Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (Xbox 360) Review

Posted by Ty Huston on 10.01.2008

It is everything you heard.




Game: Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
System: Xbox 360
Developer: Pandemic Studios
Publisher: Electronic Arts




Mercenaries - the original game was an innovative breath of fresh air for the action genre with its sandbox design. Mercenaries 2: World in Flames makes an attempt to expand on that, but really there isn’t much more that you can add to a game that is essentially about running around and blowing stuff up. Pretty much every review of this game says that – Mercenaries is just about blowing shit up and they are right, it is.

The problem this game encounters is not in the design, but the poor testing. The design of the game is beautiful. They’ve moved the game from Korea to Venezuela, and the range of vehicles to use from boats to helicopters to tanks and motorcycles, it gives you the choice to pretty much do whatever the hell you feel like.




Searching for the next target.

The game essentially gives you the options of choosing one of three characters - Jennifer Mui, Chris Jacobs or Mattias Nilsson. The choices really don’t matter other than voices and minor dialogue. The story is basically this – you agree to do a job for some bad guy, he turns on you and you spend the rest of the game getting revenge. You even get shot in the ass.

Yes, you read correctly.

You are going on a spree of explosion-filled revenge because some South American low-life had you shot in the ass.

If you played the first game, you’ll recognize this one. You run around doing missions and other stuff for the five factions in the area until you get the info from them that you need to work your way to getting your revenge. It follows the same pattern as the original in that aspect.




Oops. Did I do that?


Gameplay

The controls of the game are basic, just as what you find with any shooter on the 360 these days. The fighting works well, but the aiming is slow and the targeting is sloppy which can make some fights pretty tough. Also, some of the side challenges such as the sniping challenge are incredibly difficult because the aiming is so slow and the game is very picky at times.

Driving is usually pretty decent, each vehicle have their quirks as you’d expect. The big problems with occur not with the controls but with the other people. Killing a civilian will cost you five grand a piece and let me tell you – these Venezuelans are dumb as hell. They are constantly jumping out in front of your vehicle and getting killed. It’s as though they know how fucked up this game is at points and they are committing suicide. Other vehicle will plow into you for no reason and I’m not talking about the enemy. Civilians will ram their vehicle into you for no reason.

The lowest point of the game has to do with the artificial intelligence and the bugs. Oh my God there are bugs. I’ve seen enemies half inside of walls with just their heads poking out (not a window, a wall, there is a difference). I tried to hijack a tank, no more than 15 minutes into the game and when I failed at the mini-game on the first try; I got tossed inside of a building and was stuck. Enemies are dumber than a box of rocks. They’ll run around you, they’ll blow their own guys up, they’ll just keep shooting until they run out of ammo; they’ll just plain suck. The worst problem with this? To compensate for shitty A.I., they haven’t made any attempts to fix it – they just throw more of them at you.



The motorcycle is the best vehicle in the game.


Honestly the game is very frustrating at times. Some missions are so simple you could walk in and just hand-to-hand everybody. Other missions, you can barely get in the front door not because the enemy is difficult but because they’ve got a hundred of them shooting at you simultaneously.


Graphics

The graphics of the game looks stellar and the level design is awesome. One of the best things about the game is just finding a boat and motoring around the map while looking at some of the world. It’s awesome, seriously. I was very impressed with the visuals.


Sound

Decent voice work with lame writing, stock explosions and gun-fire and bland rock music is what you’ll find in this game. For what it is, it’s good, but nothing outstanding.


Lasting Appeal

The good parts are good but the bad parts are absolutely horrible. I can’t believe that this game saw daylight with the collision detection issues and the abomination that they call artificial intelligence.


Fun Factor

This game is fun for about 15 minutes. Blow up some stuff, drive around and shoot guns. Then you’ll start finding bugs. Yuck.


The 411

It is as if this game was pieced together by two different developers who never spoke to one another. One the one side, you’ve got beautiful animations and level design. On the other hand, you’ve got ridiculous programming bugs and a corrupt A.I. I am very surprised Electronic Arts let this game go gold before the issues were resolved, but Mercenaries 2: World in Flames will stand as a title with a lot of promise as a decent action game that was obviously rushed out the door and ends up much worse for it.

Graphics	9.0	You couldn't ask for much more when it comes to quality looks. The artists on this game did a fantastic job, it's a shame the programming doesn't back it up.
Gameplay	4.0	Talk about a let down. A poor story, mixed controls, broken A.I. and collision detection - it's just all over the place.
Sound	6.0	Fair for what it is, including the voice acting.
Lasting Appeal	2.0	Seriously, after you've spent an hour playing this game you've done almost all of it. You can keep going for acquire every achievement or blow up every single building, but I wouldn't do it.
Fun Factor	5.0	Sometimes it's a blast and sometimes it is just f-ing terrible. It's about 50/50.
Overall	5.2   [ Not So Good ]

Screenshots
All 14 Mercenaries 2: World in Flames Screenshots