Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is the sequel to the game "Mercenaries". It is a third-person shooter game which has elements of free-roaming and driving included as well. As well as being available for the Xbox 360 the game is available for Playstation 2, Playstation 3 and PC. There are 3 playable characters, each with their own catchphrases and skills, as well as a huge map to explore. The price for this game is around £40-45 depending on which shop you buy it from
------- Story -------
The story is set in Venezuela, 2 years in the future. Your mercenary has a grudge against the crooked leaders of Venezuela and will do anything to take them down. Along the way you work for various different organizations including the local oil drilling company Universal Petroleum, the Pirates, the Chinese, the Allied Nations and PLAV (the rebels).
------------- Gameplay -------------
As previously mentioned this game is a third-person shooter, although there are many instances which rely on driving vehicles and also exploring the map to find collectables. As the game progress you must complete missions that have ultimate goal of your character's revenge as well as earning as much cash as possible on the way. For example your mercenary may be hired to capture a rebel outpost or wipe out an enemy convoy.
There are also various side missions which bring offerings of large cash rewards and items. There are several different types of side mission. There are HVT's (High Value Targets) which you must either kill or capture, building that you must destroy, races that you must win and finally challenges to test your skill. My personal favourite
is the challenges, in which you might have to hit a certain number of targets with a weapon or destroy a certain amount of cars in a preset time. These require genuine skill especially at the higher levels. A wager can even be set on these challenges to up the ante beyond boosting your own ego. As you may have already realised a large amount of this game is centred around blowing as much stuff up as you possibly can, which is exactly to some people's taste although I found that the story lacked depth and the novelty of blowing things up wore off after a few days worth of play.
There is a large range of weapons and vehicles. Weapons range from pistols to anti-aircraft missiles, the latter of which is exceptionally fun to use, if not difficult to master. There is also a support menu which can be quickly accessed which allows for airstrikes, artillery and supplies to be dropped either nearby or at your location, depending on how volatile the cargo is!
There is also a great range of vehicles for your player to drive. There is a vehicle to suit everyone's need from "Junkers" (basically old bangers from poor citizens to helicopters which can be stolen whilst in mid-air! For me stealing helicopters was one of the most fun things in the entire game. You are equipped with an electronic winch which will fly up into the sky and grab onto low flying aircraft with a simple press of the Y button. The winch then winds up and draws your player to the helicopter where you kick out the pilot and commandeer the previously enemy controlled vehicle. However you do not unlocked this cool gadget until about half way through the game, which was a real shame because it was very fun to use once it was acquired.
There is also a co-operative mode that can be played over Xbox Live, and there are a few cheap achievement points that can be gained from it. It tends to be the case however that it is usually you that does all the work whilst your partner runs round shooting cars, either that or you simply don't work well enough as a team for playing Xbox Live to be beneficial. Somewhat frustratingly there is also a 500m "rope" in between the two players meaning that they aren't allowed to stray too far apart from one another. For me personally this limited the gameplay, though it you can get by despite this inconvenience. The connection is good, though I wouldn't advise you try it unless you have a friend to play the game with.
There are 1000 Gamerpoints up for grabs in this game, about 400 of which are easily unlocked and the others will take some more work. If you have this game you should definitely read an achievement guide before playing the game, as some achievements are reportedly glitched and some can require another playthrough if not done correctly.
Overall the game isn't too difficult and it can be fun to play the game, though this game definitely will not prove a challenge for experienced gamers. Personally I found the gameplay fairly mediocre for the genre, and was slightly disappointed having played Mercenaries 1.
The graphics of the game are good, the explosion effects being particularly good throughout. The design of the vehicles is fairly simple, and not really very original as the cars are pretty much all the same colour and there aren't really any vehicles that are unique to Mercenaries, besides the jet propelled speed boat, which is impossible to control as well as to find. The weapon design is also a bit of a letdown as there really aren't any surprises in there for gaming fans, with the basic weapons that you would expect i.e. AK47's, M4's and RPG's. Another complaint that I would have for the graphics is that they all feel slightly cartoony and just a bit bland, they remind me very much of the game Just Cause, for anyone who has played that game. Don't get me wrong the graphics all look fine but they most definitely don't stand out in the Xbox 360 crowd.
The physics engine that was used in Mercenaries was an adapted version of the Havok engine, and for that reason the physics are generally very good. The explosions are once again the highlight for, especially putting a slab of C4 on the bottom of a tall building and watching it collapse. There are the occasional discrepancies with the physics, such as somewhat awkward car crashes as well as the occasional gun shot or explosion throwing bodies and objects far from the expected amount. Overall however the physics can't really be criticised and is a good addition to the game.
------------------- Sound & Music -------------------
The sound in the game is all very good, with some cool gun sounds all of which have the heartiness that you would expect as well as some nice sounds for the explosions. A few flaws with the sound for me would be some of the engine noises for the cars, which often sound out of place as well as some of the car crashes which sound pretty much the same no matter the velocity or vehicles at hand. There is quite a bit of recorded voice in the game, most of which is quite good, although the character's catchphrases can quickly become annoying and are often big clichés (especially "RPG next to a tank - my favourite!" which quite frankly makes very little sense, especially when you don't have an RPG).
The music of the game is quite good, although probably once again it doesn't really stand out from that of other game genres. The music is sometimes not there, and it sometimes plays away in the background but as with all average game music it quickly fades into the blur of the game and stops being taken in by your ears altogether.
Overall the sounds are pretty good, the music isn't really very good at all. There are a few little things that let the sounds down however, as have been described.
------------- Summary -------------
Overall this game is a fair play, though it certainly isn't anything that makes it stand out from the pack and it feels very mediocre to play. I would definitely recommend that you rent it (like I did (and brought it back late and got fined)) simply because it can be a good laugh blowing things up pointlessly for a while and earning yourself 400GP, but if you bought it you would definitely find that it would be just another one of those games you have lying about on your shelf.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
If there really isnt any such thing as bad publicity then Mercenaries 2 is already doing ... more
superbly. It certainly already has its fair share of infamy, after being denounced by the Venezuelan government as propaganda for the U.S. Army and even dragging B...
Postage & Packaging: free Super Saver Delivery Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
If there really isnt any such thing as bad publicity then Mercenaries 2 is already doing ... more
superbly. It certainly already has its fair share of infamy, after being denounced by the Venezuelan government as propaganda for the U.S. Army and even dragging B...
Postage & Packaging: £1.94 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Nov 6th, 2008
very helpful by (100%):
