Mercenaries

"A valiant attempt...."

Since GTA 3 there have been a few clones which have tried, unsuccessfully, to steal Rockstars thunder. None of these games (True Crime, Simpson's Road Rage, amongst others) have come close enough for any kind of competition, despite that, there is something that Mercenaries has that San Andreas does not, massive destruction.....

Graphics-8.5: For the most part, the graphics of Mercenaries are good. The main player models are nicely rendered, there is also some good looking bloom effects on vehicles, the the explosions, in particular, the fire, is also good eye candy. Damage to vehicles is portrayed decently, but not the best, until they explode that is, at which point tires at parts fly, though the destruction of buildings is far more entertaining. The effects from airstrikes are also varied. However, the good does not come with bad. Firstly is the plainly obvious one, the draw distance. Though it is nice that they added "smoke and mirrors" to hide the pop-ins, the side effect is a very short draw distance. In addition, the models for the lower cards (7 of clubs, 5 of clubs etc..) are all the same and don't differ till you get to the higher members.

Sound-8.0: The is also something they did well on, whoever, could have been better. The voice acting of the main characters and other units is decent enough, and the weapons all sound well "recorded", however, most of the vehicles sound similar, or unrealistic in a few cases. Decent, but lacking variety.

Gameplay-8.5: The gameplay rounds off a rather simple process of capturing enemy's, but still works. You go about doing missions for one of several factions (China, South Korea, Allies, and Russia). These missions can range from blowing up Missile launchers, attack other factions, or simply getting from point A to B. By doing these missions, you can get hints of locations of members of the Deck of 52. However, the capturing of the enemy's seems to get harder rather than more interesting, and the only real time you ever kill one of them is either accidentally or out of frustration. The missions also narrow done in variety as you progress, usually involving a mission that will tick off another faction, or rescuing soldiers from capture or death, which happens to often.

Features and Replay Value-8.5: Mercenaries does do several things different that do make it stand out however, firstly, is the faction system. By doing certain things, you can make other factions hate you (like killing their troops or destroying there property) or love you (doing missions, or killing NK in their territory. This system is a duplicate of what was in the older GTA games. And though it does add some depth, in the end it just ends up feeling restrictive. There are a variety of collectibles, which actually have a purpose rather than you being able to just saying you collected them. Collecting certain amounts of the packages, destroying monuments, listening post, and other things, will result in either a good cash bonus, or, most of the time, a vehicle, supply, or other option available in the Merchant of Menace (where you can order from via your PDA. Despite this the like of other side missions and vehicles other than military ones make the game feel old once you finish it. Exploration is also restrictive because of the mountains and trees you can't go over or through even in a tank.

Over all-8.5: Though it makes a valiant attempt, and is a fun experience, the areas the Mercenaries lacks it make it a second choice for gamers looking for some destructive fun.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/08/05