Developer: Pandemic Studios
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Rating Guide: How I Review Games
Screenshots: Available Here

Audio Recap:

Review:

I love blowing things up.  Apparently so many others loved the exact same thing years ago after playing the first Mercenaries that Pandemic Studios decided to do it again with Mercenaries 2: World In Flames.  This time there’s a much bigger world to do your merc work in and a bigger set of tools to have fun with.  It’s not groundbreaking but Mercenaries 2 does provide you the necessary tools to break plenty of other things.  It won’t cause you to spend less time with the wife so don’t worry.  Oh know he didn’t!  Oh yes, I did.

Gameplay, Graphics and Sound

If you’re familiar with the first Mercenaries then you’ll love this game.  You’re in Venezuela trying to get your money and payback on Ramon Solano and General Carmona, two people who royally screwed you.  Mattias Nilsson, Chris Jacobs and Jennifer Mui are back for more mercenary action.  You’re assembling the Private Military Corporation (PMC) while doing “your work” in Venezuela.  It may be about fuel for everyone else but money takes no second place with you.  And that’s when the fun begins.

In Mercenaries 2: World In Flames it’s all about taking over the factions so that your life is easier getting some payback.  Each faction controls a different area and the heat can be on you depending on the mood of that faction.  They can be hostile, friendly or neutral.  It’s all about choice in Mercenaries 2 and your choices will determine how a faction responds to you.  You can get away with being in disguise for only so long in some areas so it’s best to get in the good graces as often as possible with as many factions as possible.  It shouldn’t matter too much because the AI isn’t exactly impossible to conquer.  Typically you can navigate just about anything with the right arsenal and the resistance isn’t that strong.

The controls are pretty straight forward.  One quick note is to hold the Left trigger to crouch.  I know it’s in the manual but it’s just weird at first to get the hang up.  So when you’re looking to crouch somewhere remember that the Left trigger is actually your crouch coupled with your zoom.  Remember your PDA when you get into the action because it has all the handy information on targets, factions and your location.

I really enjoyed searching and finding the different types of items for your stockpile.  You could find and steal cash to keep your operation going.  You could find air strikes and other destructive weapons which allows you to handle jobs more efficiently.  You could steal some fuel to keep your operation flowing.  There was no shortage of fun running around trying to find all kinds of items.

When I played the game at Pandemic Studios, I was a bit concerned about how much fun hijacking tanks and helicopters would be.  It’s fun for a while but it did get old after doing it repeatedly.  But then who wants to do that a lot anyway when you can torpedo bikes, cars and other objects into a tank to make for a much better experience.  Yep, the weapons and ways to kick much ass are plentiful.  Along with your air support and vehicles, you’ll have a variety of machine guns, grenades, C4, rocket launchers, sniper rifles etc.

Visually, the development did a great job on the look of the game.  I had some fun learning with Pandemic on what the “sheen” was all about on some characters (in particular Chris).  Some of the character models was a little disappointing and the vehicles weren’t exactly stunning.  I won’t mention the civilians.  Was there a point to them?  Overall, Pandemic Studios did a wonderful job increasing the scope of Mercs 2 and giving players a huge world to play in.  And you’ll love what they’ve done wiht the sound.  I can’t say enough about how important it is to have a decent surround sound system because that’s when games like this really shine.

Xbox LIVE Extras

Co-operative play is the best.  You and a friend can play the entire campaign together over Xbox LIVE.  Even if you’re in the middle of a campaign, a friend can join in to help out.  You can share stockpile with each other and dish out punishment side by side.  There are settings that allow you to restrict who can join your game while you’re in progress so don’t worry.  You can opt to have friends only, by invitation only or simply not allow it at all.

Conclusion

There is definitely a crowd for Mercenaries 2: World In Flames.  I think the replay value with co-operative play alone makes it worth dealing with some of the repetitiveness during the campaign.  There are even some costume unlockables that some may find interesting enough to wear and give it another play through.  I think the game will give its fans a wild ride and even manage to grab a new set of Mercenaries fans.

Don’t forget to listen in to the audio recap!  It’s something new I’m adding to reviews and I hope you enjoy it.  Yes, you could opt to head straight to the audio recap if you’d rather not read.  I gotcha covered lazy bones.