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GVMERS - The Controversial History of Mercenaries

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


Following the release of Rockstar Games’ seminal Grand Theft Auto 3 in 2001, GTA clones of all kinds flooded the market, each one angling to capitalize on the sandbox game’s popularity. That era of gaming lasted well into the 2010s, giving birth to Mafia, The Getaway, and Saints Row. Even brand licenses imitated GTA’s winning formula—Scarface, The Godfather, and The Sopranos received video game adaptations in 2006 to varying degrees of success.

With 2005’s Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, developer Pandemic Studios delivered a GTA clone that bucked the common trend, sidestepping crime-ridden urban environments to instead use a politically unstable Korea as its setting. The end result offered a revolutionary experience whose main rival made it to market in the 2008 sequel, World in Flames.

Rather than gangsters chasing the lap of luxury, Mercenaries starred guns-for-hire caught in the middle of political upheaval. As opposed to crime bosses and kingpins, characters in Mercenaries more often than not conferred with factions that represented the interests of entire countries. Critics and players considered the series a nice change of pace, nicely punctuated by Pandemic’s unapologetically over-the-top gameplay.

And though a third entry may have further expanded upon Pandemic’s militaristic answer to the open-world chaos of Grand Theft Auto, Mercenaries died with the unceremonious shuttering of the development studio. It was a death whose impact lingered as open-world games evolved beyond the parameters previously solidified by Rockstar and later adjusted by the likes of Pandemic Studios.

This is the history of Mercenaries.
 

Ownage

Member
The fact that you could destroy almost anything with the right ordinance - with functional consequences - was a feat that not many open world games have even now.

Merc 3: No Limits was in production until Pandemic Studios shut down. It's said it would take place in Cuba.
 

-Zelda-

Banned
Holy shit! Forget the game for a second, If I were a man, that would be the voice I would hope to have. Ahem... we now return you to your regular program...
 

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


The reviewer discusses Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, comparing it to its predecessor and noting its improvements, such as improved visuals, more weapons, vehicles, boats, and motorbikes. However, the addition of fuel as a currency and the tedious mechanics of managing relationships with factions and doing quick-time events to hijack vehicles bring the game down. The story is controversial and tonally uneven, and the main story is short with an abrupt boss fight. While the level of destruction is unmatched, the game spread itself too thin and left a feeling that it never reached its full potential. The PS2 port is criticized for its decrease in detail and density and frustrating gameplay, though the attempt to create a large-scale game on the PS2 is acknowledged as impressive in terms of ambition.
The article is a review of the video game, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. It starts by discussing the original Mercenaries game, which was impressive on a technical level for its time, but had limitations due to console capabilities. The review then goes on to describe the improvements made in the sequel, including improved graphics, gunplay, vehicles, and weapons. However, despite these improvements, the reviewer explains that Mercenaries 2 is considered a worse game than the original. One reason for this is the more complicated process of calling in an airstrike, which involves pre-purchasing, selecting, and then completing a quick-time event. The review suggests that Mercenaries 2 failed to capture the magic of the original game, despite attempting to improve upon it in many ways.
 
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