Review: Mercenaries 2

Background

The Mercenaries franchise dates all the way back to 2005, when they released the original game for PlayStation 2 and the original Xbox. Critics hailed the game for its open-ended gameplay and daring interpretation of life in war riddled North Korea. As the name suggests, the player was placed in the role of a killer for hire, caught in the middle of a tense nuclear standoff.

Early on, the game was discounted as being nothing more than an irrelevant Grand Theft Auto clone. However, as time went on, reviewers came to see it as more than just a shameless regurgitation with bigger guns. The game went on to receive solid review scores, with an overall metacritic rating of eighty-five percent.

Seeing the success of the original, Pandemic set off to make a sequel, giving their first public glimpse of the game at E3 2006. At the time the game was being developed for the PlayStation 3, but in the interest of turning a profit, the engine was made compatible with PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 as well. So has their multiplatform decision paid dividends, or are we looking at another sequel that is dead on arrival?

The Story

Much like the first Mercenaries, World in Flames continues the adventures of Jennifer Mui, Mattias Nilsson and Chris Jacobs. Though player gets to choose which Mercenary becomes their primary character, the plot remains the same. In another setting and scenario ripped from the headlines, your wayward group of riffraff takes their unique services to Venezuela.

Upon arrival in the sweltering South American heat, Mattias, the ringleader of the mercenaries, is shot in the ass by a former “business associate,” by the name of Blanco. This betrayal throws Nilsson into a vengeful rage that will only end with the death of the perpetrator. In pursuit of cold-blooded revenge, the team finds themselves stuck in the center of a triangle of conflict between the Venezuelan Army, the People Liberation Army of Venezuela and the private corporation, Universal Petroleum.

While the central conflict in the game revolves around control of stockpiles of oil and protection of fuel refineries, each faction is more concerned with retaining control of their strongholds, while depleting the resources of the opposition. Fortunately, none of the sides have any quarrels with calling upon military contractors, in order to get the difficult tasks accomplished. Following these series of quests set in motion a sequence of events will not only validate every mercenary’s itchy trigger, but also show what one person can do with a little determination and high explosives.

The Good

When consumers think of open world games, they think of an immense map that is free to roam, filled to the brim with activities to take part in. If there was any area where Mercenaries 2 excelled, it was in this arena. No matter where you turn, there are several different missions available, all with varying levels of difficulty. The depth and variety of different mission types help to keep things fresh, while not veering off for long enough that things become unfamiliar. This is the perfect balance of new content and classic memories.

What happens when you give a borderline psychotic open access to the biggest toy box of ammunition and explosives this side of the Middle East? Landmarks start to disappear from the map faster than an Ethiopian at an all-you-can-eat buffet. In what had to be a gigantic task of engineering, every single object that appears in the world is destructible, as long as you have enough explosives, of course. It is truly a sight to behold when a few strategically placed packages of C4 turn a giant skyscraper into nothing more than a pile of smoldering rubble.

The best part of the entire game is experimenting with the numerous different weapons and explosives that are available. After nothing more then a request for an ammo drop, your entire arsenal will be instantaneously at the ready. Rocket launchers, automatic machine guns, remotely detonated C4, even entire vehicles, can be dropped from the sky at a moment’s notice, inevitably resulting in the death of copious numbers of unsuspecting attackers.

The Bad

Another trait that Mercenaries 2 shares with its predecessor is a disappointing plotline. The letdown is not as much that the story is bad, but rather, it falls far short of its potential. A three sided conflict could allow for plenty of backstabbing and betrayal, but instead it is used as little more than a vehicle to justify the destruction that you rain down on the people of Venezuela. …

Each and every character in the game is a cookie cutter stereotype right out of Mad Magazine. Further emphasizing the cliché archetypes, the voice actors performed some of the worst accents and pitiful dialog ever recorded. What should be a conversation between two characters sounds like nothing more than two robots chirping unrelated gibberish at each other. Maybe Pandemic might have been better off calling on a team of experienced voice actors, instead of amateurs that sound like a seventh grade drama troupe.

Though the variety of mission types were outstanding, there were significant issues in their structure. Some missions were so open that it seemed like there were an infinite number of solutions, while there were others that were so scripted that a single inadvertent turn could result in failure. All of the inconsistencies were magnified by the fact that there was no way to determine which missions were strictly scripted, resulting in a repetitive cycle of trial and error.

The Ugly

Game engines like the widely used Unreal Engine have been heavily criticized for having extensive issues with texture pop-in. However bad texture issues may seem, it is minor in comparison to the OBJECT pop-in present in Pandemic’s proprietary engine. In some cases the draw distance is so limited that trees can be ran over, without them ever appearing on screen. Under most circumstances this is not an issue, but as soon as a high speed vehicle is commandeered, all bets go out the window. This may be a case of the PlayStation 2’s hardware limitations dragging down the production values of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions.

Is there anything more frustrating than being forced to listen to the same piece of dialog over and over again? Before the mercenary accepts any mission, the player must sit through an unskippable chunk of regurgitated dialog. To further pour salt into that increasingly gaping wound, if a mission is failed, you get to watch the same cutscene again! The only way it could be more annoying is if the dialog was delivered to the tune of “It’s a Small World.” Come to think of it, that might actually help…

A final nagging issue that plagues this otherwise entertaining title is the gimped co-op mode. First of all, there are no options for two players to take part in a coop session on via the same console, unlike other coop juggernauts like Gears of War 2 (2 players on the same console) or Halo 3 (up to four players on the same console.) Following in the inferior footsteps of Fable 2’s multiplayer, each participant must be on a different box, each with their own PSN or Xbox LIVE Gold account. Once all of these obstacles have been overcome imagine the aggravation of having to stay within a very limited distance of the host player. If the communication between participants is not strong enough, this can become a very tricky proposition, akin to a digital three legged race.

Conclusion

Pandemic was successfully able to iterate on the Mercenaries formula, while managing to improve on almost every facet of the game’s design and structure. Although Mercenaries 2 is a tremendously entertaining title that is very much worth playing, there are more than a few lingering issues that prevent it from being considered a great game. All criticism aside, this is the perfect game for that pyromaniac in your life.