Mercenaries

"It certainly is a Playground of Destruction"

If you like to blow things up, this is your kind of game. This is sort of GTA style, but with much less and milder language, violence, and there is no sexual content. I personally like the game more than the GTA series. You have a large amount of freedom here.

Graphics: Not too bad, the real annoying part about this is the lack of view. It always looks like you are walking through a dense fog, and you cannot see very far ahead. This seems even worse for helicopters. Overall the graphics look good, aside from that last detail. The people look like people; cars and copters also look very good. 8/10

Sound: Not too much music in the game, from battle to battle. What music there is, is just ok, nothing too stunning.7/10

Story: Very small amount of story, you are a mercenary, trying to capture the members of an Organization in Korea called “The Deck of 52” You must capture a member of the “Deck” to get a large bounty. Your main enemies are the North Korean foot soldiers, the grunts of the army. Your main target is General Song (The Ace of Spades). You can either capture the card and call in an extraction helicopter, or kill and verify him for half the pay. Obviously, you would want to capture him, but sometimes this can be a problem (he is surrounded by tanks, etc.). Also, there are missions for other factions helping you (South Korea, Allies, China, and the Russian Mafia) Normally, these missions are doing something to annoy one of the other factions, whether it be the North Koreans or one of the other friendly ones. You could find it hard to be friends with all the factions in the game. Most of the game will be spent with you running around, looking for the cards, and destroying hordes of enemies. 8/10

Gameplay: Fun gameplay (can get repetitive at times), but it is a very fun game to just roam around and blow things up. Flying helicopters is entertaining on it's own, because you can pick up other vehicles and use them to your advantage (ball and chain). You also have the ability to call in airstrikes, and plant C4 bombs. There are a fairly large variety of guns, but that is not one of the games strong points. There is no garage to keep cars in like in GTA, so you cannot store cars for the next time you play. This is not too big a problem though, because most cars are easy to find, or can be order from your PDA. The AI in the game are not the brightest, and are not to kill. Just about every vehicle is hijack-able. I like the fact that you can go just about anywhere, go up just about any hill, or land your helicopter on a hill, and pick enemies off with your sniper rifle. This game has lots of freedom for you. 9/10

Replayibility: This game has good replayibilty, although I would not play this game for a large amount of time. This game is fun if you play it less than once a day, because it may get boring. I love playing this game when I get tired of other games, as it is very fun when you come back to it. 7/10

Overall this game is a fun “blow things up” kind of game. I would suggest renting it first, rather than buying it. So if you want a “do whatever you want” kind of game, go and give Mercenaries a try.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/13/05