Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PC, Xbox 360, PS3) Review
by Eddie Turner on September 9, 2008 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Wanted: Exterminator
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Mercenaries 2 is not without its faults regardless of how you play it - not by a long shot. First, let's discuss some of the annoyances found in the game's core mechanics. While the campaign does provide an array of weapons to use, none of them deal as much damage as we would expect from a good shooter. This is partly due to the hit-to-kill ratio. While the PC version seemingly improves upon this a small amount, enemies in the console versions take way too many hits before they go down. Alone this isn't a huge issue at all, but coupled with a poor aiming mechanic found in all three versions and this can get frustrating. It feels as though only two out of ten bullets actually hit your target most of the time. This affects RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade) fire as well, in that rockets must hit within a small distance of your enemies in order to take them out. Any further away and your enemy will remain standing and continue to fire at you. Ironically, melee attacks provide instant kills.
Vehicles are also off in regards to players' ability to control them. While time spent with the game will help in this respect, vehicles feel entirely too flighty and turn on a dime at the slightest movement of your mouse or gamepad. Instead of asphalt or gravel, driving cars feels more like boats skimming across water with little traction. Needless to say, controls for commandeered boats and jet skis feel just right. For those who detest button-mashing mini games, vehicles are further plagued by the hijacking mechanics - jacking a tanks isn't all it's cracked up to be.
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Enemy AI leaves a lot to be desired in Mercenaries 2 as well. The enemies you'll face in the game are not very intelligent at all. Not only can they not hit the broad side of a barn with their bullets, they'll often fire upon each other or at nothing at all. In addition, players will find it amusing to watch enemy vehicles drive into walls and other structures as they make little attempt to run you down.
Another aspect of AI behavior that proved to be annoying is their overly repetitive dialog. In fact, the word overly may be an understatement. This applies to friendlies as well as foes. For example, while visiting your employer's compound, you'll know in under two minutes that every single one of them despise their job and are only in it for a paycheck. Also, if you wait an additional minute or two, you'll hear the shout, "The enemy is here!" This is when the bulk of the patrolling mercs begin firing in all different directions. The hilarity of this is that no enemy is present and each of their bullet streams are aimed at a 15 foot wall that surrounds the compound. Wait a few more minutes, and they'll do it again... and then again.
Mentioning every issue I found in the game would take another couple of pages. The lack of audio during the game's cinematic sequences in the PC version alone would be worth a paragraph or two. So, let me sum up this portion of the review by asking for your trust when I say that Mercenaries 2 is riddled with bugs and glitches that shout that this is an unfinished product through and though.
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CollectorZ - Wednesday, September 17, 2008 - link
I am sure this is the lamest question to be asked on here...Given that an XBox is little more than a PC in a console package.
Why don't we see more direct ports of Xbox 360 games (and sooner)?
How hard can it be?
Controls? Put gamepad in System Requirements
Graphics? Just run with the XBox graphics at HDTV resolutions which the Xbox does anyway. So it may not be the prettiest game on PC but if the game play is good...
The developers would probably make a few bucks.
Microsoft is a winner because we pay for the hardware without subsidy (last time I heard they were only just breaking even on the cost of manufacturing the console). And they might induce a few sales of consoles along the way.
Dumb?
hrahn - Wednesday, September 24, 2008 - link
Yep, wrong assumptions on your part.The old Xbox was mainly PC components, the Xbox360 isnt. Even then, the old one didn´t run a version of windows, but had a similar subset of routines for graphics etc... The new one is different again in this department.
But the most important part is:
The console versions of most games do NOT RUN IN HD RESOLUTIONS!
Not with almost any game I heard of.
The games are SCALED up to HD resolutions, but most run in 720x480 at most, some even at lower resolutions. The X360 has a slightly better scaler than the PS3, so in some games fine details look slightly better on the box (can be seen with bridges in the background in GTA4 p.ex., where the PS3 is actually running a lower resolution than the box). The PS3 has other tricks up its graphics department to make up for that, though.
Do not confuse still images (p.ex. from the screenshot feature of several games) with the game running, these single shots are indeed rendered at a higher resolution. That even worked on Gran Turismo IV on the PS2.
So at the end, it´s no wonder the PC ports need more processing power, the provide the better image quality and the higher resolution. If the game only runs at 800x600 on the console and the picture is then blown up, running the game in 1600x1200 on your PC means that you have to calculate four times as many pixels.
Grandpa - Sunday, September 14, 2008 - link
Love the game reviews and would love to see all games given a DRM rating on a scale of 1 to 10. What is the DRM suckscale for this game?EddieTurner - Monday, September 15, 2008 - link
I experienced no issues. I did read that one must register the game online before you can play it, but I never had to. It does require EA account authentication though. But if you've played another of their games online, you can just use whatever ID and password you've used in the past and you're golden.Mr Roboto - Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - link
Typical of EA to push an unfinished product out the door instead of polishing it a bit more. However I've played the PC version Mercenaries and it would have sucked either way. The vehicle controls are awful! The graphics and textures are on par with this years new Turok game (That's read SHIT). Instead of finishing the game they take that money and put in a gimmick like free gas (Petrol for you Brits). Finish a game for once and if it's good it'll sell!!!felang - Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - link
First of all, great review! I would just like to mention though that the game does not seem to support many of the most popular widescreen resolutions... I hope a future patch will adress this issue.For example, 1680x1050 is not supported, the closest you can get is 1680 x 945 and in order to do this you will need to create that custom resolution from within windows. while I am enjoying the game I believe that this is one of the worst bugs I have ever encountered in a game... can`t believe they overlooked this, Don`t a vast majority of gamers nowadays use widescreen lcd`s???
Also, if all the eye candy is set to high, the games runs at about 15 fps on my q6600 at 3.6 and Xfire HD4850`s. I need to lower water quality to medium and then I get a stable 60fps. I mean, I understand that this is a console port, but come on, at least try to optimize the code for pc`s guys!!!
Le Québécois - Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - link
"Also, if all the eye candy is set to high, the games runs at about 15 fps on my q6600 at 3.6 and Xfire HD4850`s."Did you try disabling your Crossfire?
I have a 2 x 8800 GT SLI setup and some games (very few but still) don't support SLI/Crossfire at all, sometimes running slower to the point of being unplayable in some rare case. Since it's a console port, this could very well be the problem. Usually all, disabling the SLI solve my problem. Lucky me because those games usually don't need SLI anyways to run correctly, even with maximum settings.
aguilpa1 - Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - link
GRID originally ran worse with SLI on my 8800GTX's and the game officially did not support SLI, although ran very well with single card. After a few driver releases, I re-enabled SLI and it now runs extremely well. There is always hope a driver update will fix your problemsbharatwaja - Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - link
I am waiting for a spore review from you guys, after which I shall decide whether or not to buy the game... Come on guys.. SPORE REVIEW....Oh, btw, i liked this review....
GhandiInstinct - Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - link
This guy knows how to review games, and it's more pleasurable to read than IGN reviews. Not to mention their PC editors are horrible.Please review more!
Like Spore :)