I have to give it to Lucas Arts. They are like a fine wine, with time they just get better and better. Much is the case with Mercenaries. The game starts out by letting you choose one of three available guns for hire, and then after a few cut scenes, drops you into a sandbox of destruction to run around and bring chaos to the world.
As the mercenary it's your job to capture,(dead or alive) the deck of 52 most wanted militants in North Korea - each one assigned his own card. There are 5 factions that you will interact with throughout the game. These factions will give you the opportunity to earn some extra cash and info by doing missions for them. This feature has been done before, but it works great in this scheme. You basically have to juggle with making everybody happy, not steping on too many toes, and making peace with the toes you have stepped on.
One of the game's greatest feature is the ability to destroy pretty much anything and everything in the virtual world with a variety of different methods. The game has numerous vehicles, weapons and air strikes to help you carry this out. What makes this game so enjoyable is the fact that there is no one way or wrong way to go about your missions. You can jack a helicopter, car, or tank among others, or use C4 or guns to get the job done. Pandemic and Lucas Arts have put a forth a tremendous effort to make sure that the game play stays fresh and innovative.
The graphics in the game are beautiful, but not perfect. There is a lot of fog and same color scenery, but this is Korea we are talking about, not Las Vegas at night. The characters have wonderful animation and look great. The camera works well, and the P.D.A. style menu screen never presents a problem.
The sound is probably the game's strongest point. The explosions sound so real. The different vehicles sound differently, and the quirky comments of the characters will have you laughing out loud. If you have a nice surround system you are in for a treat.
One thing Mercenaries does better than a lot of games have done recently is presentation. The whole package feels right, and you can tell the developers really jumped thru all the right hoops to make this game shine. The story, graphics, sound, and in game content make this 20+ hour game well worth its price tag. With the extras and secrets they have included, you will want to play thru more than once. Now if you will excuse me, I have a few air strikes to call; the seven of clubs is taunting me.
I am 31 years old from North Carolina. My hobbies include surfing, running and of course video games. The first game I remember playing was pong. I fell in love with that game. Now I am really into the whole survival horror thing, and anything Star Wars. One thing about the gaming industry I don’t like is the lack of originality. It seems that when a game is successful every company wants to put a clone out instead of using their resources to put out an original product
