‘Just Cause 3: Bavarium Sea Heist’ Review (PS4/PC)
When Just Cause 3 was originally released I had a lot of fun with it. After completing it though I didn’t purchase the Air, Land & Sea Expansion Pass but waited until it was fully released. With Just Cause 3: Bavarium Sea Heist the set is now complete, but is it worth playing?
If you’ve played the other downloadable content you’ll know that Sky Fortress gave you a jet pack and Mech Land Assault gave you the ability to use mechs in battle. Bavarium Sea Heist gives you a new lightening based gun which gives you even more power, making you pretty much overpowered for the rest of the game.
What these tools do though is to add a lot of fun to the game, especially if you start a new game and enter the DLC levels early to gain access to the new tools and weaponry. The big game changer for me is the jet pack which allows you to not only travel around the map fast, but also rain down all kinds of hell to your victims on the ground below.
With the release of Just Cause 3: Bavarium Sea Heist though the real question is, is this slice of DLC worth playing? Well the question you have to ask yourself is, do you enjoy taking over more settlements? Because that is what you are going to be doing, before you reach the main part of the DLC to gain the new weapon.
The problem with this is that it is repetitive, in fact if you’ve played the other DLC you’ll realise it is exactly what you did in those too. There may be some story elements in the form of cut scenes, but mostly what you’ll be doing is creating as much chaos as possible with your new toys. For some this may not be what they want, but for others creating huge explosions can be a lot of fun.
For my taste, these DLC chunks work because I can dip into the game and take out a few settlements before playing something else. The gameplay doesn’t really hook me, but it is fun enough to re-visit, especially with the fun new toys. The fact that this release is DLC though does make it a questionable purchase, especially as one of the big selling points for Just Cause 3: Bavarium Sea Heist is the new boat, which is fun to use but not really special. The lightening gun is the real winner here.
In terms of performance, I’ve tried this DLC and the others on both the PC and PlayStation 4. With a suitably powerful PC the performance is good, but on PlayStation 4 the frame rate seems to really struggle. While the game is still playable, the lagging frame rate is noticeable and will be an issue for some. Especially when they want to show off the power of the current generation consoles.
Just Cause 3: Bavarium Sea Heist and the rest of the DLC for Just Cause 3 is worth a play for hardcore fans of the game, but if you’ve already played this all the way through it is harder to recommend. There isn’t much in terms of new content to really add to the game, so it may leave you feeling disappointed. For those new to the game though who purchase it with the DLC included, get the new weapons and gadgets as fast as you can and you’ll be able to have a lot of fun with the new toys.
Just Cause 3: Bavarium Sea Heist is out now on PS4 and PC.