Brutal Gamer

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (Xbox 360) Review

By Addison - September 15, 2008 - 18:42 UTC

This review was originally meant to go out with the games release, however it became corrupt and I’ve only just managed to salvage it — Viatrophy.

EA’s new title Mercenaries 2: World In Flames is the sequel to the amazing and groundbreaking first Mercenaries, which was on the original XBOX.  The first Mercenaries was special because it did the massive open world gameplay in which you could basically destroy everything, with great graphics and even a good storyline. I know EA have been working on Mercenaries 2 with Pandemic for a long time, years and years, so I did have high hopes for the game. I knew if they stayed with the basic structure of the first game they had the basis for an amazing title, they defiantly didn’t disappoint. Hit the jump to read the full review.

The story for Mercenaries 2 hasn’t changed; it involves you working in a war zone for different factions. First of all you pick which of the 3 playable characters you would like to play as, all from the original I might add, Jennifer Mui, Mattias Nilsson and Chris Jacobs. Each character has its strong points and negative points, but any will do to complete the game. The point is to keep each Faction happy at the same time, whilst them giving you contracts against the other factions, you can even bribe them if you really want. The game has 5 factions which you will work for including the Chinese, United Allies (America basically), Rebels and universal petroleum. They give you all sorts of different contracts ranging from the basic kill assassination ones to the heavy defend and destroy missions. The main story though is about you getting revenge for being shot in the ass, I kid you not, all of these mission’s just pay for all the tanks and equipment. The game has massive variety and seemingly endless sub-contracts. As well as the main storyline each faction has HVT (high value targets) which you either have to capture or kill, buildings which have to be destroyed and outposts which need to be captured. The main storyline is quite short if you rush the missions but with the amount of side quests you will be playing for a very long time.

Also like the last mercenaries you can call in air strikes, supplies or even transport, its these different options which make this a great game. You can stand on the side and snipe everyone or just bring in an air strike and level the entire area. As well as third person shooting action the game has a brilliant driving mechanic, it doesn’t feel like an add on but an critical part of the game. In has massive variety of weapons, tanks, helicopters, cars, supplies, air strikes, I think you might be getting the idea of just how big this game is. The game uses an in-game cut sequence to take control of tanks and military vehicles. This is where you press buttons at the right time with an increasing difficulty with the more advanced vehicles, quite a basic system but it does work. One area which let the gameplay down was the AI, they will get themselves trapped, walk into walls and I even came across one guy who was stuck inside a rock who could shoot me but I couldn’t touch him. But for the most part, the gameplay is fast, exciting and flows really nicely; the game is a joy to play.

The graphics were one of the areas which I thought the game didn’t shine as well as it should do, far away it looks brilliant but if you get up close and personal with enemies it falls well short. I can live with this small flaw after seeing what they have done with the rest of the game. The explosions look amazing and exciting, it adds a level of amazement you don’t see often in a game, hearing the bombs rain down causing massive amounts of destruction. When building come crashing down you really get a feel for the destruction that you are causing. But easily the best thing about the game is the huge open world which for the most part is graphically brilliant; the colours are bright and vivid. I can see now why some people did compare this to ‘Just Cause’ except this is easily 10 times better, the world is filled with stuff to do and places to see. It is truly amazing.

Another area in which I think the game falls down is the sound and audio. Some things sound good but others sound quite tinny, for instance the AK47, I don’t think sounds like it should do. There almost is never background music so I nearly always have to put something on in the background to sing along to. Explosions, like I said before sound brilliant and each type of air strike has a different sound, my favorite is the carpet bomb.

The lasting appeal is quite good for a game which is so single player story based, with all of the side missions I think you could easily spend 30 hours on the game. I don’t think Mercenaries 2 would warrant another play through just because it is so long. The game does have XBOX LIVE co-op which is a great feature, you can jump in and out of games at will. Completing the entire story in co-op is possible but only the host will get the achievements for the story, the player will keep the money he has earned whilst playing in co-op though.

Overall this is a brilliant game which everybody should enjoy; it has an amazing open world and a great story. The problems that I have found with the title certainly don’t outweigh the positive points. EA has kept that winning formula for Mercenaries 2: World in Flames which is what makes this a great game.

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