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Yup, I've played all Just Cause games. There are definitely some similarities, but Just Cause is much more narrative-oriented with defined mission structure.

I guess I don't pay as much attention to that, I'm more just into gameplay and play most things as open-world grinds until I run into difficulty walls. Thought the verticality concepts seemed really similar, as well as the races, challenges, etc.

In that case, you should definitely give Crackdown 3 a try. Just Cause does have verticality, but it's more wide open spaces. In Crackdown 3, it's more of an urban verticality with massive buildings etc.