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Mercenaries 2: World in Flames

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5.5 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 20 critic reviews
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Based on 33 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: Pandemic Studios

Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Third-Person Shooter

Players: 2

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Release Date: August 31, 2008

Summary

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is an explosive open-world action game set in a massive, highly reactive, war-torn world. A power-hungry tyrant messes with Venezuela's oil supply, sparking an invasion that turns the country into a warzone. But for you, international crisis is all upside: You are a mercenary, and you profit from chaos. Mercenaries 2 features a slew of potential clients, all willing to pay you to do their dirty work. Dirty deeds, done for exorbitant fees. These are world powers with deep pockets, deep grudges, and enough arms and ammo to start World War III. This is your kind of environment. Mercenaries 2 features the latest and most dangerous in civilian and military tech, everything from shiny new sports cars, to the future-tech satellite-guided bunker-busting mini-nuke. Tanks, APCs, boats, luxury automobiles – you name it, you can have it delivered to you in real time. And if you run out of cash you can always 'acquire' the gear you need in the field. If you see it, you can buy it, steal it, or blow the living crap out of it. Play your own way, or play with the help of a friend in the new cooperative multiplayer mode. You are not a soldier. You don't have to play by anyone's rules. You have your own code: you will fulfill the terms of the contract, no matter what. Not everyone in the world of Mercenaries is as honorable. Everyone will try and screw you, given the chance. They think they can get away with it, because they don't know rule #1: EVERYBODY PAYS. [Pandemic Studios]

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GAMES: Mercenaries

Cheat Codes & Hints: Cheat Code Central

Also On The Web: Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Gamers.at

Everyone who likes to just freely roam about, shoot everything in his way and travel around in different vehicles like cars, boats and choppers is certainly on the right track here. If you are, however, looking for a more “serious” game, you might want to look elsewhere.

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GamingXP

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames takes its title very seriously. Simple, not complex action and a story that is capable of motivating the player till the end.

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NZGamer

Mercenaries 2 has lived up to its expectations to be a fun and crazy game about having a hell of a time in a war zone.

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IGN

Mercenaries 2 is like a newsstand; it has a lot of issues. Still, I can't deny that there were some hootin’ and hollerin’ moments. For every time I cursed the stupid AI, I cheered at the demolition of another building.

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PC Format

Great in small, explosive doses, particularly with a friend, but longevity is unlikely to be one of its strong points. [Nov 2008, p.106]

PC Games (Germany)

The humorous and entertaining gameplay suffers from long idle phases and a lousy port job. Better wait for the PC version of GTA 4!

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GameStar

If you prefer creating things instead of destroying them, please forgo Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. Playing a mercenary in Venezuela you blow up multi-story buildings, restaurants, hotels, factories, cars and boats in several missions. The controls could have been better, but it's still fun, and instead of complaining about the shortfalls of the game you could always just go and blow up something else.

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PC Zone UK

As a sandbox game, it shines in the hands of those who take it for what it is - an "A-Team" simulator - but as a narrative shooter, it falls flat. [Dec 2008, p.72]

PC Gamer UK

Technically creaky but ultimately fun. [Nov 2008, p.82]

PC PowerPlay

Mercenaries 2 put me off from the get go, however it has an ace up its sleeve. Yep – explosions. Right at the start of the game you pick up a grenade launcher, and start gleefully blowing stuff away. [Dec 2008, p.74]

Cynamite

If you’re a big a fan of blowing things up, then you’ll love this game. Literally everything can be turned into flames, but the longer you play the more you realize that Venezuela is not the real deal when it comes to “virtual paradise."

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PC Gamer

Luckily, there are no real game-ending bugs, so you can satisfy your appetite for destruction if you're willing to pay for an unpolished game. [Dec 2008, p.64]

3DJuegos

Only the unconditional fans of the most frantic and brainless action will find joy in World in Flames. Mercenaries 2 fails in its work to jump into the Next-Gen, and it´s because of a repetitive and clumsy gameplay. Abundant bugs, little difficulty and short term boredom are the main negative points of a game that only shines in the destructive way.

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Gameplanet

Although there are problems with the PC version, Mercenaries 2 has a great deal of potential. It's a back-to-basics title that allows you to destroy pretty much everything around you, and you'll have no end of fun doing so.

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LEVEL (Czech Republic)

Face of an action-paced experience with the body of past-century game. Pandemic created more v2.0 of previous game than the serious sequel. No appeal for players – you really don’t care what the game offers when you play. [Oct 2008]

Total PC Gaming

Fundamentally fun, but just far too broken to win TPCG kudos. [Issue#12, p.58]

Play (Poland)

The game deserves all accolades for its chillingly realistic depiction of the world in the struggles of a bloody global war. But the spectacular explosions can't cover up the fact that the graphics looks equally bleak as the near future presented here and the gameplay is too simple and repetitive. [Oct 2008]

GameShark

Playing it alone showcases how repetitive the missions are and without that second player it is just you versus an AI that is far from intense or tactical. The numerous bugs and crashes that plague the PC version are troublesome, as is the game’s refusal to really adopt any of the advantages of the platform.

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Computer Games Online RO

But the truth of the matter is that I wouldn’t even recommend Mercenaries 2 to the fans of the series. Because the game might ruin the wonderful impression they were left with from the first title.

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PTGamers

Mercs 2 turns out as a disappointing action game, weak in all technic departments, be it graphics, AI or the dead at birth multiplayer. So much wasted potential.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 5.5 (out of 10) based on 33 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Mehmet T gave it a6:
This game is does a lot of things right and wrong at the same time. The positive aspects that really stand out: a huge varied map made of both urban and rural landscapes, tons of tools to use (way more than the original game), the freedom to aproach most missions the way you want to, spectacular explosions, solid orcheastral score, no more water-of-death (you can finally swim and use boats), numerous humorous instances throughout the game, and finally, it's just really fun to cause havoc with all the tools at your disposal (more fun than the original game). The negative aspect that made me stop playing at about 80% through the game; bugs, glitches, stuttering and frequent crashes. I simply got tired of this, no matter how fun the game was. This game was released 7 months ago, and yet Pandemic has still not released a patch that addresses these issues. Other issues with the game include: not so smart AI (though I am not sure if this is a bug/glitch itself, or the way the AI was actually intended to be), resources (like fuel tanks, money stashes, armaments) in the map can respawn in the same places even though you had collected them just a few minutes ago (which is silly in my opinion), everyone speaks English now (whereas in the first game each faction spoke in their native language), and also there are noticeably less unique missions in comparison to the first game. I am not sure what to make of the story. On the one hand it's kind of silly how your protagonist is willing to go to all lenghts just to get his/her revenge from a man who tried to have him/her killed (as if nobody had wanted to kill our protaganist before!). But on the other hand it's interesting how the protagonist's obsession to get revenge (and get paid for his/her services) at any cost is one of the reasons why a rather ordinary coup turns into an international conflict. A simple quest for revenge brings about many oppourtunities to make massive amounts of money, money paid by factions who all want the same things; geopolitical influence and control over a crucial resource that is oil. This game is sheer fun to play and does a lot of things right, but also does a lot of things wrong, and the buggy/glitched/stuttering/crash-prone nature of this game (7 months after release!) is simply unacceptable. So, I am sorry to do this but this game gets a 6 from me.

JM JM gave it an8:
Lack of visual polish, and over poor artistic quality hold back what is an extremely fun game. The controls are a bit off, but it does not kill what fun there is to have with this game. Could it be better yes, but I have no problems recommending this game based on fun factor alone.

A Gamer gave it a7:
This game does not do everything right, but what it does right it does extremely well. If you want to blow things up in a nearly limitless amount of ways... get this game. You can blow up buildings with air strikes, c4, rockets, tanks, helicopters, and the explosions are by far the best I have ever seen. To stand at the foot of a skyscraper and blow it up, while looking upwards, and have it all happen as it would real life, is an amazing thing. If you want to drive an amazing variety of vehicles each very well done, get this game. There are tons of vehicles ranging from tanks to apcs to boats to jeeps to motorcycles to vans to helicopters to even a bus. And its not simply vehicles fit into a mold. An example is boats. You can get anything from a 2 person inflatable boat or shoddy short cheap civilian boat or a simple wave runner, to a huge 2 floor boat that would take several people to control properly and has mounted machine guns and a rocket launcher. And everything inbetween of course. Now if you are wanting a game that has an excellent deeply moving story, and that's what you have to have in a game... steer away from this one. The story is just enough to explain the game. That's all that's really needed though so long as its what you go in expecting. If you want a game with well done 3rd person shooter weapon mechanics you might wanna stay away from this game. This game uses a very slight auto-aiming feature that you cannot turn off, that can be annoying. The bullets from guns also move slowly compared to r/l, and a gun will not perform comparatively to what its r/l counterpart would do. That being said it works out alright. The guns just could have been a lot better. There are other quirks with this game as well. For one the npcs repeat chat lines in high rapidity and can be quite stupid at times... but again these are things are can be overlooked and do not overly detract from the games strengths. Also the game is quite buggy. However, it has 2 things going in its favor in that. 1.) The bugs are not game-breaking. 2.) 2 weeks after releasing the game they had already released a patch for pc users. They are planning on fixing up their mistakes. Really, with this game it comes down to one thing. Do you want to blow stuff up? If you said yes and you can overlook some things that aren't quite perfect, then you will enjoy this game. I think it did an amazing job myself. Though as stated it could have done some things better.

Steven M gave it a7:
Its really fun in the beginning but it gets boring fast. I hate the guns because they feel so weak and unpredictable. One time I may empty a clip and kill 3 guys while another time I will exhaust 3 clips to kill 1 guy. The unlockable cars really add some more gameplay time to this game. A really big plus was that EVERYTHING is destructable. Don't like that bridge? Does your car not fitting through those two houses make you angry? Those problems can be easily fixed with c4 or an rpg. One thing i really disliked was that you needed fuel and money to bring in air supplies and stuff unlike the first game where you only needed money. To sum it up this game is pretty much grand theft auto except based on factions and money and is a little disappointing compared to the original mercenaries.

Aureliano F gave it a1:
Horrible looking game. I just wasted 80 bucks for this and i'm really dissapointed. I've been waiting for 3 years for the sequel.. Do not waste money on this The game is totally unfinished. Online has region lock Anti-Aliasing and wide-screen doesn't work either. Don't waste your time. I learned my lesson.

Neal K gave it a5:
Here is what I like: 1.) Huge open world that you can explore and gather resources from and do missions at your own pace and liking. Total map is huge and I mean really big. 2.) You can hijack any vehicle in the game and use it however you wish. The motorcycles are my favorite for transportation. 3.) Explosions. The game has the most massive and pretty explosions I've ever seen in a game. Period. Here is what I dislike: 1.) The game only supports 1280 X 720 maximum resolution for widescreen support. It is unthinkable in the era of next gen PC games that there currently isn't any way to run the game at 1680 X 1050. The result is an extremely jagged resolution even if you have AA turned all the way up. AA doesn't even seem to work. 2.) On the graphics side of things textures look washed out and faded on the PC version at least on the vegetation which is everywhere. 3.) Calling in air support is done via smoke grenades, which means you have to get withing 20 or so feet of your target. Why would to need air support if you can get withing 20 feet of your target? 4.) Numerous bugs. Some people are reporting many bugs from PC and console versions others are reporting they haven't experienced any bugs. It's sort of a mystery. The PC users seem to be reporting more bugs though. Everything from massive texture pop in, to icons not showing up on screen, to green skinned red eyed players, to missions not working properly and achievements not unlocking. Its all over the board and someone clearly dropped the ball on quality assurance for the PC version. The porting of this game is simply horrible and clearly shows that Pandemic feels that the PC market is only an after thought for a little extra sales. Final thoughts: The game game screams rushed out the door (in spite of its delays) and an almost total lack of concern for quality. It is at best an unfinished game (beta perhaps) that could be totally awesome if Pandemic took another six months to a year to polish. Look for a massive patch then get the game. In the meantime don't waste you money on the PC version at least.

Josh S gave it a6:
I never played mercs1 but heard a lot of good things. So I was excited to try this one. What a let down. The graphics are not as good as Far Cry, a game that came out years ago. The feel of the whole game is very toy-like and unreal -- stand in the open and shoot at enemies who stand there and shoot at you. Do this for a minute then run over a health pack. You're effectively immortal. Hell, I even got hit by rpg's and lived. The weapons don't feel right. The animation is clumsy, all the actors move like marionettes. The actors repeat the same lines over and over; you'll hear "Huh! Amateurs!" several times a minute from the main character. Call in an air strike and see the plane arrive within seconds - guess he can hover in the air above you like a helicopter. Everything conspires to make the game feel cheap and unreal. The bottom line is, it feels like crap - especially if you've played Far Cry or Crysis. There's no tension or strategy it's just button mashing. If mercs 2 is this bad, and yet mercs1 got such a good rep, all I can think is that console players don't know what a good FPS is like because they've never experienced one.

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Mercenaries 2: World in Flames

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