Mercenaries 2: World in Flames

No other medium does explosions quite like video games, and it’s looking as if no games do explosions quite like Mercenaries 2. Ben Parfitt steals a tank and locks his sat-nav on Hertford…

You can see the logic behind Mercenaries 2 right from the off. GTA-style free-roaming games are obviously massively appealing to both developers and publishers nowadays. But as past failures have shown, trying to mimic Rockstar’s epic series with something emulating its ‘gritty’ ‘urban’ ‘character’ can be a hiding to nothing. So the best thing to do is to approach the genre from a completely different angle.

One avenue open to publishers is the superhero route. It’s been done successfully, too – PS2 and Xbox outing Spider-Man 2 was a bit of a revelation at the time. Then, of course, there’s Realtime World’s sublime Crackdown, which remains arguably the only title to genuinely take the GTA formula, give it an original makeover and merge with something equally compelling.

For those wanting to ‘keep it real’, Pandemic’s 2005 outing Mercenaries is another appealing option. It replaces the social commentary and humour of Rockstar’s titles with a sandbox warzone for players to toy with. In terms of explosions and destruction Mercenaries had GTA well and truly beaten. And now the developer is back with its promising next-gen take on the formula.

The fact that Mercenaries 2 was an incendiary grenade away from release just this time last year, but was held back for nearly 12 months’ more development, shows both developer and publisher are committed to releasing the game they set out to make.

Set in Venezuela, World in Flames once again sees players take on a living warzone in their quest for cash through killing. The game this time offers one single massive play area, which is both free from loading times and also bigger than all of the maps from the first game combined. Five factions are operating in the game, and players will juggle allegiances, contracts and chaos – resulting in huge amounts of destruction and political upheaval.

The gameworld boasts a whole new level of destructibility, with players razing entire sections to the ground. A good example of this is when the player nabs a jeep, attaches an air strike tracker to it, aims at the enemy, jumps out and then activates.

The resulting explosion sees buildings crumble, trees burn and enemies tossed into the air. Flammable liquids also behave believably – shoot a hole in a tanker and the fuel pours out. Put a flame to it and the results are just what you’d hope for.

Players have three characters and, as a result, three play types to choose from. Agile Jen favours a covert approach, demonstrated by her use of the sniper rifle. Chris offers a more tactical angle, whilst Matthias favours a mode known as overkill – big weapons, big jumps and big explosions. Add to this that new militia members can be recruited to form your own Private Military Company, and the gameplay variations seem pleasingly broad.

In addition, players are even free to launch a grappling hook at choppers. And speaking of choppers, lots of vehicles are on show for players to get to grips with.

To top off the package there’s the prospect of online co-op – and anyone who has indulged in the similar feature in the aforementioned Crackdown will know how such a game mode ideally suits this type of title.

Mercenaries 2 has all the ingredients to cook up a solid next-generation hit and it will be interesting to see how successfully the action-packed title wins over its target audience.