A fun, pretty and addictive game only let down by some minor glitches and poor story.
Therefore you decide to take over his guarded villa to use as you base of operations - it becomes your own 'PMC'.
From then on you must establish relations with various factions in order to gain information about his whereabouts, performing missions for them. However, there is no real story per sae, with only three or so missions relating to Solano. In the last game the story was a lot better, especially since there was a 'Deck of 52' military and civilian leaders, that establishes a background to the conflict. Instead, Mercenaries 2 gives you bounties that target other factions (and very occasionally nameless 'VZ' grunts), which are largely filler as they are just random faction members with no information accompanying their existence.
Factions include Universal Petroleum, a powerful oil company, the P.L.A.V, a Communist resistance faction, the Pirates (the name speaks for itself) and the AN and Chinese from the previous game. Each faction has it's own broad set of goals which the missions reflect. The missions can include easy challenges such as a race around a course, or the more serious main missions, which usually involve taking over one of the many capturable outposts around the world.
Despite the lack of story, there is some interesting political commentary embedded in it. The existence of this perhaps reflects the times; Mercs 1 released in Jan 2005, when support for the Iraq War was high, this game in 2008, after dissolution had set in. The UP are clearly interested in the oil only. UP's hired mercs don't even care about that, and often complain that their pay is not enough for how much they work, in searing heat, making them sound like wingeing Westerners next to the poverty-stricken Venezuelans. The 'Allied Nations' are similar, it's officials being brazen about the fact they're only interested in the oil, and only play up the 'peace, stability and democracy' agenda to visiting journalists. AN soldiers' American accents and chant of 'USA, USA, USA!... I mean, Allies, Allies, Allies!' send up notions of an equal 'coalitions of the willing' such as were involved in Iraq. Similarly, China is shown to be only interested in the oil, and were only supplying the PLAV in order to negotiate a favorable deal on oil later. The PLAV are portrayed as ordinary Venezuelans trying to take control of their own country. It certainly gives you a lesson in the harsh, strategic, self-interested nature of international diplomacy.
In addition, there are Venezuelan Army-occupied buildings around the map which you can destroy for cash, as well as the buildings of other factions and targets which you can capture or kill. These are risky as it always involves the member of a faction you need to work with. Quite often you'll have to bribe the factions to get back on their good side. But these, again, are optional. They are good things to do if you want to stay of missions for a while.
In the world you can pick up airstrikes and cash bundles which you need to have recruited a helicopter pilot to pick up. Although the explosions are good, many strikes require a smoke grenade to deploy, which require you to get very near your target before you can call in the strike. Along with this you can recruit a mechanic and a jet pilot, but each of these are only 1 stock character, rather than choosing from many candidates. This may seem annoying if you think of this, but if you don't, you won't have a problem with it. Though you may still, now I've pointed it out.
You can climb in practically every vehicle you see, including helicopters, cars, military vehicles and boats. The hijacking of enemy vehicles are more interesting than in the first game because of the addition of a hijacking mini-game, though this can get repetitive and boring, especially when it comes to tanks. The vehicles look superb, as do the explosions and the scenery.
The only faults I can find with this game is the very-occasional glitch and the slightly stupid AI. But they can still give you a run for your money.
I would seriously recommend this game to anyone who likes open-world games (GTA especially), third-person shooters or just blowing stuff up!