As you might remember, we here at GameSpy loved the first Mercenaries, giving the game our first perfect score of 2005. Pandemic's open world game was the perfect blend of Grand Theft Auto's wide-open, do-what-you-please sandbox mechanics and the over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek action seen in, well, not nearly enough games. Unfortunately, while we've known about the game's upcoming sequel for quite some time now, we really haven't seen Mercenaries 2: World in Flames in action that much, and it's been MIA since last year's E3 show. Thankfully, we know some people who know a few folks, so we recently got the chance to spend some quality time playing the game to see if it's going to set the world on fire when it releases in August.
Rather than simply jump right into the middle of the action, we figured that we would start from the beginning, as this would give us a good chance to focus on the game's storyline a bit. Of course, before you start to play you'll need to decide which mercenary you'll be. As in the first game, you'll have the option to pick one of three characters, each of which brings a different style of play to the action. Mattias (voiced by the always-excellent Peter Stormare) is the fastest, making him perfect for quick-strike attacks, while Jennifer Mui can be used to approach a situation more quietly. Finally, there's Christopher Jacob, the tank of the bunch. We don't know yet if one character's campaign is easier or harder than another, but it seems like you can't go wrong with any of them.
After picking Mattias, we watched as a cut-scene immediately began. The faux-hawked Swede was cruising down a tropical road on his motorcycle, then pulled into the long driveway of a massive villa, all while Latin-flavored music played in the background. Greeted by the hulking Blanco, an old friend who may or may not have left you to die during a mission that went bad, Mattias had to relinquish his weapon before being lead in to meet Solano, an "industrialist" who needs a favor. It seems that the head of the Venezuelan army, a general by the name of Carmona, has been taken hostage during a coup by his men. Given his love of money, it wasn't much of a surprise to see Mattias accept the assignment, although he obviously didn't notice the conspiratorial looks between Blanco and Solano.
The action kicked off with a quick speedboat ride to Isla de Mano, the island on which Carmona was being held captive. As the first level in the game, this mission is not only the one to really set the story in motion, it also acts as a tutorial. Since the ability to kill people is probably the most important part of a mercenary's skillset, the first thing you'll learn is how to shoot. The gunplay mechanics are similar to those seen in nearly every third-person shooter (run, shoot, sprint, change weapons, etc.), and they feel very solid. We didn't notice any aiming or collision problems, and the action itself was just as intense as the first game's (though, thanks to some AI improvements, the enemies use cover a lot more often). As you'd expect, there are a ton of weapons at your disposal, and we saw everything from a pistol to a rocket launcher in the first few minutes alone.
Of course, the game's biggest and best weapons are the air strikes that you can call in when you've got a particularly tough challenge. World in Flames features everything from bunker busters to cluster bombs, but you'll need to pay up if you want to blow something up. Pulling out your trusty GPS will give you the ability to order airstrikes (as well as supplies such as vehicles and weapons), although we noticed that the procedure has changed just a little bit. For instance, when we called in a bomb via a satellite, we had to complete a brief mini-game in which we were tasked with pressing a button every time a radar sweep went through a shaded area. In a matter of moments, the bomb dropped from the sky and obliterated some massive stone gates in a blinding flash.
