Mercenaries

"Rent it. Nuff said."

I am going to come right out and say that I don't like the game Mercenaries, and I'm glad I rented it before buying it. Why? Well, to sum it up, the graphics are bad, you're too restrained, the missions are boring, and finding all the deck of 52 members is sadly boring.

Mercenaries seems like a promising game at first. The controls are fine, and the combat is O.K., but as you progress, you realize the faults. First of all, you can do a minor mission, go on a contract, or freelance. The missions are boring, because all you do is kill/capture some guys or drive somewhere within a time limit. The contract missions are okay, as you work for a faction to capture something or kill something, but you are often put against other factions. This causes those factions to start hating you. Most of your time though will be spent freelancing. You can traverse the massive country of North Korea, doing whatever you feel like. While freelancing, you may run into the Deck of 52, who you can catch for huge bounties. Of course, all I really wanted to do is kill people and blow things up. Unfortunately, I couldn't seem to find a rocket launcher, and killing random people gets you fined. A major problem is that none of the vehicles allow you to drive and shoot at the same time, yet they have guns on them!

Mercenaries also has graphics that aren't bad, but aren't good. You can't see more than 100 feet ahead of you, and there isn't much detail. The trippiest thing, though, is that when you kill a civilian, they mysteriously reappear! The graphics officially became bad when I got into a chopper. Everything becomes all muddy, and you can't see anything around you! Jack a chopper in GTA and compare it to this, and you will be severely disappointed. The AI is horrible as well. Your teammates aren't very good at remembering that they should be shooting the enemies.

Mercenaries has an interesting story. General Song has taken over North Korea, and now just about every friggin country is in on it. Even the Russian mafia is here! Anyway, all the leaders of the Korean army are in this Deck of 52, and capturing them gets you big money. Your main goal, though, is to capture General Song.

There is no real music, except the crappy battle tune. There is nothing to discuss here.

The sound effects are relatively good. The guns sound realistic, the people from different countries speak different languages, and everything wraps up well.

In the end, the game isn't bad. Rent it first, because it looks way different than it is. I give it a 6/10.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 03/09/05