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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Truly a Playground of Destruction!, 19 Nov 2006
Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars
As the title suggests, in this game you play as a ruthless mercenary, deployed into gloomy war-torn North Korea which has been subject to a bloody coup at the hands of the President's son, General Song. At the start of the game, you can choose to play as either an American, a British or a Swedish mercenary- each with their own bonus on the battlefield. The American for example, can withstand more bullets, but is not as fast as the Swedish mercenary and not as stealthy as the ex-MI6 Brit.
Within the expansive, free-roaming setting, there are four main factions: the Allied Nations (AN), the Chinese, the South Koreans and the thuggish Russian Mafia, all enemies to the insurgent North Korean forces. Each of these factions asks you to carry out their dirty work, but with their interests overlapping in this unstable country, it is difficult to keep everyone happy. Missions vary from assassinating Mafia officers for the Chinese, to destroying North Korean artillery barraging the AN.
As if that's not enough for any mercenary, your main objective within the game is to bring in the infamous 'Deck of 52'- dead or alive. These are the 52 key North Korean leaders, with General Song himself as the Ace of Spades. The members of the 'Deck of 52' are located throughout the two provinces of the game. When you find them, you'll get paid considerably for subduing them, calling for a helicopter extraction and loading the unconscious bounty aboard. The deck is separated into the state-sponsored crime lords(the Clubs), high ranking officers in the NK military (the Diamonds), Song's weapon scientists (the Hearts), and lastly the lethal Spades, the North Korean Special Forces and General Song himself.
Concerning vehicles, there are many different types available in the game. From swift AN helicopter gunships to powerful Chinese tanks, Mafia armoured SUVs to even a fast sports car, there are enough vehicles for any tactic a mercenary wishes to employ.
In addition, providing no-one sees you enter a vehicle, you can disguise yourself as any faction. For instance, if you get behind the wheel of a North Korean truck, you can drive straight past the enemy with them thinking you are on their side. This can be good or bad, as when disguised as the NK, the Chinese, Mafia, South Koreans and the AN all shoot at you thinking you are the enemy. If a faction's officer sees you or if you sound the vehicles horn, you lose your disguise. Sounding the horn can also be a signal to any allies around you to either mount the turret (which most military vehicles have) or jump in the back. With some means of transportation you can only get two or three allies aboard (like with the NK Sungri Scout). However, there are certain vehicles- particularly transports- that many troops can hop in. If you hijack a civilian metro bus, which can be seen driving around cities, you can honk the horn and get several Mafia thugs aboard, ready to storm an enemy encampment in the North Korean countryside.
As it's not such a good idea to roam a war zone empty handed, this game offers several types of weapon. There are the machine guns (some come silenced), the RPGs for taking out most vehicles effectively, shotguns- a favourite of the Russian Mafia- and sniper rifles for a kill at range. Of course there are grenades too, but much more of an effective explosive is by far a C4 charge- probably where the 'Playground of Destruction' really starts. Any building in the game can be reduced to rumble with one or two C4 charges placed and detonated at a safe distance. However this is just the straight forward way to use it. Noticed that an enemy vehicle often drives a certain route? Place a charge on the road, lay in wait and when it drives straight over it, you hit detonate to make any form of transportation a flaming wreckage of its former self.
But with all the cash you're making doing missions, collecting bounties and selling unwanted vehicles, how can you spend it? Well within the game there is an online shop found on your PDA called the 'Merchant of Menace'. This is run by the Russian Mafia and is like a black market for any weapons, vehicles or supplies you need delivered to you via helicopter- for a price of course. You can even purchase a variety of devastating air strikes of which some examples are bunker busters, artillery strikes and stealth bomber attacks. These are expensive but effective, taking out men, vehicles and even buildings in the impact area, depending of course on how devastating of an air strike you have purchased.
Overall, I bought this game with not too many expectations, but was pleasantly surprised. With the wide range of vehicles and weapons, all the varied missions and challenges for the clashing factions, and a believable storyline makes Mercenaries in my opinion a unique and entertaining game.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dogs Bollocks!!!!!!!, 30 Mar 2005
When i bought Mecenaries I wasnt expecting a game as good as GTA.
In my opinion it is.Mercenaries is definately the best war game ever made as the graphics are amazing the gameplay is brilliant and it takes a bloody long while to complete if you collect all the extras.It is like GTA as you do a mission when you want and you can mess about kiling people for kicks.But overall it does not feel anything like GTA as it seems a lot more serious and darker.
One of the best things about this game is that all the buildings and statues are destrutable.Also you can buy airstrikes,Cluster bombs etc. etc. which makes it a lot more fun and varied as there a million ways of going through missions.
The only problems I have with mercenaries is that the music can become very annoying and sometimes it des not suit the game at all.Also some of the missions diffuculty suddenly gets a lot harder or a lot easier.Graphics - 10/10 - Some of the best on the PS2.
Sound - 6/10 - Rubbish music but OK voice work.
Gameplay - 9/10 - Great gameplay just a few slight problems.
Lifespan - 9/10 - Very long... but more missions could of been added.
OVERALL - 10/10 - One of the best games on the PS2
BUY THIS GAME!!!
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27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant, but not what I thought!, 4 Mar 2005
Mercenaries is a brilliant game. You've probably read that before somewhere, well its true.But I did have one majour problem with this game. Alot of people have said that it is like GTA in a warzone. Which idiot said that? It's nothing like GTA, you would be a fool to even compare it. So, why is it compared to GTA? Beacause you can take/nick any car? Because there is free roam bits when you are not on a contract (more later)? Because you have a little bit of freedom in how you complete the missions? Or because you can choose what order you do the missions in? And those are about the only similarities. Don't be fooled, there's not nearly as much stuff to do. Is there a gym? Can you eat? Can you take a quadbike through the woods searching for bigfoot? Can you jump of a huge bridge into the sea? NO NO NO NO But this in no way means mercenaries is a bad game. Infact mercenaries is a brilliant game. You play as 1 of 3 mercenaries (you pick) and are sent to Korea. Basically you have been given a deck of 52 of the worlds most wanted (like in Iraq.) You have to capture (big bucks) or kill (smaller bucks) each one. But to do this you must gather intel. You do this by doing jobs for 4 different groups (russian mafia, chinese, N and S Koreans) and once you have completed your contract (mission) you recieve money and intel. There is also a website which helps you. You can order vehicles, supplies and airstrikes to help you complete you missions. Watching an airstrike bring down an airport never gets boring. Visually Mercenaries is amazing. The explosions are like no other, and the whole surrounding is really detailed and well done. So why was it dissapointing? The Hype. People where saying it'll be better that GTA, and Its GTA in a warzone, which are not right. When you here phrases like this you get excited. GTA in a warzone? Yes please! But its not. It's a completely different game, and a very good one at that.
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