Mercenaries – PS2 – Review

LucasArts’
Mercenaries has been somewhat of an oddity in its development. What initially
began its development looking like a GTA clone, with some shiny new weapons and
themes thrown into the mix, has actually flourished into a surprisingly fun and
intense game. Mercenaries is a great game with engaging action and a sharp sense
of humor that will no doubt impress gamers with itchy trigger fingers looking to
cause some copious amounts of damage.

The story of Mercenaries puts you in
the role of three different soldiers for hire belonging to an agency known as
Executive Operations. It appears that Kim, the North Korean president, has been
assassinated by his son, right on the verge of unification between North and
South Korea. The son, General Song, begins to mass-produce WMDs like they’re
going out of style and selling them across the world to various terrorist
groups. Therefore, it is up to your rag-tag group of destruction experts to take
down the nefarious General Song. After that point, however, the choice of how
you play the game is up to you, meaning that you can ally yourself with a few
different groups looking for a piece of the Korean pie.

Each of the three mercenaries in
your team has different strengths and weaknesses that give them a different
dynamic within the gameplay. There is an American agent who specializes in
physical strength and can generally take more of a beating then the other two, a
British agent who prefers to take the more stealthy route in her missions, and
the Swede, who serves as the loose cannon of the group and specializes in
causing the most all-out carnage. Each of them also has different languages at
their disposal, which no doubt enables each of them to communicate with the
different factions vying to depose Song.

The official tagline for Mercenaries
is “If you see it, you can drive it,” and this is very true, since one of the
main aspects of the gameplay is the use of vehicles. You can drive tanks, jeeps,
helicopters, anti-aircraft vehicles – pretty much anything in the game with
wheels, wings or propellers is yours for the taking. If no vehicle in the stage
strikes your fancy, then you have the ability to call one in via radio and have
it delivered to your location so you can wreak havoc on your enemies. You can
also call in air and bunker strikes to take down huge buildings and other large
targets, or have special weapons, like anti-aircraft rocket launchers and sniper
rifles delivered right to your position.

Another cool touch in the game is
the “Deck of 52”, and your interactions with them. The “Deck” is essentially a
collection of influential North Korean military officers and clout-holders with
valuable intel on Song and his regime. It is important then for you to collect
the bounties on each member of the “Deck,” gaining insight and help on how to
take out Song.

The one main downside with
Mercenaries (at least, as far as I’m concerned) is the lack of multiplayer
features. While the single-player game is definitely a blast and should provide
a couple dozen hours of entertainment, Mercenaries would’ve been nigh
indispensable for PS2 gamers if it had some solidly implemented online gameplay
or even split-screen features.

Mercenaries does a great job
graphically, pushing the PS2 to its limits with excellent character models,
diverse environments and some truly fantastic explosions. Sometimes the physics
can look a little over the top (think of the extreme rag-doll effects in Star
Wars: Battlefront), sending your character flying after an explosion, but this
adds to the game’s charm and intense action elements. The frame rate gets a bit
choppy when the action gets going, but otherwise stays pretty solid considering
all that goes on onscreen.

The sound is also quite impressive,
with a great musical score and crisp sound. The explosions and battle sounds
ring in clear Dolby Pro Logic II, and the music does a fine job of setting the
mood for the game. The voice acting is also spot on, featuring film stars like
Carl Weathers (Predator, Rocky) and Peter Stormare (Fargo, Minority Report) in
lead roles.

Mercenaries is an excellent action
game, giving gamers a huge amount of freedom and extremely intense gameplay.
While naysayers may try to write it off as a GTA clone due to its vehicular
aspects, anyone who gives Mercenaries some serious play should enjoy the sleeper
hit of the new year.

Review Scoring Details for Mercenaries

Gameplay: 9.0
Mercenaries
offers up a tasty dish of explosions and intense, action-packed gameplay that
twitchy gamers everywhere should embrace. Even considering the heavy action
elements, Mercenaries is surprisingly deep, giving you the option of aligning
with a few different factions and taking their missions, even if it means
falling out of grace with other factions. You can drive any vehicle in the game,
use a plethora of different weapons, and reduce much of the environments to
rubble. All in all, there’s a lot to love in Mercenaries.

Graphics: 9.0
The graphics are
great, pushing Sony’s hardware to its limits with excellent explosions, lighting
effects and smoke and fire. The character models look realistic and are well
animated, and the environments are diverse and well rendered. There are some
instances of slowdown and pop-up, but nothing that really sullies the solid
graphical presentation.

Sound: 9.5
The sound is
great, with crisp weapon and explosion effects and an atmospheric, mood-setting
soundtrack. The voice acting is also superb, with movie actors like Carl
Weathers and Peter Stormare offering up their talents.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 9.0
Early on in its
development, it may have been easy to write Mercenaries off as a GTA clone, but
the final result has become an extremely solid game with a host of great
features and elements working for it.

Overall: 9.0


Mercenaries is a rare gem that surpasses expectations and stands as an extremely
fun and engaging action game. Although the lack of any kind of multiplayer
aspects is a bummer, the single-player gameplay should provide action fans with
many hours of chaotic bliss.