Hired by Ramon Solano, the richest man in Venezuela, the player begins Mercenaries 2: World In Flames battling onto an island where General Carmona, the leader of Venezuela’s armed forces, is being held captive. Doling out destruction aplenty, the player soon liberates Carmona and delivers him safely back to Solano, at which point the two launch a dastardly plot to overthrow the government, and also attempt to kill you.
Shallow it may be, but developer Pandemic lays the World In Flames stall out early and clearly isn’t looking to coax anything other than wide grins of sadistic appreciation from its gaming audience. And, in that sense, Mercenaries 2 is a complete success.
Unpaid but alive, and with an embarrassing bullet wound in your left buttock, the player duly sets about attempting to exact revenge by bringing down the newly-appointed President because “everybody pays.” By working for competing factions across the war-torn country, the player is able to gradually amass huge stacks of money, vitally important fuel reserves, a frightening arsenal of weaponry, and invaluable information that will eventually bring Solano to his knees. Whether the entire country burns to a cinder in the process… is entirely up to the player.
An action-packed sandbox adventure, World In Flames doesn’t mimic other genre entrants by beating about the fiery bush with gentle narrative arcs or the restricted attainment of integral goodies that have to be earned through extensive gameplay. No, in essence, while the player is all-but stripped of firepower at the start of the game, it only takes a few hours before a base of operations has been secured, a faithful team of NPC mercenaries have been recruited, weapons caches are being stolen and airlifted to an expanding stockpile, custom vehicles are being engineered, and Cluster Bombs and Daisy Cutters are being dropped on unsuspecting enemies.
Shallow it may be, but developer Pandemic lays the World In Flames stall out early and clearly isn’t looking to coax anything other than wide grins of sadistic appreciation from its gaming audience. And, in that sense, Mercenaries 2 is a complete success.
In terms of gameplay, the player can complete contract work for any warring faction (there are several), with these jobs generally involving the liberation of enemy outposts, which result in the unlocking of an outpost shop flying the flag of the player’s employer.
Successful liberation also enables the player to speed-up map navigation by using a chopper to transit directly to friendly outpost locations whenever they choose. This can prove hugely useful as the game world is truly huge and, while all manner of cars, boats and aircraft can be used to get around, quickly transiting to specific locations is a big plus point that cuts down on monotony.
Once inside outpost stores, players can purchase airstrikes, vehicles and supplies, and also accept or decline new mission tasks. Beyond liberating new outposts, other jobs include the assassination of specific enemies, the capture or elimination of various high-value targets, and the destruction of important enemy structures. Of course, all jobs bring huge financial rewards and gradually open up more important tasks that bring the player closer and closer to toppling President Solano.
World In Flames plays convincingly well, for the most part, with its wide selection of weapons and vehicles all handling well -- although it should be noted that motorbikes are a little woolly and unresponsive and conventional projectile weapons will occasionally refuse to fire for no apparent reason. The in-game action, whether on land, sea or in the air is always high-paced and suitably thrilling -- although, again, it’s worth mentioning that the majority of handheld weaponry is woefully inconsistent when targeting enemies. For example, it’s not unusual to empty an entire magazine at an enemy’s exposed noggin before they begrudgingly decide to die, whereas every now and then a single headshot will see a target tumble as if the impact caused their bone structure to suddenly disintegrate.
That being said, the gameplay’s main point of attraction is not really centred on waves of hot lead and running ground-based battles, but rather an over indulgence of Bombing Runs, Artillery Strikes, Tank Busters, and even Tactical Nukes -- in short a steady stream of progressively more outrageously eye-popping videogame obliteration. And on that score, proceedings are never anything other than an absolute blast.
Indeed, each newly-acquired airstrike, heavy tank and attack helicopter is likely to leave the player resembling a spoilt child at Christmas, eager to try out their new toys and insistent on an attentive audience. In the case of World In Flames however, that attentive audience is not disinterested family members but rather a pocket of rebel resistance in the mountains, a heavily fortified military installation, or a convey of supposedly impregnable rolling armour. Regardless of the opposition, there’s nothing in Mercenaries 2 that can stand for long before the player’s might, and therein lies the core attraction that constantly distracts the player from the game’s sporadic disappointments.
From a visual standpoint, World In Flames is a decidedly mixed bag. On the one hand, while environments are richly detailed and colourful in their portrayal of the South American surroundings, the overall presentation can tend to feel a little rough around edges. This is down to character models that are largely unimpressive given the supposed powerhouse abilities of the PlayStation 3 -- especially during cut scenes -- while the curse of generic repetition also strikes NPCs and the majority of useable vehicles. The visual prowess is also sullied somewhat by some shockingly noticeable pop-up and draw distance issues, which are considerably more obvious than those seen in fellow sandbox adventures such as Grand Theft Auto IV and Just Cause.
On the plus side however, the wealth of explosive force at the player’s constant disposal successfully manages to paper over any disappointing aesthetic shortfalls. Indeed, it’s hard not to forget niggling visual hiccups when raising a building to the ground with a trusty Artillery Strike, wiping out an underground facility with a Bunker Buster, or simply starting chain reactions by blowing up massive, freestanding fuel tanks. And, considering that EA and Pandemic have engineered World In Flames based on its worth as a fun-filled action rollercoaster, the visceral thrill of revelling in the sheer open-mouthed wonderment of dispatching progressively more devastating firepower is always an effective remedy to the game’s otherwise minor ailments.
As with the visuals, sound in World In Flames also wanders blindly between impressive and ordinary. The regionally flavoured and grandiose soundtrack emerges as one of the game’s clear plus points, while extremely repetitive in-game character and NPC dialogue quickly grates, and oddly subdued blast effects occasionally fail to live up to the ever-larger explosions they follow. The actual vocal performances given by core members of the cast certainly prevent aural proceedings from collapsing in on themselves however, with the excellent Peter Stormare (Minority Report, Fargo, Prison Break) delivering the standout performance as destruction-hungry Mattias ‘The Swede’ Nilsson.
Perhaps best described as ‘Grand Theft Auto Venezuela’ in terms of the impression it’s likely to leave, Mercenaries 2: World In Flames openly trades on its predecessor’s central motivation of blowing up anything and everything for the highest bidder, but it also shoehorns in a forgettable narrative built around banal revenge and the core ethos that, by the time the final curtain falls, “everybody pays”.
However, unlike Rockstar’s latest edition of the Grand Theft Auto series, World In Flames, although entertaining, fails to compel or achieve any sense of genuine connection between the player and the available mercenaries -- it simply doesn’t create that ‘just one more hour’ level of addiction. Then again, if you’re familiar with Mercenaries, then it’s likely you’ll be picking it up with the express purpose of revelling in the shallow excitement of levelling a city with a tactical nuke rather than the profundity of thought-provoking plot lines and decision-based consequences.
Also, the similarities between World In Flames and Eidos Interactive’s Just Cause are rather evident too. However, while Pandemic’s action sequel doesn’t live up to GTA IV’s distinct ‘game of the year’ qualities, it certainly surpasses the lack of variety, somewhat unrewarding missions, and repetitively dull gameplay offered up in Just Cause.
Ultimately, if you want screen-shattering explosions, almost instant access to a wealth of massively powerful weapons, vehicles and airstrikes, then Mercenaries 2: World In Flames delivers in spades. Granted, it’s not Pandemic’s most polished release and it never dares venture beyond the limitations defined by its own simplistic structure, but it does provide a decent spread of varied and exciting primary and secondary missions, which are blended with a slick sense of humour, an always satisfying quotient of trigger-happy action, and, in The Swede, an instantly likeable central character.
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