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I always wanted to do THAT...!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: February 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you love GTA and Godfather, you will LOVE this game. The story line is pretty linear, with few suprises, but the action is spectacular. Imagine jacking an APC, rolling up on a North Korean checkpoint after taking out the grenade turret with your anti-tank rifle, and blowing up all the vehicles and buildings in sight? How about calling in a fuel-air bomb or having an A-10 drop a cluster bomb on your enemies? You can do all of this and more. Several times I created massive explosions, only to hear my on-screen character make some admiring comment about it on screen.
The learning curve is short if you have any experience with GTA and such, and the wide-open game world gives you different ways to approach the missions.

This game is a must-have.

THIS GAME IS GREAT!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: January 12, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is not as violent as i thought it would be. I think James Bond is more violent. But that didnt put me off this game. It is a amazing game with fully accesible enviroments, and a whole lot of vehicles that you can ride around in. I recommend this game for everyone.

One Addictive game....

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

If you're hooked on the Grand Theft Auto line of games and you like freelance military action, you will love this game.

I've been hooked for the last couple of weeks, since its release date. It's basically Grand Theft Auto in North Korea. NK is in chaos and it's a ripe opportunity for a merc to make money.

It's not a bloody game, but there's violence a plenty. Every building and bridge can be blown to hell.

You're a merc working for ExOP Inc., Executive Operations. ExOp was brought in by the AN for the deck of 52, the 52 bad guys of the NK side that are running loose.

There are four factions operating in NK. Well five, but the North Koreans don't really count as a faction since the shoot at anything that's not North Korean. The Allied Nations (AN) is the equivalent to the UN, even with the same flag. The Chinese and the Russian Mob are also operating in this theatre and of course the South Koreans.

The Russians provide a website (the merchant of menace) that can be accessed with your ExOP issued PDA. With a click of a mouse you can order everything from an air strike to a vehicle delivered to your location, oh yeah, and explosives and ammo too (very important for when you absolutely have to blow something up, I did, very often, Ha Ha).

There's a lot of background action, firefights between opposing factions, and your in the middle of it. Every faction you work for probably pisses of the other ones, so you have to balance out how much you want to piss of possible employers. (Sniper rifles are a good way to avoid detection when working for an opposing faction). The south Koreans and the Chinese are always opposing each other in some form and its hard not to work for one or the other without pissing either of `em off. The AN are after the deck of 52 and the Russian Mob is out to make money, usually by stealing from EVERYBODY else in the game.

There are two maps, half the deck for the northern and southern provinces of NK, very big maps with lots of stuff to find.

There are three characters to choose from and the main difference in game play that I can see is how much damage they can take and what languages they understand. The Swedish merc understands Russian, and they are by far the most entertaining conversations to listen in on. The Chinese girl understands Chinese, Duh!, and the American understands Korean.

The only real problem I have with this game is you can't swim at all, water is usually instant death. Also not enough control over freindly troops, but your a merc so whos going to take your orders? But other than that it was worth the 45 buck to me. I'm playing it through with each character to get all to the background stories going on.

Grand Theft Auto--with tanks!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: March 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The GTA games are brilliantly designed, but I can't stand playing the role of a murderous street thug. I just despise people like that, having encountered my share of them. So GTA is no fun for me.

But mercs are different. Mercs are cool. I like mercs. So what do you get when you take the GTA concept, plug in a ruthless mercenary, ready to sell his gun to the highest bidder, and plop him down in North Korea? You get the best game of the year so far.

Mercenaries is a delight. There's a seemingly infinite variety of weapons to choose from--everything from AKs to 155mm artillery to attack choppers to tanks. You can usually buy or steal more firepower if the mission requires it. Drive into harms way in an innocuous civilian sedan, then hijack a tank and start blasting!

The game doesn't reward killing civilians, thank heaven. But every military target is fair game. You can switch sides, betray allies, loot shoot and kill. What's not to like?

When you're not playing off the different factions against each other, you can carry out your main mission--killing or capturing the entire leadership of North Korea. But the further into the game you go, the tougher the Norks get.

The game controls are excellent; it's the most intuitive shooter I've played for the Xbox. The voice work is top-notch, and even the music is fine, thanks to a score by Michael Giacchino, the guy who did the wonderful Bond-style score of The Incredibles.

This is one outstanding game.

good concept, annoyingly bad execution

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: October 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

this game could be one of the best games out there, but it has way too many bugs. here are the most anoying ones: character gets trapped inside boulder and can't get out, game sometimes say there's no controller connected, and the most annoying one - I successfully entered the abort codes for the nukes after hours of really intense battles, eliminated the foot soldiers, then the game froze just as I was about to capture the ace of spades!!! what the heck!!!

awesome game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

i enjoyed this game greatly. that kind of surprised me because i typically am biased against most military games. it is indeed satisfying to be able to blow up just about anything you want. the buildings come down with c4 or your choice of many other options. the controls are similar to GTA games which was a major plus to me. i hate learning whole new control schemes every time i play a new game.

even though the missions are simple on paper, they tend to start getting very difficult and require much planning with the many toys and air strikes you get at your disposal. it was interesting to see that you can piss any one of the factions off as much as you want which tends to make more enemies, but no worry, you can pay them off to put you back into their good book.

i love this game for it's simple missions (allowing you to do it however you choose) and its many unlockable features making blowing up stuff even easier. it has pretty good control in and out of vehicles, although i wish you could run a little quicker, but this is a minor complaint. over all awesome game and i highly recommend to anyone who likes blowing up stuff.

BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game really lives up to its name. In this game, virtually everything is destructable. It is espcially fun with the cheat codes. It has cheats for unlimited health, unlimited ammo, and a money cheat that gives you $1 million every time you put it in. You can order tons of air strikes and a whole lot of vehicles including tanks, helicopters and H3s. It also has a supply drop where you order what supplies you need and the Russian Mob will bring it to you. There are unlimited amounts of North Koreans to take out and almost all of them are in vehicles that you can blow up. There are five different countries and their actions toward you depend on your actions towards them. The five countries are America, South Korea, China, Russia, and North Korea. You can choose to make them your friends or you can choose to slaughter them all and blow up everything. Oh yeh, North Korea is always hostile to you so feel free to do whatever you want with them. -Clark

the world is a sandbox...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The leader of North Korea, General Kim Il Song has finally gone too far. A Royal Australian Navy ship intercepted an NK Navy ship that was carrying nuclear warheads intended for al Queda terrorists who purchased it, and that was the last straw. The Allied Nations immediately invaded North Korea, intent on removing him from power and bringing him to justice. The South Koreans also invaded, hoping to effect reunification with their northern neighbors. The Chinese invaded from the North, intent on getting a piece of the NK Pie, which the South Koreans do not really want to happen. The Russian Mafia moved in, hoping to make cash selling whatever to whoever would purchase. General Song immediately went undercover, a fugitive from justice, fighting against all invaders through a network of tunnels and strongholds, using his top 3 aides and their subordinates to wreak havoc against all invaders, with great success. With all this chaos on the ground, the AN finds it hard to deal with the other factors and the search for the aides and General Song, so they have placed a bounty on the head of all subordinates, with the grand prize of $100 million for General Song who is "the Ace of Spades."

This tweaks the interest of Ex-Ops and their three Mercs...

You play the role of one of the three mercenaries: Chris the former US Special OPS agent, Jennifer the former SAS agent, or Matthias, the Swedish mercenary. Your mission: to get as much money as you can by blowing up stuff and accepting missions for pay from whatever faction you want. The ultimate goal is that $100 million payday, but there's quite a bit to do between here and there...are you up to it?

This is one of the better games out there for the PS2 and is a good solo player game. You choose your player at the beginning of the campaign and you cannot switch your selection once the campaign begins. The manual says that each mercenary is different in terms of gameplay; having played through the campaigns with all three, I'm not sure that I buy that statement. The only significant difference is in dialogue between Fiona and your character, cut-scenes when you take down a card, and the ability to understand one of the other three factions when you go to accept a contract and they're talking in their native language before they give you the details of your current contract. Chris can understand Korean (his mother is Korean), Jennifer can understand Chinese (she was born in Hong Kong) and Matthias can understand Russian, but other than that, I have not seen much difference among the three out in the field. So, don't sweat too much about who to pick when you first play this game.

The main aim of the game is to capture the 52 members of the NK leadership that the Allies have a bounty on, but the real focus is on blowing up stuff and getting money so you can buy stuff to blow up more stuff. The Allies have set up these 52 people as a deck of cards, and the game can be divided into 4 "acts", where each act focuses on your pursuit of one suit. In order of difficulty and position in the game, they are clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades. Each "act" concludes when you beat the "Ace" contract. To get this ace contract, you must capture/kill enough members of the current suit in order to get information to the Allies, who will provide you with the Ace contract once they have enough information. To capture enough members of the suit, you have to accept missions from any or all of the factions. Accepting these missions may require you to do things that will...antagonize other factions, but hey! It's all about the benjamins, isn't it? When you successfully complete a mission, the faction head will send you information on where you can find one of the current cards, and you can go hunt him/her down so you can head for your major payday. Cards may be be brought in dead or alive, but you only get half the money if the card is dead.

There are 5 factions in the game:the Allies, South Koreans, Russian Mafia, Chinese and North Koreans. The North Koreans are always hostile to you (and everyone else), while the other factions' mood toward you will vary according to your actions. Basically, attacking any faction will put you in their bad books, while completing their missions and helping them out in battles if you see them fighting in the countryside will give you brownie points. There are other methods to get favor with each faction... If you find yourself in the bad books with a faction, you will have to bribe them in order to get missions from them again (and bring their favor back up to levels where they don't shoot at you on sight). Generally speaking, it is best to not tick off the Allies, as they're the closest thing to friends you have in this arena and they provide your most important missions (aces), as well as pick up any card that you capture alive. To call in a pickup and have the helicopter gunners shooting at you as you put your captive in the chopper...not good thing. It is also wise to not get on the Russian Mafia's bad side, because they provide you with all the weapons, vehicles and supplies you could ever want to order. To be stuck between North Korean tanks on one side and a tunnel entrance spewing out NK soldiers on the other side, and to frantically search for an airstrike only to see a denial of service message...not good at all. The South Koreans and Chinese...well, they're not so crucial to game play, and taking an SK mission usually means you're going to fight against the Chinese and vice versa. You will tick off one side or the other during the course of the game, but just have enough money to bribe them and you'll be fine.

One thing to remember is that killing civilians lowers your ratings with all 4 factions, and attracts a $25000 penalty. You also pay that fine if you kill an Allied soldier.

Weaponry is realistically set up. There are a good number of weapons to choose from, and while some may complain about the two weapon limit that your character can carry, I find it makes the game more challenging and fun. It is frustrating however, to see an enemy RPG head straight for you, while he can easily dodge the RPG you send his way; but that is my main complaint. Another issue I have is with the reloading of ammo; if you have used up all of your shots, then picking up a resupply only fills your supply without reloading the weapon. Any issues about the number of shots it takes for you to kill an enemy soldier is negated by the fact that our heros (or heroine) are among the toughest game characters i've ever seen. I have found myself using mostly the AK47 (ubiquitous among NK soldiers), M16 carbine (default weapon, high ammo capacity, low magazine capacity), anti-tank missile (great to save your butt, but only three shots!) and sniper rifle. Other weapons exist however, so don't limit yourself to these.

EVERYTHING in the game, short of the actual landscape itself, can be destroyed. Take that as you may, hahahaha.

The vehicle selection is awesome. Almost every vehicle/helicopter in the game can be driven/flown/used in some way, so feel free to use whatever you can to get what you want. Also, you get cash for blowing up North Korean Vehicles, and you can sell any vehicle to the Russian Mafia, so that's some quick cash. There are also little side missions to get funds, races against the clock, delivery missions, etc.

All in all, it is a fun game and will engage most people up until the last mission. The final mission, getting General Song, is the WORST mission in the game and is the main reason why I give the game 4 stars and not 5. Simply put, it is too long and very frustrating. The mission is divided into two parts, where the first part is 30% of the mission and the second part is 70%. If you reach the end of the first part, you get a small breather and a chance to get health and new vehicular support, but if you die at ANY POINT IN THE MISSION, you have to start from the beginning again. Furthermore, the first part is very difficult, and the second part is even worse! To date, I have not yet completed the final mission from beginning to end; I had to cheat by hijacking a helicopter and flying up to the final fortress instead of fighting along the ground.

Besides that, this is a game that will be one of the PS2's greatest hits, and is a worthy purchase for $20. I don't think its sequel would be a killer app for any of the next-gen consoles, but I would purchase it if I owned one of them.

Real Fun but Incredibaly Frustrating

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: June 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I really like Mecenaries. You get a bunch of guns, two types of gernades, and a PDA. On the PDA you can buy weapons, cars, trucks and helicopters. Also, you can see everybodies mood towards you. You want these people to like you because they then give you jobs that can sometimes get you alot of cash. But what is incredibaly frustrating is the difficulty in some levels. When you go for the first big bounty, your all alone with a ton of enemies shooting you. Its just really hard, and the more you die, the more frustrated you get. What I do is just get cheats of websites, but I'd rather not do that. I only do that when I just want to get passed the part. In Mercenaries, I would think that most people would want and need health cheats if they wanted to acually beat the game. This reason is one of the big reasons I gave this game 3 stars. The other big reason is the ending. I won't say what exactly happens, but I will say that if your like me, you'll be really annoyed at it. They don't say anything about the money you get, or what happens to your character. They just say a few lines and that's it. Your done. There's also no new difficulty for beating the game, or any bonus materiel. You just continue doing whatever you want with all the money you ended with. Those are the two reasons I gave Mercenaries an overal rating of 3 stars.

A GAME LIKE THIS DOESN'T COME ALONG EVERY DAY!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: February 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Congratulations Lucas Arts and Pandemic on an outstanding game that outguns and outshines nearly all games of its type. Mercenaries is a 3rd person shooter thats packing more than just a cool subtitle, "playground of destruction", it literally is. Players will assume the roles of three different Mercenaries dropped into North Korea to take out "the deck of 52". This will be no easy task, yet a very rewarding one. Through accomplishing missions, whether by capturing your enemies or killing them, you'll earn points to buy new weapons, unlock secret players (Han Solo, Indiana Jones), and gain new abilities such as calling airstrikes. Mercenaries is a very lengthy game and will provide hours of entertainment, most of the time as you just blow the living crap out of everthing around you. But the game is deeper than that however, but you can take it as you please. For example, you can take on missions and earn money using helicopters, tanks, sports cars (every mission can be different every time) or you have the freedom to go on a rampage and make not only the citizens, but the factions, violently mad. The graphics in Mercenaries are awesome and seem a bit like Freedom Fighters mixed Star Wars Battlefront, as others have mentioned. They are awesome especially the explosions, particle effects, and ragdoll deaths. The sound is great and really gives off the feeling of a combat zone. This game is THE action title to own right now and unless you absolutley hate this type of game, you need to buy. Now, this game got a 9.1/10 from IGN and a 9/10 from PSM so its almost perfect and i give it a 10/10. People have compared Mercenaries to GTA but what game produced after GTA that involves cars, guns, and killing hasn't been compared to GTA, thats bound to happen. Its been compared to Socom...nah! Doesn't seem that way to me. It does seem alot like Freedom Fighters but on a way bigger scale. Just about the only thing that is lacking in this game is multiplayer. But that doesn't matter that much when you've got one of the greatest single player games on the PS2, but at least I've still got TimeSplitters 2 and Freedom Fighters for when I've got my friends over. So all in all, Mercenaries is one awesome game that will rock your PS2. Buy it if you are even the slightest bit entertained by action games. This is the ultimate action game. Thanks for reading...hope this review was helpful.

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