Mercenaries 2 has a great concept but buggy AI ruins the experience. Real Score: 6.4/10
The plot in Mercenaries 2 is quite simple. You are a mercenary who has been screwed over. You completed a job for a Columbian business man and then they do not pay you, and they leave you left for dead. They then take over Columbia and you are left with nothing more than some weapons and revenge in your heart. This is pretty much as deep as the plot gets. You eventually start taking jobs for companies and other types of factions that are located in the game world. Of course there is betrayl and all the stuff that you would expect from a game like this, but it isn't fleshed out enough to make the story interesting, especially with GTA IV's wonderful plot still fresh in so many minds.
The missions have you doing things from taking over buildings for factions to bounties and some of other stuff in between. This is where the first of the game's main problems start, in the missions themselves. In many missions you will have to call in for support. This rarely works. I would call in for support about three to four times before the support would actually show up, and just because they showed up doesn't necessarily mean that they are going to do their job. You see in the missions where you have to take control of outposts, you have to call in suppport, and then they go and take the outpost while you cover them. So once you finally get the support to come chances are that they will run wild, and they will not go into the outpost like you told them to. This means you have to call in support for a second time, and I even had to call them in three times just to complete a missions. Normally buggy teammate AI doesn't bug me so long as it doesn't interfere with me completeing a mission, but in this game it did interfere which is just unexceptable. Also many missions have you driving long distances to get to your next objective. The car controls are not very good and you do more sliding around than actual driving. If driving is such a big part of this game, it seems silly that the quality of the driving gameplay is so bad.
One good thing that I can say about the gameplay is that the shooting and everything works fine. The game was made by Pandemic studios, and they are the ones that made the Star Wars Battlefront series and gunplay reminds me quite a bit of those games which I liked.
The graphics in Mercenaries 2: World In Flames are very disappointing. There are tons of little bugs scattered around the world. At times the game can get pretty blurry and pop-up can be bad at times. The character models are probably the best thing about the graphics in this game.
The sound in Mercenaries 2: World In Flames is probably the best part about the game. The celebrity voice-overs are great as they got some celebrities to do the voice-overs. Peter Staramore who played the wood chipper guy in Fargo does the voice for Nielson, and I loved him as the character. While the voice-overs are great, the comments that the characters make get old by the end of the first level, so they can get a little monotonous by the end.
In terms of value in Mercenaries 2 it really all depends what you can put up with. If you can put up with the buggy AI and look past the decent at best vehicle controls, than you will probably have a good time blowing stuff up. I personally could not, but I do know of some people who enjoyed this game. Not to mention the co-op over Xbox Live is a nice addition. I played a couple of the levels over Live and it does make it a little easier to deal with the bugs at times.
If you can deal with the buggy A.I. than you will probably love this game. I feel that deep down Mercenaries 2 may be a good game, but in its current buggy state and high retail price, that good game may be hard to find.
Gameplay: 6/10
Graphics: 6/10
Sound: 8/10
Value: 7/10
Tilt: 5/10