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Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction
Monday, 04 April 2005   
Audio:
 
 8.5
Visual:
 
 8.5
Gameplay:
 
 8.5
Story:
 
 0.0
Replay:
 
 8.5
Score:
 
 8.5
Genre: Shooter
Players: 1
Release Date: January 22, 2005
Rating: T
The USA is involved in another military conflict, this time in Korea.Learning from our past successes, the government puts a bounty on NorthKorean enemies. Thus creating a new deck of 52, just like Iraq. Capturethe deck of fifty two and earn millions! Select your Merc of Choice andget going!

Ihad not heard much about this game when I started, but as soon as itloaded, there it was, Grand Theft Auto, mercenary style. I thought Iwould start playing like GTA. I selected my character and off I went.While at first glance it felt like GTA, the controls where different.Not in a bad way, but they where different. Driving took some gettingused to, as the left and right trigger are not Brake and Accelerate,and in order to enter vehicles, one had to be with in the green circle.From there, the game seemed much more linear then GTA. There is onegoal, make money, that’s only done by complete missions to getinformation that leads to capturing cards. Cards can be captured in anyorder, except the ace, which allows enough freedom to be like GTA, butNOT BE GTA.

The Vehicles that are captured hold strategic value as they maskyour identity. As a mercenary your goal is to work for the highestbidder. So working for all sides is necessary to earn the big bucks.The next mission that is accepted might be from the same people you gotpaid to attack. This adds a fun little twist. Depending on the vehicleand the area, troops may or may not attack you. (side note, it’s easyto kill the wrong people when driving a tank, doing that takes moneyout of your pocket!)

Theweapons are standard military weapons. Being able to buy militarystrikes are a BIG plus and a lot of fun. While Tanks and helicoptersare really vehicles, I consider them part of the weapon category. Drivearound in a tank or fly a helicopter and you’ll see why. The weapons onthose things are awesome…..until you run out of shells.

This game was a lot of fun. I would start playing and before I knewit a few hours had past. It has an easy learning curve, and a goodenough story line to keep a person interested. If some one didn’t likeGTA though, I don’t know if they would like Mercenaries. They aresimilar enough where someone might not give it a chance and say “I’veplayed this, it’s called GTA”. Over all it was a great gammingexperience. At times I wished the missions to be a little moredifficult (especially in the beginning), but I was so busy playing andgetting through them I only thought about it after I had finished. It’smore important to be fun then be challenging anyway.