he follow up to 2005’s Mercenaries is shaping up to be another playground of destruction for fans. Pandemic and EA were at our offices recently to show off their latest game in full hands-on glory. We were able to play the first few hours of the game and get a taste of it all first-hand. With the sound up loud and butts on the couch, we dove into Mercenaries 2 head first.
After getting a run through on the controls, we were off. We started our first mission off in a speedy cigarette boat just off the coast of the game’s setting, Venezuela. The mission at hand was given to us by a man named Ramon Solano who lives large and hires the best (that’s us!). The objective was a search and rescue mission. As we gunned the engine and drove in, land was approaching fast so we did what any good merc should do—beach the rig. Hopping out, we get our first taste of gunplay. The firefights felt solid, with an almost old-school feeling. There are a ton of different weapons to play with along the way. The character we chose to play as for our demo was Mattias, the series’ tattooed poster boy. As we ran along, it was hard not to notice the new bright color palette. Everything popped, from the green of the leaves to the orange and red from the multitude of grenade explosions.
After gunning down a few rebel troops, we faced a bigger challenge than getting shot at—a giant door. Yes you heard us right. Hey, it was locked and we didn’t have the key. To get around this, the game’s “Can I? Yes I can,” motto comes into play. Can I just blow the thing wide open? Yes I can! In fact, why stop there, let’s just totally destroy it. This is where we get introduced to the series’ famous airstrikes. Moving to the targeting view for that particular strike, we locked the crosshair onto our obstacle and just pressed the button. The glorious explosion of debris and physics that followed was a good indication of how the rest of the rest of the game will play out. Lots of explosions and destruction. Moving on we also get introduced to vehicles by checking out a military jeep and a small tank. Hijacking the tank was pretty funny. Using a button-timed scene, we swung up the barrel of the cannon and flipped open the hatch. While forcing the driver back down, we also tossed in a grenade and poof, a free tank!
Doors are for suckers.
Upon completing our mission, we return to Solano to collect our payment only to find out he has another job for us. The mission? To bite the dirt. Turning and running from the double crossing crime boss, Mattias is just about to make his glorious escape when he takes a bullet. Not in a heroic way though as said bullet strike him right in the rear end. This will actually set part of the tone for the storyline. A lot of the story revolves around struggle for oil but it’s pretty fun to think that there is a good arc based around revenge for getting shot in the bum. So a little revenge is in order, no? Our next mission was to storm his compound and try to get him back for what he had done. After laying waste to pretty much everything including driving a tank around inside the mansion, we pretty much cleaned everything out. This is where the game opens up. The mercs decide to set up shop in the mansion and the next step was up to us.
Mercenaries 2 features a huge map to explore. It’s 64 square kilometers of land filled with cities, jungle, mountains and more. As we set off to explore, we hijacked a car to help us along our way. With over 130 vehicles (yes, that many) driving, floating and flying around, it’s hard not to get excited at the potential mischief ahead. Like in the previous game, players will also be able to do side missions that play the six different factions off of each other. Also in the game are fun little challenges (yes, fun!) where the character can bet money on different things like shooting 50 statues with a mounted machine gun in a small amount of time or lobbing grenades at flying cars to blow them up.
Honey, I think the people accros the street are remodeling
While Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is a sandbox style game, its nothing like the other games out there that carry the same genre tag. The creative director Cameron Brown literally wants it to have “the biggest explosion ever.” Not bad way to play. The gameplay itself may not be the most innovative thing on the planet, but it will most likely end up as video-game crack. The game is set to release in North America on August 31. Until then, you’ll just have to bide your time.