Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PC, Xbox 360, PS3) Review
by Eddie Turner on September 9, 2008 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Game Overview
Upon starting the game for the first time, players have a choice between three returning characters, each with a short bio about their military history. Despite the differences in the characters' physical appearance and gender, the experience remains the same regardless of which mercenary you choose. Mercenaries 2 takes place in sunny Venezuela, a change up from the previous game's dreary North Korean locale. As the story unfolds, players are introduced to the game's main plot and pivotal characters by means of a brief cutscene. The scene takes place as your mercenary approaches a crooked politician with plans to take over the country. Hoping to collect the cash for services rendered, things go awry as your employer turns his hired guns on you in an attempt to take you out of the picture. Luckily, your character makes it out alive with only a shot in the butt to show for your efforts.
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At this time, players get a moment to become familiar with the basic controls in a tutorial sequence that serves as the game's initial objective, which consists of securing a nearby mansion to serve as your team's headquarters. After killing a few bad guys and taking a jaguar tank for a spin, the first mission is complete. From here, your reconnaissance gal pal sends you out into the field to take on missions that will lend themselves to the eventual destruction of your betrayer.
As expected in a GTA style sandbox game, the playing field is quite large. At first, only a small section of the map is available. However, the playable area opens up fairly quickly as each new mission requires travel to new locations on the map. While free roaming is definitely one of the game's selling points, there really isn't much to see outside the areas you'll be directed to while completing your objectives. With this realization, free roaming will most likely be limited to taking whatever path provides the quickest route to the next objective. While there are few impediments to your ability to roam around the game world, the desire to stray from the beaten path is virtually nonexistent. Traveling long distances to reach your destinations can be quite tiresome, but thankfully your team will acquire a helicopter pilot early in the game who'll transport you instantly from point A to point B.
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Spacecomber - Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - link
Sounds like Pandemic would have been better off porting this console game to the PC. Not being a console gamer, I've never played this title, but it looked wacky enough that I might have picked up a version for the PC, if it was available.Pandemic was formed in order to develop Battlezone II, when they were spun off by Activision. They managed to alienate most of the original Battlezone fan base with that effort (at least the multiplayer fan base), and it seems like they've continued to turn out games that are near misses since then.
I appreciate the risks they took and their efforts to do things differently with a game like Battlezone II; so, I've always hoped that they would get something right. However, I can't say that any of the PC games that they have produced since then have been compelling enough for me to purchase.
Full Spectrum Warrior lacked a true first person perspective, for example, and Starwars Battlefront didn't really offer more than its competition (the Battlefield games) already provided (or so it seemed to me).
Anyway, once again, when it comes to Pandemic and their PC games, the conclusion seems to be to "move along, nothing to see here".
samduhman - Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - link
You read my mind. Their games have always been just shy of being something great. Is this due to their games being crossplatformed and they not putting extra effor in for the pc?EddieTurner - Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - link
Agreed. Destroy All Humans! was a lot of fun and would have made for a worthy PC port. There's actually a new game in the series on the way. "Path of the Furon," I believe it's called. But, as I stated in the review, Pandemic won't be developing it. Sandblast has taken the reins. Still no PC version planned.fendell - Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - link
Such a shame they didn't include a LAN coop mode with easy hassle-free joining..HOOfan 1 - Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - link
While progressing through this article I experience several bugs and glitches with anandtech.JarredWalton - Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - link
Unfortunately, our doc engine sometimes decides to set an article status to "live" during the posting process. Apologies for any inconvenience; the article is now fully posted.HOOfan 1 - Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - link
No inconvenience, I just thought it was amusing.