In late 2005, Pandemic released the original Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction to a favourable response and later this year comes the highly anticipated Mercenaries 2: World In Flames. Now considering the amount of sandbox games that have came out and revolutionised the genre since the original, Pandemic have a tall task on their hands. Luckily this time around they have the full power of the next generation formats to push the potential of the series.
Mercenaries 2 will come packing with a whole host of improved features like a co-op mode that can be played online and offline, improved AI and fully destructible environments. These are sure to play a major role in World In Flames but we’ve seen all these so many times before that they seem like necessities instead of revolutionary improvements.
To be honest that is cutting this game short. The original Mercenaries was a great sandbox game just to mess around in and now it’s the same great sandbox game but with next generation additions.
World In Flames will also boast a realistic element engine that sounds a sure fire hit as far as creativity is concerned as long as there are enough toys to mess around with. Oil will dynamically catch on fire and spread to trees and foliage.
Other obvious additions will be different forms of transport like boats and the extra option of switching between the gunner and the driver positions while in a vehicle.
This time around you can also hire some mercenaries of your own and form your own private army. These characters will then be thrown into the action and can perform tasks such as fixing up vehicles, providing transport and even air strikes on target positions.
The addition of physics and realistic graphics have made fun sandbox games great and considering the original Mercenaries was fantastic as far as sandbox gameplay went, Mercenaries 2 should be incredible. Fine maybe it’s not too revolutionary but it doesn’t need to be. Mercenaries 2 is looking as great as the first game did but now with the extra possibilities that the next generation formats offer. Here is a case that just simply bigger is definitely better.
Mercenaries 2: World In Flames is due to come out August 31st for the Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. Stay tuned for more on Mercenaries 2 within the next few weeks on Nidzumi.
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