Mercenaries 2: World in Flames

"While great to blow things up, there are snags which damage an otherwise great game."

Playing through the first Mercenaries, you couldn't help but get the impression that this game would be the benchmark for a great series. Flash forward to Mercenaries 2 World in Flames and that vision isn't so realized. Sure, the game has great game play, excellent graphics, and destructible environments--the games hallmark to be sure--but with clunky A.I., bad voice acting, and very little to no strategy whatsoever, the game's pace and feel are marred. You can take on the role of either Mattias Nilssen, the tough merc whose health regenerates over time (ironically, in the first game this attribute belonged to Chris Jacobs), Chris Jacobs, the merc who can hold more ammo--not really that great of an attribute in my humble opinion, and Jennifer Mui, the merc who can run very fast. The game's A.I. is a troubling factor which can yield some unexpected results. It's far too easy to kill the bad guys and in some cases--albeit rare cases--the enemy blows themselves up, usually chucking a grenade at you that wasn't thrown far enough. What's sad about the voice acting is that Pandemic had the opportunity to really take advantage of the caliber of actors employed for the roles. Mostly their lines are wasted on cheap one-liners and recycled dialog. Oddly enough the game play never gets tedious. From playing demolition derby with buildings that the VZ are hold up in, to capturing or assassinating high value targets, the game play stays solid for the most part. I guess it's true, blowing stuff up never gets old. However, this shouldn't be the only enjoyable factor for any game.

The sheer size of Venezuela is immense, but oddly enough sparsely populated. Perhaps this comes from my being spoiled by GTA IV, but I expected to see more people on the streets. This is a let down in many respects because the character models for the pedestrians that do pop up in the game lack variety. There really is no reason for Pandemic to not have invested more time in giving the NPCs quality A.I. and some diversity. The vehicles handle quite well, but they aren't sturdy. A few bumps and your car is toast. The ability to recruit people to your side wasn't what I expected, but it passes the mustard. For the most part, these individuals are all preselected by the game. What would've really been cool is if Pandemic borrowed somewhat from Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops. In this I mean to say that if you capture a member of a militia, you can bring him back to your camp and recruit him to your side. Maybe something like that would have been beyond to scope of the game, but it certainly would've added a sense of variety to the game play. All in all, this is a solid game, but it could have used more polish. Ultimately, destructible environments should not be a game's only saving grace.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/04/08

Game Release: Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (US, 08/31/08)