FutureFive New Zealand - Consumer technology news & reviews from the future
Story image
MERCENARIES 2: WORLD IN FLAMES
Sat, 1st Nov 2008
FYI, this story is more than a year old

www.pandemicstudios.com/mercenaries Genre: Action/Third Person Shooter Classification: M (contains violence) Platform: PS3

Pure chaos - that's what comes to mind when I play Mercenaries 2. The second game in the series boasts similar gameplay to Grand Theft Auto 4, but with even more violence and destruction. You choose between three characters: Jen the super-sassy girl, Mattias the tattooed Swede and Chris, the military expert. The game is set in Venezuela during a coup to overthrow the government. As a mercenary, it is your job to rescue a rogue general who is being held captive by the Venezuelan army. But as soon as you rescue the general, you're betrayed and that's when the real fun begins. This game is massive in scope – locations range from urban city landscapes to small towns. Obviously, weapons are a necessity and, thankfully, are plentiful in supply. You'll find everything from pistols to submachine guns and - my personal favourite - the rocket propelled grenade launcher. With so many destructible elements (buildings, vehicles, etc), you'll definitely revel in wielding this uber-destructive weapon.Various military and political factions have a strong influence on the balance of the storyline's progress and aligning yourself with just one faction could find you in hot water with their adversaries. There is a nice variety of missions that you can undertake, ranging from all-out destruction to rescuing people from kidnappers. Your mission successes are also partially reliant on support from a computer-controlled teammate whom you can contact via radio to request air strikes on stationary targets and even vehicles. Mercenaries 2 also includes a decent multiplayer co-op mode, so if you tire of playing by yourself, get a friend to jump into the fray with you.