Mercenaries 2: World in Flames - Review

Added September 5th, 2008 by Artie Augustyn

On July 16th, 1945, a team of American scientists stared into the barren desert of New Mexico, awaiting the results of their most recent experiment. After years of research, everything came down to this moment. As they sat patiently in the sweltering sun, they were surprised by a massive KABOOM! The bloodcurdling sound introduced the most immense explosion ever created. The Manhattan Project was a success; the nuclear bomb had been created, and half the world knew it from the bellowing detonation alone. Today, sixty-three years later, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames hits store shelves, as if the video game industry was paying tribute to the nuclear bomb through it’s release.

World in Flames is the sequel to Pandemic Studios’ Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction. Mercs 2 doesn’t do a lot to its established formula, but since so few games play like Mercenaries, this isn’t really a problem. Despite World in Flames’ long development cycle, the game has some obvious notable flaws that cripple it from being as great as it could be. There’s still quite a bit of fun to be had with Mercs 2, but whether or not you enjoy the game depends on how forgiving you are of its faults.

Mercs 2 takes place in an alternate version of Venezuela where the government isn’t as stable as it could be, allowing different factions to decide the fate of the country. You begin the game as one of three selectable Mercenaries, hired by the government of Venezuela to neutralize a few thorns in the nation’s side. After finishing the contract, which serves as the tutorial for the game, you return to your employer expecting payment, but instead receive threatening remarks and a shot in the ass. From there the story is a typical revenge plotline, coupled with a continuous amount of excuses for you to blow things up.

Unlike most games, the characters are not the star of this game, it’s the fireballs of fury you create all across the vast open-world you’re given. Technically each Mercenary has their own perk, running faster, gaining more health, or carrying more ammo, but they don’t make a notable difference. All the characters from the Mercenaries spewing off one-liners, to villains whom spew off even more one-liners are amazingly forgettable.

Each mission you’re burdened with comes from rivaling factions. Universal Petroleum is an independent oiling company filled with disgruntled paid employees. The People’s Liberation Army of Venezuela (P.L.A.V.) is a network of guerilla fighters attempting to reclaim Venezuela for the Marxists. Finally there’s the Jamaican Pirates, Chinese Army, and United Allies, which are all self-explanatory. Each mission you undertake for one of these factions is bound to upset another faction, and if you’re not friends with a faction, you can’t accept missions for them. So you’re usually just going to do the entire mission strand for someone like Universal Petroleum. Piss off the P.L.A.V. till all hell breaks loose, and then bribe them with a few million dollars, so you can repeat the process for the P.L.A.V. contacts. The attempted diplomatic sub-game falls flat on its face due to the lack of depth in the system.

Regardless of what union you’re fighting for, or against, every mission in the game follows the “Blow up _____” template, which works pretty well in the game. Whether you’re calling down the thunder through airstrikes, relentlessly launching shells from a tank or detonating C4 remotely, you’re going to be wreaking havoc everywhere. The entire game is centralized around destroying things, and honestly, it never stops being fun. Despite being a twenty hour long game, and literally having every single mission being based on leveling a building, camp, base, bunker, or castle.  I cannot recall being bored or dissatisfied with the result. In fact, after I beat the game, I had more fun replaying the game with a friend over Xbox Live Co-op. If this sort of thing appeals to you, go purchase Mercenaries 2 right now.  That’s all you need to know.

However if you’re not totally hooked on world-wide Armageddon, you may want to be more hesitant with your purchase. World in Flames’ otherwise sublime experience is marred by countless technical glitches and bugs. Despite the three year development cycle, it’s obvious that the game is lacking a certain level of polish that’s required for most releases. You’ll run into bugs such as being in the shellshock sound filter forever, getting stuck on a wall, building or car. Rockets will fly through structures without causing any damage, shipments you ordered through your helicopter pilot will outright disappear, and a laundry list of other problems that I’ve run into myself countless times throughout the game.

What’s also evident is the fact that Mercs 2 is a last generation game, ported up. The draw distance for objects and cars is laughably close, and the problem intensifies during co-op play. Textures are pixilated and muddy looking, and the presentation as a whole from the terrible voice acting to wonky physics system, isn’t exactly top-notch. This is by no means an impressive game to watch somebody else play. On top of all that, the game has a terrible first impression. The very first few hours of the game (the ones that did not consist of bringing down the sun’s fury onto this earth) I hated the game, and I imagine many other people had similar feelings.

The plus side of these faults is that they never hinder your fun with the game. There aren’t any crash bugs or glitches that force you to restart missions from the beginning again, the game is very forgiving and is just plain fun. Although most games would be crucified for getting so many simple things wrong, what World in Flames does right, it does well. The arcade style shooting mixed in with the Hollywood blockbuster epicness delivers one of the more satisfying action games in recent years. If you’re a skeptic you should at least give Mercenaries 2 a shot. There’s plenty of content in here to implant a smile on your face and keep it there for a long time.