Despite the blow-everything-up-to-your-heart's-content slogan, this game didn't deliver the satisfaction I wanted it to.
"Blow something up." *brilliantly visualized explosion*
*slight pause* "Blow it up again." *another sumptious explosion*
*slight pause* "Blow the living hell out of it." *yet another massive explosion*
*slight pause* "Blow it up to your heart's content." *another colossal BOOM noise*
*Insert more advertisement here, along the same lines as above*
Now, there's no denying that this one 30-second advert could prompt a bored human, no matter the age, to get up from the comfortable corner of the sofa, and say to themselves, "I am going to buy/rent that game." And, there's no doubt that many people actually did do that. Because the prospect of blowing everything up again and again, would have made the typical action-hungry gamer utter the word "Cool" after every single explosion.
I was one of those people, and yep, I certainly went out and rented the game. And it's only a year on (is it that long ago) that I find myself sitting down and writing a review for the game that doesn't base itself around this sort of foundation: "omg i luv blowin stuff up an dat's y mersinary's iz da BEST GAME EVA."
Because, Mercenaries is far from the best game ever. It's actually quite far away from the description "a great game." And this cold, hard fact that Mercenaries is only just above average, is partly due to the undeniable truth that this explosive advertisement simply doesn't deliver the satisfaction Mercenaries desperately needs to.
Mercenaries wants to be the next GTA - a fully free-roaming world spanning an entire state/country filled with loads of stuff to do and countless little elements that amount up to a stunning experience. But, even when I don't particularly like GTA, Mercenaries doesn't live up to these ambitions. Yes, you get the freedom to go wherever you want, and do whatever you want, but Mercenaries doesn't always feel fun and immersive - sometimes it often falls down to the bottom of the barrel called "Novelty." Sure, the explosions are good - the first few times they, well, explode. And, sure, a vast array of vehicles and weapons are here, but none of them feel powerful or exceptional.
In Mercenaries, you take control of one of three mercenaries (obviously) and you're forced into the ravaged territory of Korea, which is filled with the stench of civil war and heavy with desolation. The world of Mercenaries is reasonably big, and there's no loading times within the world. Also, there's a lot of scope for exploration and discovery here, with North Korean bases scattered in hidden places across the world.
And, as a mercenary, in this world, you get to shape Korea's own future. You can work for any of the four factions (Chinese, Russian Mafia, South Korea, or the Allies) and each of them are reasonably hostile to each other. Depending on your loyalty, this can disappoint the other factions and disturb your relationships with them, often in a bad way (some of them have way more power than others) The factions can issue you missions, and the only similarity between them is that they all share one goal above all others - get on North Korea's nerves. But often you'll have to murder soldiers or associates from other factions, but hey - isn't that what mercenaries do?
Your equipment and vehicles are all delivered via the Mafia's online shop (Which can become inaccessible if you wrong them, as you will have to pay a hefty fine) This online shop is literally full to the brim of assorted items - you can even home in an air strike on a particular location (sadistically, this is most enjoyable when the air strike destroys an entirely innocent town or independent farmyard) The sheer wealth of vehicles is overwhelming - at a fee, you can gain the keys to a number of war vehicles (clunky), trucks (slow and unresponsive), civilian cars (dull), sports cars (out-of-place), street racers (bleh), tanks (good), APCs (good), and helicopters (excellent). Each of them, no matter which one, share the same distinctly unresponsive handling. Helicopters don't have the nippiness they need, and often feel like gigantic flying bricks, and tanks are delightful - until you drive into a lamp post, or professionally veer them into a clump of foliage.
Weapons don't have the oomph they need, rather like the perpetual disappointment called Pariah. The earlier machineguns are OK, but the RPGs and Anti-Air Missile Launchers feel flimsy, and aiming is crap when you're trying to shoot down a particularly avoidant helicopter. Close-range guns are fair, the shotgun is a highlight, and long-range weapons are similarly decent (land a copter on the top of a tower, abandon it, get out your sniper rifle and bust some stereotype skull)
There's some other enjoyable moments in Mercenaries, but they become tedious after a while and become novelties. One staple example is the helicopter's winch. This is a powerful magnet released from the hull of the copter, and this can easily attract metals. The control of the winch sucks - you'll often find it flying uncontrollably all over the place, and sometimes it just won't pick up what you want it to - but if you manage to get ahold of a car, get ready for some radical reconstructuring. Weirdly, swinging a car from 300ft in the air doesn't result in its destruction... if you repeatedly drop it from a great height it will eventually catch on fire and explode, nevertheless, and the first few times you do this, it can be hilarious. Just listen to the scream of the unfortunate driver, and you will laugh. Yes, sickening, but it's just so funny.
And these novelties contribute to the fact that Mercenaries just isn't compelling enough. Sure, it's a Playground of Destruction, but after you've blown up various vulnerable materials, and generally wreaked havoc on the wartorn world of Korea, you'll find the game becoming stale. And the repetitive missions, dull objectives, and tedious drive-around areas just don't cut it in this free-roaming landscape. After the first few hours, you will abandon Mercenaries because of its lack of immersion and flimsy storyline.
But now I'm straying far from the premise Mercenaries prides itself on, and that's obviously making stuff go boom with a well-placed explosive module. As I mentioned above, rocket launchers or missile blasters are nowhere near as satisfying as they should be, and this is a shame. Fire them at a car, and you'll be treated with an immense blast, with a weird outcome - once, I positioned myself on top of a corrugated iron structure, fired a rocket at a civilian car, and I was amazed - it exploded, and much of the bodywork was reduced to crisp - and the car randomly went flying a few hundred metres in the air, before landing with a barely audible splash in the sea. Sometimes the phsyics in Mercenaries can be a little too overpowered, but most of the time they enhance the otherwise mediocre fun factor.
The explosions themselves are sumptious in the visual department. Some of the best flame effects on the console are featured here, resulting in fire so real-looking you can almost smell sulphur. And the sheer velocity of these explosions - fire a rocket at an innocent vehicle and an infernal sphere will burst out of the vehicle like a New Year's Eve party popper. The vehicles themselves (before they get blown up, of course) are modelled well. And the character models are beautifully animated. But the actual environment of Korea is foggy and grey - of course, this is for effect, but it just looks so damn dull. It's meant to have a sort of post-apocalyptic style, but the world of Mercenaries is washed-out and tediously rendered, regardless of its scale and size.
The audio in Mercenaries is good, too. The voice-overs are done well, and they do a good job of establishing accents, seeing as the characters in the game are multinational and come from completely different backgrounds. Explosions and sound effects are decent, but again, sometimes they don't pack half the punch they need to. The musical score amplifies this quiet, distilled atmosphere, and clashes well with the foggy, grey world, and overall, Mercenaries does a great job of making a fictional civil war a treat for our ears.
So, let me wrap things up - just because of the intriguing-but-gullible advertisement, this doesn't mean that Mercenaries is an essential game. Sometimes you can only stomach so much explosive content, especially when it doesn't have the panache or impact it needs to. Mercenaries is a content-filled game, with a sizeable world and lots of missions, but since the most enjoyable moments in the game are flimsy novelty acts, Mercenaries doesn't feel compelling or immersive. Once you've made it past the first few inferno-soaked hours, there's really no need to play till the end, as you basically see all it has to offer at the beginning. Ignore the comparisons with GTA - this has nowhere near the style or enjoyment of Rockstar's controversial series, and buying this game will result in cold, hard disappointment. Ambition gets this game nowhere.