Has problems, but is simply AWESOME
You may have read the other topic, about the concerns I had/have with the game. My points still stand, but having put a good... omygawd... 26 hours into it... Wait... 26 hours in 3 days? The clock HAS to be wrong. Impossible. Anyway, after putting in a lot more time, and finishing the main story, here's an updated impression on it.
From the very beginning, Mercs 2 feels terribly unpolished. Glitches will jump at your face from all sides, and just about everything you've come to expect a game NOT to do still occurs in this game. Just to list a few other glitches I've witnessed:
- Fiona keeps giving me the tutorial speeches EVERYTIME I enter a new city/area, it seems to reboot every time I load up the game for some reason. It's so very annoying.
- When Ewan picks up some Oil/Ammunition/Money, it will VERY OFTEN, and I mean 7 out of 10 times, indicate that there was nothing to pick up, AND STILL give me the pick up. You can't even call up a pick up if there's nothing to pick up, so it makes no sense.
- The AI is rock hard DUMB. Pilots will keep trying to land on top of cars or half on a building, only to blow up. I've actually seen same faction choppers collide in the air and blow up.
- Saves don't work the way they're supposed to. At every reboot, I start without the weapons I had. Which is incredibly frustrating. Why do I say it's NOT a gameplay thing? Because the first couple of time I loaded up my game after turning off the system, I DID have all my weapons.
- Stuff disappears. It just disappears. There's an island FULL of things to blow up for the Allies, and I died. When I returned, the island was there, BUT NOT THE TARGETS. I died again, and there you go, it's back!
Anyway. Time to list the suspect gameplay decisions:
- The AI is just STUPID. I'll say it's both a glitch and a gameplay decision, because when you have AI that's THAT DUMB, it has to be accepted somewhere. My allies will jump in my way, all the time, and then attack me because the splash damage hurt them. Or they will drive in each other's way. Or they will try to jack my chopper when I land for a couple seconds, and then get pissed when I have to yank them out of the sky.
- Grenades are useless, because their trajectory is impossible to judge. These things bounce like basket balls, which makes them ridiculously hard to use.
- C4s are very useful, actually I prefer them to rockets, but same as grenade, their trajectory is a great tall arc, but no range. Either have me place them, or throw them far. But this in between thing is troubling me. Also, let me set more than one before having to blow them up. Please?
- The AI can see through walls, trees, they can see a couple of miles away, they can spot ANYTHING, ANYWHERE. It makes sneaking impossible, and renders flanking and such very frustrating to do.
- You can't buy weapons directly. I get it, you can just buy the different drops and them have them delivered, that's cool, but sometimes I'd like to save the time it takes for Ewan to get to me, go back, and come back. If I need to reload on C4, Rockets, and two guns (they're all in different drops)
- Air strikes that work with Smokes: WHY?! I understand if there was a light artillery strike, and a smoke would make sense. But seeing as how most strikes, starting with the weaker (BUT NOT LEAST AT ALL) Artillery strike, will essentially rip everything apart in a 3 blocks radius, and drop FAST (within 5 seconds)... Smokes have the same range of throw as grenades, read: short.
And now, what the game DOES WELL:
- Insanely addictive. I could not stop playing, even with the many, MANY problems it has.
- FREAKING FUN.
- Panzercycle. Period.
- Guns actually FEEL different. Great. That was missing in the first game, and I'm glad they worked on that.
- C4.
- Jacking vehicles. From the boat's auto swim when close, to the tanks entertaining QTE, jacking is very graphic, and very fun.
- Boats. I never thought I'd like boats in a sandbox game. In a game period. Well damn, those BIG AA boats are so much fun. And the useless ability to walk around just makes it even better. A small detail but it just makes all the difference.
- Choppers. They work, but the AI has so many AAs around that you don't feel invulnerable, and for some reason it makes it worth it.
- Air Strikes. Wow. Just wow. So many of them, and the destruction they unleash is absurd.
- Comedy. The script is great. Just great.
- Multiple stories. I'm assuming. I played as Mattias the first run through, and every "actual" cutscene had Mattias in it, and the character actually talked "to" him, and not just a different character skin. Which makes me believe that the game has different cutscenes for the other two. Makes me want to replay even more.
- Long story. If it's entertaining, I never complain.
- A TON of side missions. A ton. Like, a lot. Many.
- You get so much money, and the oil system is so simple, that you don't have to be as conservative as you were in the first game. Drop away, most of that stuff is free anyway!
- Huge. Just huge. And it doesn't feel empty. Even the jungle is fun to go through, because there's stuff everywhere.
- Shanty Town. You need to see this thing. I know it's a simple of poverty and everything that's wrong with the world, but damn, they made it look so good. Good as in, I believe it.
So yeah.
Overall, Mercenaries 2 has its share of problems. I'd say 20% of the game is problematic. It's glitchy as hell, and it definitely could have been polished a lot more. But you know what? I still played it 20+ hours apparently (I really doubt it though), and can not wait to get my 360 back tomorrow to go online and restart a game (was playing the Ps3 version).
The game is ridiculous FUN, even though it's flawed. I'm confident it's stuff they can fix with patches (probably "heavier" patches, as in several hundred Mbs), and hopeful they will. Even with these problems I think I'll be playing this game well into september, and it's bound to keep me busy, alongside Force Unleashed, until Fable 2 comes out to grace the world with its wonders (it BETTER this time).
Do I hate its bugs? Hell yeah. Do I regret getting the game? I did just buy a SECOND copy for the 360 this afternoon, didn't I?
PS: in New York City, the store that has it is called VGNY, or Video Games New York. Near Astor Place. 6th street and 3rd or something. You can't miss it, it's the ugliest game store in the city. Nice staff, just a very, very ugly front.
Download a HD video, the game looks much better.
