Mercenaries (XBox)

Mercenaries by many games journos was claimed to be one of the star titles this year. The basic premise of the game is to take down the deck of 52 wanted terrorists one by one. You can choose from three different characters. Jennifer Mui a English/Chinese lady who used to work in MI6. Mattias Nilsson a Swede who can speak English aswell as Russian and Chris Jacobs an American who can also speak Korean. To be honest the characters don't differ much at all and all the game is the same no matter what character is used. Mercenaries lets you use tanks, choppers, trucks you name it the one good concept of the game are the factions. Throughout the game you can work for many different factions including the Mafia, Allied Nations, China, and South Korea. All have different agendas which can intertwine with each other causing a backlash for you to face. On the whole Mercenaries is an OK game but that's about it. The dialouge and no sense of story marr what could have been a great adventure. But still for balls to the wall fun there's nothing better than Mercenaries.

Just when we thought we'd seen it all, another epochal masterpiece juggernauts its way into our office. Mercenaries is, without remission, one of the most lovingly-crafted, divinely-calibrated, proficiently entertaining games we've played in decades. And, may we add, the nearest you're going to get to invading North Korea with a nuke the size of Wales.

The hype was definitely there. The problem was-no-one really cared. It was essentially undermined as 'just another GTA rip-off with no substance'. Principally, however, this 'statement' couldn't be further from the truth. Developers LucasArts have pulled off a startling achievement-apprehended preconceptions and proven that blatancy can be the sincerest form of flattery. Why? Well because Mercenaries is the most blatant GTA clone we've ever seen. Fact. Radar showing objective points? Check. Motor jacking? Check. The ability to change clothing? Check. Garages for storing half-inched vehicles? Not quite. While it clearly doesn't mingle the majority of its obvious inspiration's gameplay factors (being San Andreas) into its own gameplay, the amount of freedom Mercenaries graces you with is unparalleled to around 95% of games currently available on any format. Hell, you can even commander helicopters and bombard enemy bases with your airborne talent! Tank plus grenade plus nuke equals a particularly large damage equation, and believe us, once you've tasted the syrupy savour that is the Bunker Buster Bomb, it's nigh on impossible to turn back.

Mercenaries gives you the opportunity to play as one of three operatives working for 'ExOps'. They're all a bunch of gung-ho death-merchants who'll complete the ultimate job for the right price. It doesn't really affect the proceedings whoever you pick-they're just there for variety. We chose Chris, an all-out, stone-cold American killa, boasting some of the most sarcastic comments in the business. For example, when you run out of ammo, he'll warble: "What do you want me to use? Harsh language?" Clever.

The plot? Let's just proclaim that it's negligible compared to the sheer amount of Saddam-like carnage you'll be causing with airstrikes in the ensuing hours of play, but we'll share it anyway. A Chinese dictator, General Song, is threatening global terror, along with his accomplices-all 51 of them. The game is structured around suits of cards uncomplicatedly named the 'Aces'. Each suit contains 12 cards and an Ace, and each card is a terrorist in line with General Song. Still with us? Good. As the game progresses you'll advance in each of the suits, initially with hearts and up to spades. Resultantly, you'll arrive at General Song himself, who is the internationally notorious 'Ace of Spaces' and must be stopped at all costs. Each of the suits must be either captured or killed, and this is where you, the mercenary, come in. There's $100,000,000 up for grabs and naturally you're at the forefront of the contracts. Depending on whether or not you kill or capture each individual suit number, your money varies (e.g. alive: $1,000,000, dead: $500,000). Ultimately, though, there are 52 'main men' to deal with during the course of the game, and that means a lot of battles. Incidentally, you can use your hard-earned to buy caches of weapons, or, if you prefer, artillery barrages and stealth bomber attacks. The choice, once again, is yours.

Apart from the aforementioned 'Ace' structure, there isn't really a proper plot to speak of, just a monstrous string of missions. Raising skyscrapers to the ground with the flick of a switch may be initially appealing, but the lack of any long-term story negates the game of any soul. Smashing open crates to get health and ammo can become tiring and you'll eventually become appreciative to how much a story is needed in these types of games-especially since GTA and The Getaway had substantal ones.

Dotted around the games gargantuan free-roam map are 4 opposing factions: the AN (essentially the 'UN' but with a different first letter), the Chinese, the South Koreans and the infamous Mafia. You can choose to take missions from either of them, provided that you're in their good books. In other words, respect must be gained from each faction. For instance, to please the Mafia, you must blow up Chinese garrisons and vehicles, kill members of their army and annihilate their strongholds. You must do the converse to satisfy the Chinese and so on. It's a system reminiscent of the PSOne's GTA2 if you can remember it.

Winston Churchill once said: "If you're going through hell, keep going" and that neatly summarises our thrilling time with the game. The war subject matter is heavily regarded throughout Mercenaries. It sometimes comes across like an 'Iraqi War Simulator', except with virtual casualties-imagine playing San Andreas with the 'pedestrian riot' cheat on and you can envisage the carnage we experienced. At almost every corner there's a devastating explosion in which showers of bodies fly contortedly from flamed wreckages. It's gripping, fist-in-mouth stuff and is subsequently extremely enjoyable.

Mercenaries has an excitable tendency to exploit the use of destructible warfare to an almost dizzying degree. The illegitimate amount of bombs and airstrikes at your characters' disposal is astonishing. Rising all the way up from the bog-standard MP5, to the incredible carpet bomb (this, as the name suggests, carpets the ground with a deadly array of smoke and flames, and, unsurprisingly, turns the surrounding landscape into Satan's backyard-complete with the charred skeletons of unsuspecting troops), the game is never short of cutting-edge firepower.

Aiding the experience further are the crisp visuals. Whilst there are damp-looking textures and dark expanses of grey, for the most part it's tantalising landscapes and lens flare all the way. The vistas look gorgeous and push the Xbox's graphical capacity to the absolute limit. Criminally, however, the landscapes are almost instantaneously shattered by the seemingly never-ending onslaught of bombs and gunshots rupturing the peaceful serenity. For the record, this is definitely a good thing-it prepares you for some riotous action, Mercenaries-style. Equip your trusty M-16, hand your grenades and head for the hills, preferably with several chums and a large tank.

The vehicle designs are pleasingly intricate, from the exterior bodywork to the paralysing damage that can be inflicted upon them. Tanks, for example, can effortlessly eradicate lower-ranking jeeps with overwhelming power, and terrain-friendly Hummers can whip around the countryside with incessant ease.

On the downside, though, the handling on the vehicles feels rather 'fudgy' and lightweight. Similarly, the helicopters' flying mechanics are way too simple-they take to the skies within seconds of you pressing the A button to start the engines. Furthermore, they travel at Concorde-like speeds through the air, covering much of the map in seconds.

Character animations on the opposition are questionable also. Some of them appear to be robotically jerking and sometimes tend to 'slide' across the floor. In addition, the enemy AI is functional rather than exceptional and, consequently, your enemies can be too easily overcome. It deflates the realism slightly but doesn't obscure the game's initial 'point' to an extent that it ruins the experience.

The game can also become perpetually frustrating. Missions are rock-hard, and when you consider the fact that there are over a hundred of them, it results in many pints of precious tears being irreplaceably lost because of that annoying assassination job. Sniff.

Where we feel that Mercenaries is distinctly lacking, though, is in the online/multiplayer sector, especially since developers, LucasArts, have worked previously on Starwars: Battlefront-an MMORPG. A cohesive co-operative mode or several online 'deathmatch' modes would have been more than enough to add yet more variety to the games longevity-a missed opportunity, we reckon. Mercenaries 2? Watch this space.

As it stands, Mercenaries is a highly competent, war-ridden, gun-fest of a game, and is an unexpected but brilliant way to open 2005. With a little more time and effort it could have scarily been a top contender for the much sought after GTA crown, the latter of which so many games have rarely come close to.

Look past the iffy handling and sometimes tedious missions and you'll see a solid, stimulating and downright enjoyable gem of a game, getting the balance of freedom and gameplay down to a fine art. We feel that it's thoroughly unfair to give our verdict on the game by comparing it to San Andreas (which a lot of other reviews will do) because critically, Mercenaries is everything we'd hoped for and more. If you don't buy it now, what's the point in ever playing a videogame ever again?