Mercenaries 2:World in Flames – Xbox 360

Burn baby burn

Grade  (C)

Quick Glance

Game Play – Use a wide array of vehicles and weapons to complete contracts given by different factions to ultimately get revenge.

Visuals – Despite being a bit aged it still looks fresh and enjoyable. Mini games for hi-jacking vehicles is always a joy which is a plus.

Controls – Very easy to learn how to play this game. Controls are responsive.

Overall – With so many supply drops and a variety of ways to to wipe the map clean of opposing forces as well as side missions, Mercenaries boasts a lengthy and enjoyable experience.

Replay Value – Low

In Depth Review

The game play is simple, take contracts and complete them. With a open world that expands as you complete missions and discover new factions, there is plenty to appreciate in Mercenaries 2.

Supply drops are the backbone of the game play. Having trouble breaking into a enemy base? Use a artillery strike and blow down that fortress. Once you obtain a helicopter pilot in your posse you can use supply drops at any time. Some drops do not require a helicopter pilot such as the artillery strike, which if you must know, is a shower of missiles that wipe the targeted area off the face of the earth. You can have a total of 3 active drops, but are able to swap these active 3 at any time to adapt to new battle scenarios. This feature is what keeps the otherwise monotonous game play alive because it allows for exciting new ways to dispose of your foes.

Acquiring supply drops is easy, do jobs for a faction and unlock items in their store as you gain positive reputation. Each faction has their own set of supply drops to offer that once unlocked, you can purchase and use at any time. The rewards reaped for reaching maximum acquaintance of a faction can range from destructive grenade launchers to fully loaded helicopters. Of course money is needed to purchase all of these goodies but fortunately cash can be earned very quickly.

Getting bored of just killing folks? Well luckily for you not all contracts consist of assassinating someone. Driving missions adds some refreshing change depending on what you’re driving of course. These missions are simple drive to said checkpoint until you reach the end, but its not always a peaceful ride. Occasionally you’ll have to dodge obstacles as well as projectiles shot from your enemies to add excitement to an other wise boring job. There are also delivery missions which can be quite a pain in the rear. You simply deliver items in a vehicle to a location, but making sure your goods do not fall out is not always a joy and can cause hours of retries.

To make up for whatever stress given from seemingly impossible missions, Mercenaries 2 has some unique features to offer. Grappling hook is a great place to start. Grappling hook is unlocked once you get a engineer to join your gang and what it does is allow you to hook on to any helicopter and hi-jack. Oh and did I mention, you can fly helicopters? Yes another great feature is the ability to pilot just about any vehicle you can think of from ordinary cars to military tanks to helicopters to motor boats. There are custom made vehicles that you can purchase once you find the necessary amount of parts scattered around Venezuela. The best part about this entire game would have to be a fully destructible environment. There is nothing that can not be blown up whether you use C4 or bombing run, everything can be destroyed.

The cherry on top is the ridiculous protection that vehicles offer. Low on health, hop inside a vehicle and heal during the ride. If your car blows up you fly out and land like on the ground like a corpse, but its not game over, watch as you have recovered health and you get right back up ready to shoot. It should also be noted that you run faster than majority of cars so its easy to car-jack anyone.

Concluding thoughts about Mercenaries 2 is that it has enough going on to keep you entertained for a long time. Normally I dont mention the price of a game because cheap or not I evaluate games based on gameplay, but for the price this is going right now, this is a obvious buy.

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-Joe C.