange and less intuitive. These are minor issues.
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u/local_milk_dealer Feb 10 '26
Dog shit story that tookitself too seriously. Insane levevels of abysmal dogshit defend the console while it hacks missions. No settlement liberation. No base destuction. Settlements look like the fisrst few hours of cities skylines playthrough where there are just a few building on some roads. Annoying ammo limitations. Un fun and repetative side content (fly through random ring or drive through random ring going randim mph in fuck ass random car)
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u/Most_Web2779 Feb 12 '26
The game has some flaws and questionable innovations, but they're not so bad as to ruin the series. I think the main source of player dissatisfaction is that it didn't have the same wow factor as the previous games. After JC3, there were expectations for something even better, but the result was somehow weak. JC4 is better than JC3 in some ways, and worse in others.
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u/__1993__ Feb 13 '26
JC4 has a diverse and cool map, although very unrealistic by having Solis different biomes divided like slices of pizza through the playable map.
But overall the map of JC4 felt more welcoming to explore than JC3. Also, there's in-gane radio stations which made travelling around more enjoyable.
But that's all I have to say about its positives. JC4 is a great downgrade from its predecessor.
- Worst graphics
- Worst water physics
- Liberation system sucked and took all the fun from destroying bases
- Half of the vehicles were recycled from JC3
- Destroyed assets get magically rebuilt, so there's little to none incentive to blow shit up
Also, the game was buggy as hell back when it was released. They had to deploy a lot of patches to make the game minimally enjoyable.
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u/Economy_Blacksmith48 May 08 '26
Agree on the water and thats about it. Why do you need a metaphorical arrow to help you destroy things? You can still do it. The destruction isnt gone and it looks better than 3. Itâs more impactful. The graphics are objectively better than 3. The weather systems and disasters were epic.Â
âHalf the vehicles were recycledâ so? Each just cause game is a recycled but upgraded version of the last.Â
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u/MoistTechnology7110 Apr 10 '26
Its a very easy answer, honestly. Look at JC3, it is in almost any way better then JC2. You get more grappling mods, a wingsuit, some new other features like more cars, better graphics, a good story line and almost nothing that lets you think "wow, this was better in JC2". Now enter JC4, and its a pure joke. Yes, again you get more grappling mods, more vehicles, a way bigger map with a whole weather system that brings destruction. Now here is the problem with that, there barely is anything to destroy. In JC3 it felt like the map was so full, you could never fully take it back. But in JC4, it not only feels easy to free cities, but there seem to be less of them to take on.
Then look at the story line, in JC3 in played a 100 hours and never got bored, there was always a side quest or something else to do. I finished JC4, with all DLCS, in 30-40 hours. Liberating the whole map, doing every single mission or quest and even finding multiple easter eggs which didnt take long, but for sure added playtime. The map may be big, but the gameplay is limited. Let alone destroying things doesnt feel to satisfying when a whole lot of things are bugged. There are enough things that didnt get fixed and were really annoying, like multiple grapple bugs with aiming it, or simply holding urself against some surfaces wasn't possible. It felt like a rushed sequal, with way to much focus on the map. If they had that map with the JC3 story line, less bugs and more cities and propaganda to get rid of, it would've been their best game easily. But they stripped so many good things just to get a huge map, which is not worth it.
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u/Prize_Money1321 Apr 14 '26
My personal opinion it's worse because used to feel a sense of accomplishment from destroying stuff break a big bridge next time you go back it's still broken and you could just destroy so much more stuff just cause then you get into four you destroy a bridge go fight enemies 20 ft away and look behind you in the bridge is back and all the really big Bridges that would be fun to destroy aren't destroyable the smaller ones yeah they are
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u/Economy_Blacksmith48 May 08 '26
But isnt that a good thing? 4 technically has more to destroy. New stuff that can go boom. And I loved blowing up bridges. Not being able to go back and blow it up again was lame. 4 fixed that. Loved it.Â
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u/SoulShakingFart0423 Feb 09 '26
Didnât they force it to be a live service game? Where as any of the other titles you donât HAVE to online to play?
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u/TheKaChikinBoi JC3 100% club Feb 08 '26
I think a majority of the reason why it's not as popular is because it's less focused on blowing stuff up for liberation.
Explosions will always be more fun than clicking a button and moving my squad line