Mercenaries

"Point blank: This game owns."

Mercenaries is easily one of the best of the recent surge of shameless Grand Theft Auto clones. It also feels original, which is something the other clones can't seem to master. This one, though, will be loved by shooter fans, Grand Theft Auto fans, and psychotics alike.

Graphics=9/10
Even though I have a bad TV, this game looks beautiful. People look like humans, you can see emotion in faces, and the landscape of North Korea that your character runs, drives, flies, and explodes their way through is superbly rendered. the only thing stopping the graphics in Mercenaries from getting a 10 is that there are occasional slowdown issues during the massive battles.

Sound=10/10
Again, Pandemic creates an excellent audiovisual experience, complete with orchestrated themes that usually fit the scenario, be it detection by enemy soldiers, a tense firefight, or the superb main theme. You may find yourself humming the last one. Although it doesn't have the variety of the music in games like Final Fantasy X or Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, it's also a valid point that the composers of the music in Mercenaries know that the music they're composing is for a shooting game.

Story=7/10
The story casts you as a mercenary(big surprise there) looking for 4 main guys, and their 48 cronies, by pumping shells through thousands of enemy soldiers. The main people you're after are called the Deck of 52. Thankfully, this is not a good vs. evil game-you're in here for money, dude.

Gameplay=8/10
Things get a little iffy here, but otherwise the game handles smoothly. Switching weapons(and grenade types-there are 2) and firing are done as easily as moving and jumping. You can also hijack a ride from someone else-unless you're willing to pay for your own for several thousand dollars, yoinking a civilian or military car is going to be your primary mode of transportation, soldier. One touch I like in this game is that you must pay money or lose respect with a faction if you just go around killing indiscriminately, to avoid too much resemblance with GTA.(and likely to avoid potential negative press)

Let's get back to the money part-by completing missions given to you by 4 different factions, you earn cash and information on the aforementioned cronies to the 4 main generals. Money is a huge aspect in this game-you can even do extra missions to earn more of it. You'll use money most likely to buy emergency supplies and hard to find vehicles.

Mercenaries is also set on a huge map, full of varied terrain-good, but navigating and driving around can be tedious.

Unfortunately, though there is no 2-player or online mode. Bummer.

Extras: With huge amounts of stuff to unlock,(I think for the PS2 version you can get Indiana Jones as a playable character) Mercenaries will have all of you anal retentive completists hooked for a while.

All in all, Mercenaries is an excellent alternative to GTA, and in general a great game if you are hunting for a good action game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/26/05