A Long Updated Review
User Rating: 5.5 | Mercenaries 2: World in Flames PS3
In my initial review of the first few hours of mercs2, I gave the game an 8.5 and in the first few hours it does indeed deserve that score. However, it's after you get to the mid-way point and further that things about the game start to upset you. By the halfway point you will have experienced at least one game-altering glitch and will realize the repetitive nature of the gameplay. Accept a mission, buy some airstrikes, attack the target, proceed to kill everything easily with small arms and vehicles, take the fuel, and then repeat. There's a certain paradox here: airstrikes are the main appeal of this game and since the cool ones aren't cheap, you often save them for the right moment. Unfortunately though, for a lot of them you have to throw a marker by hand right where you want the strike, and in order to get to that spot in the enemy base you will have had to kill everything beforehand to make it safe, thereby eliminating the targets of your airstrike. So essentially your saving up airstrikes for a situation that likely wont present itself. Usually, the airstrikes aren't even neccessary for achieving an objective and you can totally just hijack vehicle after vehicle until you've destroyed everything. That aspect is quite fun at least the first few times as buildings and land features react quite nicely to your violence. Actually taking down human enemies though isn't rewarding at all. You go through, soldier after soldier, without flinching or enjoying a second of it waiting to use your airstrike, and then realize there's no point in it after you've killed everyone with your very uninteresting run-of-the-mill assault rifles and bouncy-ball grenades. Games like this that emphasize violence and shooting people (though this sounds unpleasant) should make sure it's fun to do it. That's what the game is built around. Personally I think it's going to take more and more developer effort in T-rated shooter games for me to appreciate them. Hard to have a game with that much shooting and no blood or gore. The reaction there between the bullet and victim is what makes a good shooter interesting. If it's just like cartoon/old movie-death than how can it hold your interest?; come on, it's 2008 and this is the NEXT GEN. If you loved the first game and believed it needed very little improvement, as I did, than you may eventually get annoyed with this game. If you never played Mercs1 than you have no comparison to make and dont know what was missed here so this game will either be total crap to you or great. For me it's an initial rush that slowly deteriorates into near indescribable disappointment. I had such high hopes for this and it was something I had hoped for since finishing the first game a few years back. This disappointment has set me back in gaming and has left me more cynical than ever about the industry and upcoming games that everyone can't stop talking about. From now on, I'll believe the hype only when I personally have tried and tested it and I suggest you do the same. So if you want to play this, I highly recommend you rent it, have some fun and stop there, or wait for it to decline in price as it inevitably will. These days, what with new games being 60$, more homework/research is required on the part of the potential buyer. Beware of overly positive reviews, and do as much as you can to spend as little money as possible to tap into what small portion of fun can be had here.
