Mercenaries 2: World in Flames

This game is a lot of fun. If you liked the first mercenaries, this one continues the party with lots more vehicles, weapons, and airstikes. The vehicle hi-jacking minigame is kinda silly, as none of them are so hard that you simply won't be able to do them, even for the best vehicles (most require mid-tempo button-mashing), and if you fail, you can easily try again with little to prevent it. Money is rather silly in this game, as you can earn 5 million in a very easy task in your HQ that takes about 2 minutes, and the best faction units and airstrikes in the game only cost like $250k-400k. The only time you really need cash is to bribe factions (upwards of $10million). Another odd point is the relative invincibility of your merc. You can fall from hundreds of feet or stand in the middle of an airstrike and survive (though my experience is with Nielsen, who is the "tough" one).

Pros:
-Lots of vehicles (170+)
-Game world is very large
-It is easier to control faction opinion than the first game. You can kill whomever you want, as long as you don't get reported (the games gives you 10 seconds to take out reporting units)
-Physics engine is very realistic
-Everything actually CAN be destroyed (though most respawn at some point)
-You can afford all the vehicles and airstikes you could ever want without having to "work" for money

Cons:
-BUGS. This game literally locks up my Xbox 75% of the time when I try to load a save. However, it appears this has been fixed through Xbox live.
-Missions are too redudant. Most missions actually have you repeat the exact same task 3 times, though increasing difficulty and increasing reward.
-Voice acting is annoying. Everyone says the same things over and over again. A pirate unit sharing your tank will continually say something like "hey mon" every 5 seconds. I'm not kidding.
-There are not enough core missions. I would estimate there are 12-15 between the 5 factions. The other "missions" are more like errons (drive from A to B)

The only real deal breaker for me in this game was the locking up while loading. As I said, an Xbox live update will fix this, but if you don't have live, make sure you are a patient person.

Mercenaries 2 is a great, fun game. However, there are elements that simultaneously improve and reduce the experience.

M2 is usual on-foot/vehicle sandbox fare - main missions can be completed at your leisure and completing side quests offer you bonus artillery/info/ammo that can aid with the main missions.

Graphically, well it's sub-par. It has moments of brilliance such as the sun glinting over the sea as you fly around in a chopper, but the graphic pop-up and sparse, bitmap-tiling of the greenery is very evident. Whilst it does the job it sometimes borders on very gamelike Mario-esque looking effects, so there's no real immersion, no sense of you 'in the game'. Does it matter? Not really; it's a 3D platformer/driving game, not Far Cry 2.

Sound has problems too. Your main character has the weirdest accent I've heard and this 'Nordic Viking' also tends to say the same thing over and over again. Jump out of a helicopter two feet from the ground and he shouts "Who neeeeeds a 'chuuuute!" whilst he's standing next to a landed chopper. Would it have been so hard to code in a test to see how far he's about to fall? Your cohorts also repeat the same dialog far too often. Call in chopper support and you get the same line delivered chosen from maybe three available. The barks your enemies issue are equally inappropriate and repetitive and become tiresome fairly quickly.

Gameplay - well this is where M2 shines. It's simply a fun game with lots to do and many ways to do it. You're free to experiment with your current arsenal and free to tackle the task at hand anyway you choose and I love that. My only gripe is the QTE (Quick Time Events) - these are situations where you must complete a series of set button pushes in a small amount of time. For example to hijack a tank, you might have to press B then mash X then hit LT then A. It's all very antiquated and tedious. A next gen game with Dragon's Lair controls? Awful... buuuut - it's also awesome in Co-op.

Co-op, is, as I opened with the element that sends M2 into the stratosphere in terms of fun. Your friends can jump in at any time and help out, then leave without impacting your mission. At one point my colleague was attempting to delivery some packages in a truck and was repeatedly being killed so I jumped in, summoned a powerful chopper and destroyed all bad guys in his wake. He completed the mission successfully and I logged off. Marvelous. The QTE events are funny as heck too, especially if your partner simply can't do them. My friend tried to hijack several helicopters only to fail and be thrown two hundred feet over and over again and it was hilarious and never got old (fortunately in M2 you can fall from any height and not die, you just have one bar of health).

Of course, co-op comes with a price and that's the sour with the sweet. That price is bugs. The game is already fairly buggy in single player, with you getting stuck under objects, or not getting into vehicles properly etc. When in co-op though things fair much worse, with buggy debris from a recent co-op game being carried back over to my single-player save and other such unforgivable bugs. Save first to a new slot before joining a friend's game!

So all in all, nothing ground-breaking, no amazing graphics, and some sometimes amusing bugs. But bloody hell it's a lot of fun, and double so in co-op. M2 is very recommended especially if you know someone who also has it. Go git 'em killer.

Mercenaries 2 lets you loose in a large map of Venezuela, playing a male or female mercenary who is out for cash and revenge. There's a lot of things to blow up, but not a lot of plot.

I appreciate that you can be a male or female character, and that they customize the dialogue and situations around the type of character you have chosen. The graphics are reasonably OK, although not nearly up to the level of most other current release games. For example, I was convinced there were leaves falling around me in one scene, but eventually realized they were bizarre moth creatures which were "clipping" into the ground.

You have minimal choices at times - do you kill your targets, or bring them in as prisoners? Most of the time you are just tracking down more weapons, blowing up more items, gathering up more money.

There are mini-games that help you hone your skills, but even these are pretty simple - shoot at some targets, blow up some statues. We cranked the dollar value for each game up to the maximum and got through them rather easily.

That's not to say the game isn't fun if you simply take it as a destruction game. It can be fun blowing up buildings, blowing up cars, shooting things of course. However, as an actual mission based game, along the lines of Grand Theft Auto, Saint's Row or even Just Cause, there is a lot missing here. It's sort of like a "light" version of those games.

If you really enjoy blow-things-up game then certainly this game could be perfect for you. Not every game needs a plot! Heck, I love Super Mario games. If you're on the fence, though, rent this one first and see how long the appeal lasts for you. It might be that a weekend of it is enough. On the other hand, if you find you really get into the game and enjoy that let-loose aspect of it, you can then buy it.

For me, though, there's enough blow-up aspects in several other games I own that I would rather play them than to play this one.

mercenaries 2 is a very cool sequel. you can choose more cars and the city is not bad at all. The cut seens are unreal. The guns are outstanding. I personally love the nuclear strikes alot. very cool 3 person shooter. If you like the first one you will love this.

This game had it's bright points. The story is fun and it's a good time blowing stuff up.

But that's about where the fun stops.

The game is incredibly buggy. It freezes on a fairly regular basis, or allows your character to get stuck in situations that require a reboot of the system.

And the game play has some serious flaws. The single most annoying element a game can have is rampant in Merc 2. Often, when you die, you respawn on the other side of the world map and have to spend the next 5 to 7 minutes walking or driving back to the mission where you died. That drives me insane. I understand that you can't go undefeated in the game, but at least respawn somewhere near the death point!

The game does have a very high fun factor, for about 2 hours. After that you begin to realize that it is the EXACT same thing over and over until the end of the game. The main story missions are few and far between with very repetitive side missions that usually do not even need to be completed.
The graphics are ok, but nothing outstanding, glitches range from minor to major (major being game seizures/crashes/corrupt saves). Minor glitches include things such as suicidal civilians that jump INTO your path instead of away from it (for which the game penalizes you for). Weapons are holy inaccurate even at point blank range and rpg's rule this game, the enemy has an infinite supply and any vehicles you do manage to commandeer usually do not survive long (about 5 minutes is a rarity).

Support from pandemic has been pathetic in terms of patching/updating/information. All you need to do is log onto the game's website and search their forums for a few minutes to see the many numerous complaints/issues.

And as a final note, this review is from someone who owns the game, actually beat it, and enjoyed it (after the frustrations and lack of a compelling story), however as others have said, this game in no way worth 59 dollars, let alone 40.

If you want a game with more of a story that in my opinion is more fun, then rent or buy Mercenaries 1 if you do not mind the dated graphics.

Great game, great gameplay

miss the deck of 52 but whatever, not important.

graphics are weak, but evething really does blow up

Mecennaries 2 is a far from perfect game but if you like GTA, Just Cause or other sandbox style games it should give you hours of fun. I never played Mercenaries 1, but I did play Just Cause and liked it even though it probably had more bugs than M2. There are many vehhicles that you can eventually use, many people to fight, races and other minigame type challenges.

however, I did get frustrated with the game somewhat because some things that you must do in order to equip yourself for proper gameplay are not completely spelled out. You need to keep your fuel supply up, by taking from enemy bases, to fuel your partners so they can supply you with weapons deliveries and airstrikes. this was not immediately clear to me, I had to stumble across that. I'm kind of a ADHD player so I don't always listen to cut scenes and AI team members drone on about possibly important game tips.

overall the graphics and gameplay are nice. I think its worth full price new. there is some funny dialog. and the game has good replayability I LIKE THAT ALOT!

MIKE

This game was alot better than the first and was way better than I expected it to be. Its not the longest game, but who care? Blow stuff up! One thing I noticed is theres LOTS of bugs.And the game will freeze during connection to thier server if your connection isnt fast enough. But overall the game was fun, I didnt unlock everything but I did beat it and nuked pretty much everything. Yes NUKED. Rent it, buy it, have fun.

Mercenaries 2 is an open world, third person shooter for the XBOX 360. This is the sequel to the sleeper hit, Mercenaries (mercs) that came out with the last gen consoles near the end of their popularity. A lot of its fans claim that the first game was better, but I have to disagree. Also you should be aware that this game is ARCADEY, this is not a realistic game! This is not a simulation like GRAW or RS6 or COD.

In Mercenaries, you can pick from three different character mercenaries (mercs) and they each have a unique advantage over the other characters: Mattias, can regenerate health faster than the others, Chris can carry more ammunitions, and Jen can run faster on foot than the others. The storyline, missions and the game's ending however, remains the same for all of the characters regardless of whom you choose to play as.

The story is one of its weakest points, but the gameplay more than makes up for it. In the previous Mercs game your character drowned if they went into the water, you couldn't pilot boats and trees were indestructible and impassable. In this sequel, your character can swim on water and even pilot all types of boats! Trees and bushes can be destroyed and are passable with any land vehicle. These are minor improvements but they make the open world experience more enjoyable.

The game is open world which means you can go just about anywhere and do about anything you want. You can choose to play campaign missions or side missions by going to any faction that is friendly towards you. The factions are: Universal Petroleum (UP),Venenzuel (VZ), Pirates, PLAV and VZ (whom are always hostile), Allied Nations (AN) and Chinease also become available later into the game.

Aside from doing side missions for friendly factions, you can buy weapons from them by going to their shop. You can also take weapons from dead friendlies or enemies that drop them to the ground. There are also bombs and airstrikes which can be found through out the world map (they have unlimited respawns for free!) You can buy vehicles at the shop too, but you also have the option to hi-jack any vehicle in the game; as long as you don't anger a friendly faction.

The number of varied vehicles and weapons is enourmous! All the standard stuff are there such as: smgs, rpgs, c4, lmg, grenades, but the airstrikes and the destruction they cause are a sight to behold! Buildings crumble, walls break down, vehicles demolish all in a blaze fire and dust. The explosions and destruction that you can cause is amazing. And best of all you can play co-operatively online with another person!

What are the bad points of the game? The game has a lot of little glitches offline, such as floating objects and stupid AI. The major gameplay glitches seem to occur online co-op play which is kind of bad but do not occur all of the time. Hopefully the game's developer will fix these issues with patches. The graphics and animations look like a last gen game and need to be update for a nextgen title.

Aside from the glitches, If you like open world gameplay, third person shooters or arcadey gameplay, I do recommend Mercenaries 2 though I think there is lots of room for improvements in the future.

Pros:
+open world gameplay
+two player co-op
+destroy just about anything
+great explosions
+best airstrikes in video game
+lots of weapons
+lots of vehicles
+you can swim and pilot boats
+hijack any vehicle
+cool side missions
+campy humor

Cons:
-cannot fly planes
-lots of glitches
-no customizable characters
-no multiplayer
-last gen graphics
-weak story
-short campaign

This game all in all is pretty average. The explosions are pretty, and it is pretty fun to run around and destroy things, but beyond that the game is just average. Plain and simple, the missions are pretty straight forward, destroy this target, which gets pretty boring after a while. Since all you do is request a bombing run, tank buster, or whatever else you might need.

This game is fun and entertaining for what it is. No where near perfect, but what game truely is. IMO there is no such thing as " perfect ". I really enjoyed the first Mercenaries game back in 2005 and what you get here is pretty much the same M.O. just in a different setting. I will agree with some of the other reviews and say that the graffics aren't where they should be. That doesn't bother me as much like it seems to for a lot of others. I feel that the graffics are decent enough to make it an entertaining and enjoyable experience. I personally purchased this game for it's replay value. I happen to prefer games that you can play more than once and not get bored of too fast. So just sit back, relax and enjoy blowing the crap out of everything in site. I give this game 4 out of 5 stars for it's entertainment purposes. I would have given it 5 stars if the graffics were comparable to most other " next gen " games out there.

This game was postponed for over a year and in that time it appears EA did nothing to improve the game, but spent that time developing its sale's pitch. This game is bad (bad as in bad) Awful, not only does it play like a last gen X-box game, but the story (if you can call it that) is lacking. So let's pick it up from there, shall we? As a mercenary in Venezuela you are betrayed by a dictator and now seek revenge. Along the way you work with the Allied Nations, the Chinese government, some local rebels, and others to exact your revenge. With all these factions one might believe there would be some side quest/plots/missions, well guess what? There are none! So the story line fails, let's look at the game play.

The only saving grace of the game is the game play, but don't expect any huge improvements from the first Mercenaries. Destroying buildings (which is the main selling point of the game has been enhanced) And you are given a lot of weapons to accomplish this: Tanks, explosives, air strikes... The destruction of the buildings and the havoc caused is the games best part. But watching people run around from a small nuke being dropped can get old after awhile. So what about the AI? Pathetic! I stopped counting the number of times the bad guys were stuck in a wall or just standing there waiting for me to shot them. Your teammates are just as bad. So I guess my final assessment is to save your money and just rent this game, you'll find it incredibly easy and the replay value is zero.

I will start with the cons for this game:

THE GRAPHICS are among the worst in the market. The game is fast I admit, and you barely find yourself having any lagging problems. Yet, for a next generation system you would expect a lot more details and better graphics. The bad graphics alone take two stars in my opinion.

Having said that, I would really recommend this game because you will have a lot of fun playing it. WE can choose between three different mercenaries to use for the entire game, and we have the freedom to move in a huge map any where and at any time of our choice. It's like an open real life environment where we control what we do and how we plan our attacks on the enemies. By the way, if we want we can choose who we want to be friends with or who we want to be our enemy. I have not read all reviews here, but I am sure a lot of people have included a lot of details about the game. So I will move on to strongly recommend Mercenaries 2, but because of the graphics the game should cost twenty dollars less than its actual price.

I believe this is one of the most fun games to play, but I dont think this is the best. Three stars should be a fair rating for this game in my opinion.

This game may not be the best technical game (controls, AI, detailed plot) but it is one of the most fun games released this year. If you want a game that involves strategy or detailed go buy vegas but if you just enjoy blowing things up and shooting everything that moves this is the game for you.

Mercenaries 2 is basically all about destroying things. You get to roam around a beautifully detailed Venezuala and drop airstrikes, grenades, bullets, and nukes on whatever and whoever. Unfortunately, the experience is marred somewhat by mediocre AI and bugs galore. However, this shouldn't come between you and the game if you're an explosion junkie like me.

i will probably get this for 1 of my associates ,But the first game Mercs 1 made with Lucas Arts ,is 100 times better ,EA gets their hands on this crap over the past few months .and try to be stupid ,taking things out,like they have done the last 5 years with both football titles ,THIS CRAP is horrific ,glitches , bugs ,etc.. and you so called Fan Boys ,(don't like that word ) need to get over yourselves it's fun though,yeah right, Graphics look 16 bit Capiche!!! terrible excuse for a game ,again by EA who screws up whatever they touch ,hope they don't take the M rated fun of Mass Effect 2 ,and make it a teen rated game like this ,liberals have ruined the country and what we are allowed to play and watch ... stunned and how this company keeps ruining games ,and idiots still stand by them, nuff said......

The game is pretty good you can blow up anything the oil rigs are the best easy achievements i got 320 gp in 3 hours and the co-op online is beyond fun the only thing that i was disappointed with was no split screen cause i was looking forward to playing with my brother

Its really hard to describe how good this game is so ill keep this short. There are over 170 vehicles to drive, you can create your own military company and employ mercenaries (you cant create any, its already pre-determined). The graphics are phenominal, it reminds me of Just Cause another great game. Its pretty long, and interesting. The new weapons are awsome, and there are many minor improvements from the last game, the last game had kinda depressing environments, these are gorgeous and bright and vivid, buy this and dont 2nd guess or look back. You wont be dissapointed