| | First Encounter
Xbox.com Managing Editor: "You'll be looking at Mercenaries™ today."
Me: "I'm sorry, what?"
So began my love affair with a game I didn't even know was in development. How this one slipped by me is unknown, but somehow, someway, I was totally and blissfully ignorant of its existence. I say blissful because there is little else more satisfying than being caught off guard by a game of such immense quality. Just an hour or two with an early build in a secluded conference room was more than enough to make me a card carrying member of theMercenaries fan club. If you live in the Seattle area, chances are you may spot some crazy fool with a shock of frizzy hair and a lovely pair of leather slippers (I got them for Christmas) shouting Mercenaries' praises from the rooftops. Don't worry, that's just me. Of course, I subtly extended that two-hour gameplay time into close to five hours with lines like "well, I could use a little more time to really dive into the combat system" and "I'm on the verge of unlocking some new equipment, which will really help fill out my article."
Suckers!
A Quick Word …
For those of you that are uninitiated (much like I was), let me try to explain the basic premise of my newfound love. Mercenaries is an open-ended war game. You play as a, well, mercenary, and you work for a company called Executive Operations. You're their one-man army on the ground, and your job is quite simple. Make money and lots of it. Your final and most profitable objective is to take out North Korea's categorically insane dictator. He's been busy selling nukes to terrorists, so the sooner the better.
Playing the Field
Taking down General Song is your long-term goal, though (read: end of game, thanks for playing goal). In the meantime, it's up to you to make mountains of cash by taking on contracts offered by the different factions in town. The plight of North Korea interests many, so you find the South Koreans, the Chinese, the Russian Mafia, and the Allies all in country and all with their own motivations and goals. Who you work for and how is up to you. That said, not everyone gets along, so if you aid the South Koreans by sneaking a spy from a Chinese encampment, you may just lose a wee bit of influence with the Chinese. Not to worry, though, a clever gun-toting diplomat such as you can patch things up in no time.
52 Card Pickup
The bevy of different faction contracts notwithstanding, there are fifty-two different missions entrusted to you by your corporate sponsor, Executive Operations. These fifty-two objectives are actually highly placed officials or military officers, and their arrests are quite lucrative. Conveniently, they've been divvied up and organized into a deck of cards, ending with the Ace of Spades, General Song. You begin early on in the deck and each successive arrest can help pinpoint the location of the next target. You also receive help with tracking down members of the deck from factions you have a particularly favorable rating with.
The Play Itself
The game itself is played from a third-person perspective while using standard dual-analog control (think Halo®: Combat Evolved). You run; you shoot; you arrest people; you drive/pilot cars, tanks, armored transports, and even attack helicopters; and you generally do whatever you damn well please to accomplish each mission.
To do that, though, you naturally need supplies, and it's here that the idea of a lone mercenary gets really interesting. For most missions—especially side missions you pick up along the road (these are denoted by dollar signs on your map and are not faction-condoned contracts)—you're going to need to supply your own gear. You do this by spending the money you've made along the way. Furthermore, you have different sorts of supplies available depending on which factions you've worked with the most. For example, the Allies' supply drop will give you a standard arsenal, including an assault rifle, whereas the Russian Mafia supply drop is more geared towards close-up weapons (e.g. a combat shotgun). Going even further along the scale, you can call in vehicle drops to your location (each belongs to a specific faction, which is handy for disguising yourself) or even military air-strikes like a carpet bombing run or surgical laser-guided missile. All of these are faction-specific, so depending on how you play the game you have access to different sorts of weapons, equipment, vehicles, and tactical strikes. Say hello to replay value, because that's exactly what's needed to see, find, and try everything inMercenaries.
Mercenaries is open-ended gameplay done right. Until now, the Grand Theft Auto series had a stranglehold on the genre, but finally other companies are getting it down. If you're looking for the next great military shooter and you're a fan of "sandbox" gameplay, look no further than this glorious gem.
By Alex McLain |
