Reviews
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is a 3rd person shooter with knobs on. Running, gunning and hijacking vehicles is just one aspect to the game, calling in artillary and missile strikes on designated targets whenever you see fit to lay waste to cars,people and suburbs is another. Pandemic have based the game in a war torn and apparently lawless Venezuela. Rebel factions, oil companies and their security forces, Jamican rogues, the US and the Chinese are all jostling for position and power, and its into this world that you are thrown. It's a lot to cram in to one title. You get to take control of a large range of vehicles, such as helicopters, cars, motorbikes, watercraft and trucks. To make things even more appealing, you play in a GTA type island world as opposed to linear levels, though Mercenaries 2 has more akin with Just Cause than GTA, even down to the grappling hook.
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames starts with character selection. You get to choose one of three available, Mattias Nilsson, Jennifer Mui, or Chris Jacobs. Each character has various strengths and weaknesses. For example, Mattias recovers health at a faster rate than the other two, whereas Chris can carry more weaponry. Having three characters to choose from isn’t a lot, but the reason for this becomes apparent when you see that your selected character is used in cut scenes and referred to by name quite frequently meaning that a greater range of characters would require an equal number of subtle cut scene variations in the game. Still, character selection seems too stunted to be of any real use. You begin the single player campaign as a gun for hire taking a contract to do some work for a captured Venezuelan General named Carmona. Without giving too much away, the aim of the game is to seek revenge for being betrayed by the aforementioned Carmona and left for dead with a bullet in your ass. Carmona attempts to seize the countrys oil supply and so the political elements of the game evolve. The Peoples Liberation Army of Venezuela (PLAV) takes on the oil giant Universal Petroleum (UP) as well as Carmona's Venezuelan forces. Throw in the Allied Nations as the US contingent and you have a real melting pot of groups knocking lumps out of each other. Unfortunately,you never seem to get involved in these political wranglings. It seems to be a stage that is set for you as opposed to a mechanism by which you can interact or influence. You can ally yourself with a particular faction, but you never get involved in the evolution of events the way you do in GTA. Then again, Mercenaries 2 isn't about canvassing to one group or another. Its about blowing stuff up.
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