Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is the sequel to a console-only action game
from a couple of years ago.
This time around, proceedings have shifted from North Korea to South America,
but otherwise things remain the same.
Essentially, Mercenaries is a riff on the type of open-ended gameplay used by
Grand Theft Auto, transposing the same sort of missions to a military
environment – in this case a fictitious Venezuelan coup d’état.
Like GTA, Mercenaries 2 provides a huge expanse of game universe to explore
and offers a wide range of different mission types.
Whether you’re on foot or in a vehicle, however, the main objective in most
cases is to shoot as many bad guys as possible. Luckily, combat is probably the
most enjoyable aspect of the game and the control system is easy to pick up.
As well as the single-player campaign, Mercenaries 2 includes options for
playing online, either against other opponents or alongside a friend in
cooperative mode. In all three cases, the game provides plenty of chaotic fun.
Thematically, Mercenaries 2 is on fairly dodgy ground. If anything, the
slightly dubious semi-political message of the storyline only makes the game’s
obvious relish in blowing things up with big guns (including nuclear weapons)
and its general encouragement to profit from the tragedy of war seem all the
more gratuitous. The slightly disappointing cartoony graphics, however, serve as
a good reminder that this is a game that probably shouldn’t be taken too
seriously.
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