I’ll admit that I’m
skeptical of a good majority of LucasArts Xbox games that doesn’t play in the
familiar Star Wars universe that its generally known for since the release of
Star Wars Obi-Wan. Yet there’s something about Mercenaries, a game
that has you playing as one of three paid mercenaries-for-hire, that seemed
extremely appealing. Perhaps it’s the mercenary code of
forget-sides-and-work-for-anyone-who-will-pay-more or the actual chasing down
bounties that’s attractive to me but it has lead me to check this game out. It
turns out that Mercenaries is just one of those games good enough to make
us put down our copy of Knights of the Old Republic II.
Mercenaries
is set in a not-so distant future during the beginning of a violent and
inevitable war between North Korea and South Korea. It seems that after killing
his own father, General Choi Song has become a threat to South Korea as well as
the entire world so the Allied Nation has decided to hire an Exops mercenary.
Your mission is to kill or capture General Song and his fifty-one cohorts
(composed of top military leaders and important men of business) who have been
classified as the “Deck of 52.” Collecting the bounty isn’t going to be easy,
though, since you’ll also have to deal with the Chinese government, the South
Korean army as well as the Russian mafia looking to capitalize on the war.
You start by choosing one
of the three Exops mercenaries, each with his or her own skills and abilities.
The Swede Matthias Nilsson speaks Russian and can take quite a licking in battle
while British mercenary Jennifer Mui can speak Chinese and uses stealth rather
than the brutish tactics used by Chris Jacobs who can speak Korean.
Conveniently, these are languages each faction speaks fluently so you’ll be able
to understand a faction leader’s whispers and secrets. While you can understand
what is said to you no matter who you choose, your understanding of a particular
language will allow you to deal with a faction far more easily. For example,
Matthias’ ability to speak Russian will help him get more work from the Russian
mafia.
Still, you’ll find that
the game encourages you to deal with all the factions and gives you the option
to move among factions, playing against them and using them for your own
personal gain. You’ll often find yourself securing shipments of arms from the
Chinese for the Russian mafia and then, while working for the Chinese, find
yourself destroying shipments headed for the Russian mafia’s black market.
While the main objective is to take down the “Deck of 52” you can’t get anywhere
unless you make plenty of money from each faction. Spanning across an enormous
map filled with each faction’s camp plus city streets, you’ll get around using a
large number vehicles ranging from jeeps with mounted machine guns to tanks and
helicopters. You can hijack every vehicle that crosses your path in true
Grand Theft Auto-style and pick up any weapon dropped by the enemy so you’ll
be well armed as you go from camp to camp.
The good news is that
there is the complete freedom to do what you want when you want it but note that
killing civilians will take money away from your bank and killing members of any
faction will keep you from getting work from that particular faction until you
pay them off. While your mercenary doesn’t really choose his or her side, it’s
obvious that their allegiance is for the South Korean side so you’ll often be in
combat against the North Korean forces. As a third-person shooter, you’ll be
able to carry two different kinds of weapons (be it machine guns, shotguns or
bazookas) plus grenades. You can order air strikes, (which comes at a monetary
cost) and use C4 when you want to explode vehicles or even buildings. Thanks to
the solid controls, battle is not only simple but also downright addictive.
Control-wise, piloting a
helicopter and driving vehicles isn’t complex and thus adds more thrills to each
mission. There’s a mission that has you attempting to latch on to a crate
filled with warheads using your helicopter’s crane but you’ll also have to deal
with ground troops. The ability to highjack is a very welcome feature and the
fact that you can hijack low-flying helicopters just sweetens things all the
more. You’ll have a main objective but also a bonus objective for extra cash.
The money you earn completing missions allows you to purchase some nifty weapons
and vehicles by way of the Russian mafia’s black market website known as the
Merchant of Menace.
Graphically speaking,
Mercenaries looks best on the Xbox with its crisper visual details and
softer lighting effects. The character models look great during the game’s
countless battles as well as mission briefings and watching a building crumble
to rumble thanks to artillery or air strikes will not fail to impress. This
game is big on explosions; whether you’ve destroyed an enemy jeep or brought
down an enemy barrack via some carefully placed C4. Much like Star Wars
Battlefront, you’ll find battlefields filled with fighting factions while
cool explosions and gunfire erupt all around you. When you’re close to death,
the game will slow down to a crawl and you’ll momentarily see all red. Overall,
this is a great-looking game.
With sharp visuals and
plenty of great visual effects, its the game’s sound that will hook you into the
action. While the audio doesn’t reach the same heights as, say, Ghost Recon 2,
it does a fantastic job of complimenting the visuals. Thanks to the in-game
Dolby Digital, gunfire sounds fierce and explosions sound, well, really
explosive. The voice acting is also nicely done, especially since Matthias is
voiced by actor Peter Stormare (of Fargo and The Big Lebowski
fame) and General Garrett voiced by Carl Weathers (of Predator and
Rocky fame). As for the score, it’s wonderfully cinematic but there are
also moments in the score that are occasionally out of place. As odd as it is
to hear a soft lilting choir during brutal skirmishes, it somehow works well
here.
Mercenaries
is a surprisingly well-conceived action game that is just too satisfyingly
addictive to want to put down once you start playing. If the thought of playing
all sides for fame and fortune while destroying everything in your way sound
appealing to you, this game will not disappoint in the very least. Consider
this 2005’s first Must-Have action game.
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#Review |
Gameplay: 9.2
While the game doesn’t have an
intricate storyline filled to the brim with intrigue and great characters, it’s
all about the destruction and the intense battles and thankfully Mercenaries
does them all perfectly. The controls make for a solid shooter and even with
all those soldiers shooting and blowing things up all around you the framerate
remains nice and steady.
Graphics: 9.0
On the Xbox the character models and
environments are crisp and well detailed. While the characters in the game
don’t move as naturally as they should, the rag doll physics and really sweet
visual effects (like the massive air strike explosions) more than make up for
it.
Sound: 9.2
The sound, on the other hand, makes
all the visual effects all the more satisfying to look at and that’s quite an
achievement considering the game has a pretty unusual (yet very original)
score. The soundtrack has the feel of a war movie but then again it shifts to a
soft melodic arraignments in mid-battle. The voice acting is great and the
sound effects just even greater.
Difficulty: Easy
Strangely enough, even with enemy AI
that just so happens to be as sharp as a tack and possesses enough sense to run
or find cover when you toss a grenade their way, you’ll find it easy mowing down
squads of enemies all on your own. Your characters, particularly, Matthias, can
really take some damage.
Concept: 9.0
Loads of guns . . . check! A
massive environment you can explore to your heart’s content and do whatever you
like . . . check! A long laundry list of vehicles you can just pick up and
start driving or flying . . . check! Lots of bad guys to capture or kill . . .
check! Multiplayer options like co-op or Xbox Live support? There is no co-op
or Xbox Live support, you say? Oh well, at least there’s plenty of replay value
here.
Overall: 9.2
Who would have thought that the
mercenary life could be this much fun? Mercenaries is just one of those
brilliant action games ripe with all the things that make this one an addictive
joy to play. With a giant battlefield as your playground, plenty of guns and
enough vehicles to use it doesn’t get any better than this so run out and buy
this one already.
