Large, fun and explosive.
Despite this, the mission structure doesn't always revolve around blowing up, and it generally does not enforce it. To allow variety, there is an underlying objective to subdue or kill certain members of the North Korean army, and if you choose to subdue them, you earn a bonus. This concept of earning bonuses is found in pretty much all of the missions to allow the player to feel even more control over how they perform the level, although experienced players, would generally know to go for the bonus, as often it isn't especially difficult.
In terms of side-missions, there's quite a lot to do, but with a little too many driving missions and not not enough of the more fun ones (sling the car as far as you can, subdue/kill certain guys) it can grow tedious if you are an impatient player. Still, if you like to scavenge around, there's plenty of hidden obejects to find, and special statues to destroy to give you an added bonus. Graphically, Mercenaries is quite impressive considering it's scale, and whilst at times the landscapes seem a little overly murky and dust-worn, the variety in building structure and environments keeps the game staying fresh throughout. The characters also look pretty nice, with animated mouths and well acted out animations, even if their AI does seem to be a little lacking at times.
Seeing as you can call allies into a vehicle you may choose to commandeer, you'd expect them to run straight to it, without much difficulty, but unlike many other games with similar AI structure, the characters can't cope with a low wall, and incecently run side-toside across it, and will continue to do so until you get to a ore accessable position.
Mercenaires is a game that will appeal to anyone who is fond of sandbox/free roaming games, and may even draw others towards that genre. Whilst the side-missions could do with a little more variation, and the AI with a few more tweaks, this game pans out to be a perfect addition to anyone's game collection.