Just Cause 4 Los Demonios DLC: Is it worth it?

What do you get with Los Demonios?

The Los Demonios DLC introduces a new mini-story to Just Cause 4 in which an ally of the game's primary antagonists, the Black Hand paramilitary forces, accidentally releases a horde of ancient demonic enemies from containment by entering a newly-discovered temple.

The demons (they look like aliens) attack the Black Hand and begin to terrorize the entirety of Solís, the fictional country where Just Cause 4 takes place. It's up to you to stop them, eradicating them from the world and preventing the crisis from getting worse.

Pros

• Cool idea for the franchise.
• Gameplay makes great use of the grappling hook.
• Awesome new crossbow weapon.
• Beautiful visuals.

Cons

• Gameplay can sometimes become very frustrating.
• Lack of enemy variety.
• On the short side.

A fresh way to play

The Los Demonios DLC continues the tried-and-true Just Cause theme of destruction, but it does so in a way that feels completely unique compared to the rest of the franchise thus far.

The new weapon, the Demon Crossbow, is an absolute blast to use, and it's perfect for sniping the new flying demon enemies right out of the sky. Speaking of the demons, they're tough, and they have a wide range of cool attacks that can spell your doom if you aren't careful. They will primarily fire globs of corrosive energy at you, but they can also pick up dead Black Hand soldiers and manipulate their hands into firing their guns at you. They can even perform kamikaze-style charges where they zoom at you and explode on contact if they hit.

There's also a tentacle enemy that ensnares enemy vehicles, kills the people inside, and then fires their weapons at you. These enemies can't be killed, but you can stop them from attacking by destroying the vehicle they hold. Black Hand soldiers will constantly enter the areas that the demons have infested, and since they're your enemy too, this results in chaotic three-way battles that feel awesome to partake in.

The swarming nature of the demons means that you'll need to stay on the move a lot, and I love that this DLC encourages heavy grappling hook use. You'll quickly come to depend on it for mobility in fights with the demons, and zipping in and out of combat while avoiding their energy attacks is a fun and surprisingly challenging experience.

In addition, you can also pull the demons together or to the ground with it, which offers you an alternative way to take them out. Lastly, you'll be using the grappling hook to expose the vulnerable parts of the plants that the demons have grown in their infestation areas. One of these is a venus flytrap-style plant that you have to kill by forcing open its jaws with your grappling hook and then blasting apart the inside.

In addition to everything mentioned above, the atmosphere of the demon-infested areas simply looks awesome. There's an eerie purple-blue haze over everything, and the demons' attacks glow bright green, red, and purple. Blowing up their "nests" of eggs results in a display of colorful fireworks, too, and overall, it feels like a complete breath of fresh air for Just Cause aesthetically.

Things could be better

While there's a lot I love with this DLC, there are also quite a few things it could have done better. My biggest gripe is that you can't use any vehicles. The demon infestation areas automatically disable and destroy any vehicle you try to bring in, which is odd as the demon tentacles control armored vehicles that work fine. I suppose this was done for balancing, but I still find it unfortunate, as I think vehicle play is undoubtedly a core part of the Just Cause sandbox.

There's quite a lack of demon enemies in the DLC, too. The flying ones are fun to battle, and the tentacle ones add a nice twist to the mix, but only having two enemy types makes things feel stale after awhile.

Sometimes the gameplay got very frustrating as well, especially when the game pit over six of the armored vehicle-controlling tentacles and nearly twenty flying demons against me at once. Even with grapple hook dodging, you'll get hit so much that you're constantly a knife's edge from death. These moments were thankfully rare, but they killed the fun I was having in the moment.

Lastly, the DLC itself was a bit on the short side. I finished it in about three hours, which is an alright length, but I think it should have been longer.

Ultimately, there's a lot of fun to be had with the Los Demonios DLC, but there's a lot about it that's flawed as well. I still think it's worth getting, but the developers behind Just Cause 4 can do better then this.