Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9170 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: ACTIVISION
• Released on: 2005-02-18
• Platform: Xbox

Manufacturer's Description
Mercenaries is a revolutionary, 3rd person action-shooter game set in the near future and inspired by real world events. On the eve of a historic reunification of North and South Korea, a ruthless general stages a military coup to take control of North Korea and threatens the world with nuclear war. The international community launches a global task force to stabilize the region. However, when diplomatic efforts collapse and the region descends into anarchy they announce a one hundred million dollar bounty on the North Korean general and his top military and scientific advisors. The targets are identified in a "most wanted" list in the form of a 52-card deck of playing cards. As one of the top operatives for a private mercenaries company called Executive Operations, you have been called in to collect on these bounties.

Customer Reviews

A little gem from Pandemic Studios
Mercenaries lets the player roam around in two diferent maps in the Korean Peninsula, pitting several factions (South and North Korea, China, Russian Mafia and Allied Nations (read, the US)), each with its own agenda, while the player is out there making money, collecting souvenirs, and generaly creating exploding chaos.

It gets repetitive after a while, and the whole plot is linear, both are true, but the freedom of movement granted to the player allows numerous ways in which to carry out the missions, or drive around the countryside, shooting at everything that moves, using the Russian Mafia as your friendly neighbourhood service provider of mayhem in the form of artillery and aerial bombardments. One can spend hours driving, flying, or just walking around, wrecking and killing troops (though civilians killed come out of your account as collateral damage!).

One gets all sorts of nice particle effects, along with shadows and fog. Throughout the map the lighting conditions change from a bright sunny day, to rain and thunder, or even discoloured settings, reflecting on the more dangerous parts of the map.

The weapons at our disposal are pretty bog-standard, M-16, Ak47, RPG, Dragunov, sub-machineguns, and grenades are used throughout the whole game, with the ability to pickup ammo or the weapons from the downed friendlies and enemies. These weapons are complemented by the weapons carried on the various vehicles the player can use, machinegun, cannon, artillery shell in some places, and missiles.

Aside the missions from the various factions (needed in order to get all the cards, that is, all the enemy leaders), the player can also collect several treasuries that are spread through the countryside, destroy hard-to-see listening posts, and demolish monuments. Each of these actions brings a bonus for each faction and help to break the linearity of the game.

As the player advances in the missions, the maps evolve, reflecting the changing situation in the whole peninsula, factions which controlled some areas at the beginning may controle new ones at the end, buildings get demolished through combat actions won't get rebuilt, this all gives a sense that we are just a small part in the chain of events.

In conclusion, Mercenaries is a true little gem from a not so well-known developer that has always brought forth solid games (I still remember when Battlezone II came out for the PC). The maps are vast, and there's enough going on to make you come back over and over, just to try it in another way.

INTENSE AND AMAZING - EXCEPTIONAL
MERCENARIES
This game is one of the best I've ever played.
Choose from one of 4 characters, and earn money by accepting missions from different factions (ie: locate and destroy the missile launchers), and along the way look out for enemy agents to dispose of, (don't kill the locals!) earning extra cash to buy more weapons and help.
Not only are the graphics stunning, the detail extraordinary, the gameplay exciting, but you are not limited to what you can do or where you can go (Ie: i had to destroy a mobile radar jammer but had run out of bombs, so i hijacked it and drove it at speed into the river); blow up anything you want up, control any vehicle you come across (helicopters, tanks, missile launchers, even airport trucks), massive variations of weaponary including satellite controlled bombing, stealth, cluster bombs and so much more.
This game is immense and WELL worth the money. I'd have willingly paid full price for this and had value for money. It has a huge landscape filled with detail - get bored, then go exploring (grab a helicopter)!. At later stages you are dropped off (by copter) to other unexplored areas - the game keeps going and going. LONGEVITIY - 5 / PLAYABILITY - 5 / FUN - 5 / GRAPHICS - 5

One of the best Xbox games ever made!
I got this game for my birthday after begging and begging my parents for it. I started off playing it years ago on a demo game controlling a swedish guy with a weird hair style and i thought"wow!". It was brilliant! And when I unwrapped it on my birthday i pegged it downstairs and shoved it in the drive!

It starts off with you choosing a character out of a lady or two men, and then you start the game. Your in an aeroplane and you have to pick up your grenades, PDA and your gun(Carbine) and then you get in a jeep and fall out of the plane. You have to drive to the allied HQ and sign a contract to get a mission. You have to capture a guy and then blow up these artillery strikes with some bombs you get given. And then you get to go get contracts from other countries, like the russian maffia, china and south korea. When you do the right amount of contracts for a country, you have to try and get the king, queen or jack of the rank your on. When you get all three, you go on a really special mission to get the ace of your rank. There are four ranks in the game, clubs, diamonds hearts and spades, you progress to the next rank once you have caught the ace of your current rank. The main bad guy of the game is General Song, and he is the ace of spades. You get to go on a mission to catch him at the end of the game.

Also, the reason i wanted the game, is because there are a sea of weapons, grenades and air strikes, which once you have unlocked you can buy any of the ones of that are available. Or if you see a gun on the floor you can pick it up and drop your old weapon, you can carry two guns at a time.

But my favorite is the vehicles. Mainly, if you can see it, you can drive it, or fly it unless its a plane. You've got vehicles like jeeps, tanks,
hellicopters, even civillian volvo's! You can buy these when you unlock them, or if you see one you can get in and go! Although most hellicopters you see are in the air you can get them if they are low. All you need is a sniper, just shoot the pilot and the thing will come spiralling down to earth, but try not to let it land in water cos then if your dumb enough and you want it bad, you'll jump in the water and die fast. They don't have unlimited life so it will probably blow up any way.

Overall a brilliant game, the only way i could improve it was by giving it multiplayer, then it could just about reach the rank of the halo series.