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PRE-GAME

North Korea is at war. With the death of President song, killed by his own son General Choi Song, what little chance there was of unifying the nation has been crushed. Some of the worlds most notorious terrorists, designated the Deck of 52, now control the country and with Allied, Chinese, Russian and South Korean military forces involved in the conflict, there is little room to maneuver. With General Song in possession of the countries nuclear stockpiles and tensions escalating, the breaking point is drawing ever closer.

Business is going to be great.

As a hired mercenary working for Executive Operations, you are not bound by the strict guidelines of war. You're in this for the money and with the Deck of 52 up for grabs, not to mention the $100 million dollar bounty on General Song's head, you stand a chance of making out pretty nicely. Oh yeah, and saving the world has its perks as well.

EYE-SPY

THE HOOK: What do you get when you combine the free-roam, do anything you want gameplay of Grand Theft Auto with a military war chest the size of Russia? More mayhem and destruction than should be allowed in a video game.

HOW IT LOOKS AND FEELS: Normally games of this sort, which incorporate large scale open free-roam areas, have to sacrifice a few notches in the graphics department to make room for all that terrain and on-screen action. Mercenaries does not suffer from this ailment. Everything from the landscapes to the buildings creates a feeling that there is conflict and strife across the lands. You'll come across bombed out villages which now resemble little more then heaps of rubble; base camps and airports that may have once been bustling metro areas are now converted to allied headquarters; and you'll even venture into a propaganda village that is literally constructed out of wood like some sort of Hollywood movie set.

Character models are nicely done, though a tad generic. Well, except for the mohawk sporting Swede who would look more at home at a Wayne Newton concert then a war zone. Vehicles are exceptionally detailed and each one sports various paint schemes (according to which faction owns it).

Textures are dreary and mute with little attention paid towards the more vibrant spectrums of color. There are momentary splashes that spring forth during the multitude of explosions and fiery effects that usually follow a tank shell or rocket propelled grenade. Just to get it out of the way, I'm more then happy to report that the explosions are gloriously satisfying in intensity, scope and feel. Each is punctuated with a nice kick in bass and thanks to a mighty fine implementation of the Havok physics engine, it's not uncommon to see shrapnel and tires being blown across the landscape.  

Mercenaries is played from a third-person perspective and thus anyone who has picked up a game like Grand Theft Auto will feel right at home. Any special controls you need to know will be introduced during a very cleverly hidden training session. A game like this depends greatly on how its vehicles control and be it helicopter, tank or sports car, Mercenaries delivers in spades. Tanks may take a moment to master as they're a bit clunky and slow (gee, wonder if that has anything to do with it being a tank?) but they're not bad. Humvees, cars, truck and other vehicles all control well though the handbrake can be a bit to sensitive.

HOW IT SOUNDS: Not surprisingly, the music in Mercenaries is top notch. Lucasarts has a reputation for quality soundtracks that don't feel like filler. Mercenaries is no exception with some really great orchestral tracks punctuating your destructive tendencies. Music is dynamic in that it will slow down during the more calm moments (such as when you're wandering around an allied base) then quickly kicking into high gear when the bullets start flying. The songs exhibit a very militaristic feel; lots of horns and deep sweeping violins during the more havoc filled moments. The quiet stuff is just that, eerily moody and very ambient. It definitely sets a foreboding tone while you wander amongst the bombed and crumbling buildings of a Korean village.

Sounds effects follow suit with very meaty gunfire and vehicle sounds. The bass rattling thump of a tank shell is satisfying indeed. I will admit too that I'm very pleased with the voice acting in this game. Faction commanders, the ones who actually assign you missions, are professional and believable in their roles, including the fact that they all have some sort of accent be it Russian, Chinese, Korean or American. (As a side note, I have no idea what sort of accent Fiona, your briefings and intelligence officer back at HQ, has. It's not quite British and not quite...well, anything) The character you play as, whomever you choose, also delivers an excellent performance. Everyone has some great catch phrases they'll throw out during the game and whilst you may get tired of hearing the same thing over and over, it's nothing to complain about.

EXTRAS: Besides all the fun you'll have just screwing around? Well there are a ton of cheat codes and extras to unlock, including a few extras characters (see Fan Service). Other then that, nothing.

CINEMATIC EXPERIENCE: Nothing notable to speak of. Most important information is gleamed through your PDA or through radio communications. There is a nice little news clip montage opening that introduces the conflict at hand however.

BEST PLAYER: You are given the initial choice of three Mercenaries to play as. Each has a slightly different feel to them, but not so much that it impacts the game all that much. If I had to choose, and given the sub-header for this paragraph I suppose I have to, I'd pick Chris Jacobs. He seems to have a knack for surviving with little health and he is probably the most balanced of the three.

CHEAT CODE YOU NEED: For Invincibility, enter the PDA screen and go to Factions Screen.
Enter UP, DOWN, UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT on the D-Pad. You're going to have to re-enter this code after every loading screen though, and you might want to be careful not to save with it turned on. There is the possibility you'll end up not being able to turn it off....which sort of sucks.

CHEAT CODE YOU WANT: I want a hidden chess mode. With all this senseless destruction and violence, sometimes you just want to sit down and have an intellectually stimulating game of chess. Slow things down you know? Maybe have a little David Arkenstone playing in the background........oh screw that! I want a cheat for bigger explosions!!

OH MAN! MOMENT: Battling tooth and nail for over an hour against a merciless and seemingly endless onslaught of North Koreans, dodging bullets like Keanu Reeves and RPG fire from every angle; then quickly ducking behind a storage container to reload only to be run over by an allied cargo truck! I'm trying to protect you people! Stop hitting me with your vehicles!

The lack of an ability to save during a contract can be quite a frustration at times, especially during the Ace missions. It's purely a design decision, but not one I'm to keen on. There are no checkpoints during contracts, and some (like the aforementioned Ace missions) can take around 45 minutes ~ 1hour to complete. Die, and it's restart from the beginning of that contract.

GLITCH ITCH: There are the usual A.I. glitches here and there along with the occasional "bad guy shooting you through a wall" moment, but nothing earth shattering. Bad guys (and good guys alike) sometimes exhibit a curious tendency towards standing still and being shot at; not exactly compelling combat. Then again, line up 30 of these angry mannequins in a row and you'll have a very difficult bunch of puppets firing at you. Stupid puppets? Yes, but stupid puppets with guns.

FAN SERVICE: Mercenaries caters toward the pyrotechnical/military crowd. If you have even the slightest fascination with exploding jeeps and napalm fuel bombs, Mercenaries will bring a smile to your face. Oh yeah, and for all your rabid Lucasarts fans out there I forgot to mention that both Han Solo and Indiana Jones can be unlocked as playable characters. Now you can recreate the Greedo Shot First scene....except with North Koreans and rocket launchers.

END GAME:

Mercenaries is surprisingly true to its title of "Playground of Destruction." I've never had so much fun just wandering around an area blowing the crap out of anything and everything I see. You would expect that this would grow old after a while, and with only a few weapons or vehicles this might be true, however this is where Mercenaries shines. You really are given such a vast amount of weapons and toys to play with that you're liable to go crazy trying to chose which explosive you want to use. Air strikes are the shining example though; with choices like carpet bombing runs, precision missile strikes, artillery bombardments and even bunker buster bombs, you've got more then enough to choose from.

I'm also quite fond of how the mission system is set up. You can accept contracts from any of the four factions (Allied, Chinese, Russian or South Korean) at your leisure. The missions themselves are varied and well thought out. At times you'll have to race across the country hunting down targets or escorting embedded journalists, at other moments you may have to assault North Korean bases to rescue downed fighter pilots or retrieve stolen weapon plans. Then we have the Deck of 52. By completing faction missions, you will collect intelligence as to the location of each member of the Deck of 52. It's up to you to find them and bring them in. Seeing as the intelligence can sometimes be a bit purposely vague (such as "...last seen south of the DMZ") you're going to have to do your own recon and find them. It's all terribly fun and engaging and provides a constant linear path to follow whenever you get tired of blowing the hell out the world around you.

Eventually you'll wittle down the cards and gain access to one of the Aces. These Ace missions basically play out as drawn out boss battles. You're sent to a completely different area (usually an island or military base) that you must complete various objectives on to flush out the Ace. They are not only extremely well thought out in design, but also challenging. If you find yourself being overwhelmed repeatedly whenever you attack some lone outpost, maybe you're going about it the wrong way. These Ace missions are actually some of the most entertaining aspects of the game.

I suppose some people are going to be turned off by the fact that aside from the back story of "North Korea is at war", there really isn't much of a story to speak of. The characters are pretty cut-and-paste and exhibit personality only through their voice overs. You won't feel much of a connection towards any of the factions either as they are little more then stopping points to gain access to cool stuff. You must try and keep all four factions happy (by taking down North Koreans in their presence or completing missions for them) but there is little consequence whenever you anger one to the point where they start shooting you on sight. It's somewhat hard to believe it only takes a simple bribe to get back in the good graces of a faction who I just blew the hell out of. Then again, suspension of disbelief is required in a game of this type and thus you can't really fault it for being able to balance fun with realism.

I'm also a bit disappointed that there isn't any multiplayer to speak of. I crave for the day when I can hop online and enter a large scale sandbox style war game such as this with a group of my buddies. Yet Mercenaries was never designed for multiplayer and so much polish and longevity has been put into the single player portion of the game that waxing philosophic about the merits of multiplayer is a moot point. You can easily stretch this game into the 40 - 50 hour department by yourself and never get bored once.

2005 is off to an amazing start with Mercenaries. If you've ever wanted a game that offers you the freedom and possibility to command a literal army of one against countless and limitless opponents, then Mercenaries is the game for you. Hell, this is a game for every person out there who owns a PS2 or an Xbox and I urge you to pick up a copy as soon as possible. You're going to need perverse fascination with explosions and a lot of free time. With countless games offering you a sandbox experience and the freedom to do anything, Mercenaries rises above the competition to claim the crown and title as the new king of destruction.

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