Mindless shooter meets open world gaming. In the case of Mercs 2, its a good combination but gets a bit dragged out
I was very surprised by the open world approach to Mercs 2's gameplay. Its very "GTAish" to say the least. In addition to being able to steal/use pretty much any vehicle you want (cars, helicopters, tanks, boats, etc), you can blow up pretty much any structure you please in the games fully destructible environment...provided you have the proper means in doing so. The missions on this game can get very repetitive but are most very rewarding. For example, almost every client you do missions for has at least one where you must clear a specific amount of checkpoints within a time limit. These missions have 3 levels of difficulty to unlock and challenge on. Clearing each difficulty level provides you with a new, powerful piece of weaponary to purchase from that client. These weapons range from simple gun drops, to uber powerful helicopters to fly (and blow more sh!t up with) to catastrophic missile airstrikes! They can be kind of expensive to buy but there are so many opportunities to earn extra money on the game, that shouldn't be a problem the majority of the time (plus there's a secret way to earn a billion dollars in the beginning of the game). Most clients reward you with the same stuff but except its their version of it...which becomes very important throughout the game.
Throughout Mercs 2, you can/will work with a total of 5 different factions. If you have a vehicle that belongs to a faction who is an enemy of the other, you will be attacked on sight by the opposing faction...despite whether or not you are friendly with both. That's one of the primary things that frustrated me about Merc 2's gameplay, especially late in the game. It becomes near impossible to maintain positive relationships with all factions at once the further you progress in the game. Besides normal missions that may have you attacking another faction you are friendly with, each faction offers extra opportunities to earn money in the form of building bounties and High Valued Targets. Building bounties are enemy structures that you are just tasked to blow up but HVT's are people you have the choice of either killing or capturing alive for more money (and a glitched trophy). Some times, these targets are Venezuelan government buildings/officials...which is pretty much a neutral party but most times they are other factions' buildings/officials which risks relations between you and them. When a allied faction goes from friend to neutral/hostile due to actions taken against them, you usually have to bribe them with millions of dollars to make them friendly again. Its important to keep as many factions happy with you as possible mostly because it keeps more people off your back when trying to play the game and you can continue to do business with these factions (missions, shopping, etc). Due to this, you'll spend more time trying to avoid being noticed when doing missions, blowing up buildings, and capturing HVTs alive by the other friendly factions than focusing on the actual task at hand.
When I say "avoid being noticed", I'm not referring to any type of stealth mechanics here. On whoever's territory you're attacking, someone will attempt to notify the leader of that faction that you are attacking them. You have roughly 10 seconds to "permanantly shut them up" before, your relationship meter deminishes. Some actions, such as airstrikes, have a much harsher consequence if you are successfully snitched on. Such as automatically going from friendly to hostile on that faction's radar. This is what I mean about this whole thing taking away from the main focus of whatever you're tasked to do and it can become quite annoying. This along with trying to keep HVT alive while waiting for the retraction chopper to come to pick them up. The opposing faction never seems to mind killing the HVT while trying to kill you...which some times, you'll actually find yourself having to strategically find a way to get them out of dodge before their own faction kills them! Mercs 2's co-op online gameplay was pretty good with the exception of tethering mechanic. I had to kick other players out of my game session many times due not being able to progress on the map because they were too far away from me. I feel that maybe some feature should have been added for each player to automatically be placed where the other is at anytime.
Besides the previous mentioned issue and minor technical isses such "rag dolling" (especially when your body rolls down a hill), the only other major problem that I had with Mercs 2 is that, I feel it was unnecessarily dragged out. By the time I got to the end, between going back and forth with missions for the last 2 factions, doing all the bounty buildings and HVTs...I felt that the game should had been over hours ago. It wasn't like Mercs 2 was a highly story driven game which would warrant an above average amount of hours to complete. The story is pretty simple and shallow to be honest: You are one of 3 mecenaries working for the PMC and was betrayed on a routine contract for a high ranking Venezuelan government official named Solano. So you spend the entire game working for the several factions that exist throughout Venezuela in exchange for information (and of course money) that brings you closer to finding Solano and exacting you're revenge upon him (or bringing him to justice for his crimes against the country depending on whether you can get that glitched HVT trophy). Its not just the story that lacks depth, the in game dialouge is very brief and character development is completely non-existant. Mercs 2 is essencially: Gameplay > Story.
My Breakdown:
What's Good:
- Great open world gameplay
- Awesome amounts of actions
- LOTS and LOTS of weapons and war machines to choose from
- Rewarding missions and side objectives
- Doing missions and blowing things up in onlin co-op is fun!
What's Not-So-Good:
- The constant rag doll effect when falling
- The tethering mechanic during online co-op
- The graphics could have been slightly better even in 2008. Especially the environment. The trees literally look like something from a pop-up book.
What's Bad:
- Shallow story
- Shallow characters with zero development
- The game felt entirely too long and drawn out
- Trying to maintain a friendly relationship with factions in the game can be distracting and expensive
In all, Mercs 2 is a treat for anyone who is a fan of mindless shooters but is also looking for an open world experience. However, as most gamers know...mindless shooters are only fun when they are short. Obviously, EA was ignorant to this point.