Mercenaries

"Its a good game, but I wish I would have only rented it"

So, The game starts out with a basic introduction while on a cargo plane. You're sitting in the back as one of the three possible characters, who you chose earlier. There's the Asian chick, who uses her stereotypical ninja sort of skills, and is stealthy. But get this, she has a British accent. The reason is somewhere in her profile, so you can look at it in the full version. Then there's the stereotypical gung-ho American, who has the ability to take more damage than the other two. I personally use this guy because I've always preferred the "get in close and unload as many bullets as possible in the general direction of your target" strategy. Then, there's the viking, as I like to call him. He's a man of few words, and can run faster than the other two. Woohoo. Back on track as far as the story goes, you play as a mercenary hired by the US government to help on the battlefront of Korea. The evil son of the nice, polite, civilized North Korean president has overthrown his father. Where was I when North Korea was run by that guy? Your job is to capture or kill the high standing officers in the North Korean military to get money so you can buy weapons and different artillery and airstrikes. The only problem with this is that you wind up with so much money, you can afford to kill every single enemy you encounter with an ICBM. Not too challenging.

Gameplay-8/10-This game starts out fun, and remains fun, until you win. Once you win, you retain all of your money, which, depending on how you did on the last game, can be way too much. Yes, it is possible to have too much money. The combat is also fun, except for the fact that everybody you have to kill seems to take an entire clip to kill, but the people you aren't supposed to kill seem to die if they even see a fricking gun. That's an exaggeration, of course, but you probably catch my point. The controls on this game are limited. You really can't do much aside from shoot, get in a car, or beat someone over the head with a gun, and run. That's right, you can run for two miles just as fast as a car, and jump six feet in the air, and still keep running, but you get shot a few times, and you're dead. Real accurate. And, just to throw it in, it's a free roamer. You don't have to do all that stuff. You can just go around killing people.

Story-5/10-Did I mention this game has an extremely unrealistic story? A nice North Korean president? There's other stuff that's even more bogus, but those would be spoilers. So, you have to go around doing jobs for the Russian Mafia, The South Koreans, The Chinese, or the Allies, which are really just Americans. After you complete these jobs, you get a hint to the location of a high standing member of the North Korean military. You can then go to the location, kill the guy, or beat his ass into submission, and collect the money. If you beat him down, you have to cuff him, and throw him in a helicopter. Only problem is if there isn't enough room for them to land, or there happens to be some NK bastard hiding somewhere with an RPG. You can still call the helicopter in the case of the RPG guy, but it'll probably get blown up, in which case you will be charged money, because the two gunners weren't smart enough to shoot the guy stand five feet in front of them with an RPG. How where they supposed to know he would kill them? So, eventually, you work your way up to the big cheese. General Song himself. Like mentioned before, after he's done with, you get to start over with all your money and acquired supply drops and whatnot.

Graphics/Sound-5/10-This game isn't really special one way or another with graphics or sound. Except for the trees. I can carpet bomb a tree, and it just sits there. Damn trees.

Playtime/Replayability-7/10-I loved this game the first time through. Midway through the second time, though, I realized something. Beating my head against the wall repeatedly until I fainted from a concussion was oh so much more fun. The AI just wasn't satisfying. I could drive behind and enemy vehicle all day, and because the turret doesn't turn backwards, they couldn't shoot me. It must take a college degree to turn a vehicle around.

Final Recommendation-Rent it. It's a great game for the first ten or so gameplay hours. Maybe more for you. Personally, I've always liked a good complex game, otherwise, it doesn't keep me amused for long.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/11/08

Game Release: Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction (US, 01/10/05)