One of gaming's biggest open-worlds drops to $3 in enormous 85% PC discount on Steam

Grand Theft Auto VI is about to deliver us one of gaming’s most impressive open worlds on November 19, or at least that’s what we’re hoping.

If you don’t want to spend £69.99 / $79.99 on Rockstar Games’ latest title, though, you can find an equally impressive open-world for less than $3 on PC storefront Steam.

Until Monday, October 19, you can secure the must-play Just Cause 3 for just £1.79 / $2.99 with the price reduced by a huge 85%.

Yes, Avalanche Studios’ 2014 action-adventure title isn’t going to rival GTA VI exactly, having first been released 12 years ago.

To this day, though, it remains an impressive technical feat for its time, and if space is what you crave, well, you can’t ask for much more than a 1000 square kilometres.

You’re looking at 64 hours of gameplay, on average, for a completionist run or 18.5 hours for the main story and 38 hours for the main story and key side quests. That’s according to How Long To Beat.

Square Enix

So you’re getting plenty of bang for your buck, although perhaps that goes without saying when you’re looking at an open-world of this size for a mere $2.99.

If you haven’t played the first two Just Cause games, you don’t need to worry, as while protagonist Rico Rodriguez returns, each instalment feels somewhat standalone and accessible outside of a few nods to returning characters.

Just Cause 3 takes players to the Mediterranean republic of Medici, which “is suffering under the brutal control of General Di Ravello, a dictator with an insatiable appetite for power”.

“Enter Rico Rodriguez, a man on a mission to destroy the General’s hold on power by any means necessary,” the synopsis reads.

“With over 400 square miles of complete freedom from sky to seabed and a huge arsenal of weaponry, gadgets and vehicles, prepare to unleash chaos in the most creative and explosive ways you can imagine.”

READ MORE: PC lands $6 viral GTA 6 rival with FPS gameplay to rival Call of Duty

“The game design is one of my favourites of all”

If there’s one thing Just Cause knows how to do well, it’s traversal. Within Just Cause 3, you can easily navigate the open world, with the game offering complete vertical freedom.

Players can glide from mountaintops using a wingsuit, grapple and parachute as they scale tall buildings, or simply hijack a variety of vehicles on the ground. Variety is the spice of life, they say.

Just Cause 3’s open-world isn’t just sprawling; it’s also highly breakable. Destruction is a key aspect of this franchise.

If you’re going to want to defeat General Di Ravello, you’ll need to take out military bases, prisons, harbours, police stations, and more, with players able to chain together devastating attacks for maximum impact.

You’ll therefore have plenty of explosives in your arsenal as well as the usual types of firepower.

Over on Steam, Just Cause 3 sits at a respectable recent review score of 91%, proving players love it as much today as they did back in 2014. Some games just refuse to age.

“The game is absolutely overwhelming for me. Every gamer must experience this game.

The map is so big that you need almost 30 minutes to go from one end to the other end of the map,” one player remarked.

Another added, “I would call this game timeless. Not for everyone, obviously, and it for sure isn’t the highest quality game, but I only have good things to say about this game. It's fun, it's exciting, I'm able to shut my brain off and relax playing this. The game design is one of my favourites of all.”

Those are pretty convincing sales pitches for a $3 game, so if you’re looking for something fun and chunky to pick up, this is it.