...and if you can find them, maybe you can hire some Mercenaries.
While I’m tempted to wait until after writing my review of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, especially since the two games are so similar, I am having too much fun in the game right now to resist talking about it while it is still available on shelves. Admittedly, this is somewhat selfish; it is my fervent hope that Pandemic will be given a chance by Lucasarts to make a sequel to the game, and if there’s any way I can push a few extra sales of the game to happen, so much the better.
Mercenaries has been called “Grand Theft Auto: Pyonyang” and that’s pretty accurate. The basic gameplay mechanic of a 3rd-person, over-the-shoulder camera, while alternately running around on foot or driving/piloting any vehicle you can find your way into, is the same. However in this, its first iteration, Mercenaries offers numerous changes in the execution that make it an evolutionary improvement over what GTA has accomplished in three (or five, if one counts the top-down GTAs).
First and foremost among these improvements is the breadth of freedom in achieving mission goals. The last two GTAs have found the player led through a series of scripted goals, A then B then C, and a lengthy trip back to the boss to restart any mission, as well as re-arming or reloading the game to deal with equipment loss. In Mercenaries, each mission consists of one or more goals, some of which can be achieved only with difficulty, or at the sacrifice of subtlety in the need for efficacy. Achieving the more difficult goals awards appropriately higher bounties. There are frequently additional goals added during the course of a mission, which can be completed for extra cash, or left unaddressed with no detriment to the progress of the game. Best yet, if the mission fails, a penalty-free Retry Mission option is displayed, taking the unnecessary and un-fun mechanics out of the loop, and allowing players to get right back into it.
While the post-GTA3 installments of that game basically start from a premise that the game is perfect, and the only benefit that can be added is larger size, more mini-goals, and simple fine-tuning, Mercenaries clearly isn’t adopting that conceit as a given. So many of the fundamental gameplay elements that remain unaddressed after three iterations in that game have been re-thought and implemented better in Mercenaries. Were I at Rockstar North, I’d be thinking about recruiting those Pandemic designers for some fresh insight.
If you have enjoyed GTA, or if you thought you’d like it but had avoided it due to the gangsta-flava, check out Mercenaries right quick. It’s way good.
While I’m tempted to wait until after writing my review of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, especially since the two games are so similar, I am having too much fun in the game right now to resist talking about it while it is still available on shelves. Admittedly, this is somewhat selfish; it is my fervent hope that Pandemic will be given a chance by Lucasarts to make a sequel to the game, and if there’s any way I can push a few extra sales of the game to happen, so much the better.
Mercenaries has been called “Grand Theft Auto: Pyonyang” and that’s pretty accurate. The basic gameplay mechanic of a 3rd-person, over-the-shoulder camera, while alternately running around on foot or driving/piloting any vehicle you can find your way into, is the same. However in this, its first iteration, Mercenaries offers numerous changes in the execution that make it an evolutionary improvement over what GTA has accomplished in three (or five, if one counts the top-down GTAs).
First and foremost among these improvements is the breadth of freedom in achieving mission goals. The last two GTAs have found the player led through a series of scripted goals, A then B then C, and a lengthy trip back to the boss to restart any mission, as well as re-arming or reloading the game to deal with equipment loss. In Mercenaries, each mission consists of one or more goals, some of which can be achieved only with difficulty, or at the sacrifice of subtlety in the need for efficacy. Achieving the more difficult goals awards appropriately higher bounties. There are frequently additional goals added during the course of a mission, which can be completed for extra cash, or left unaddressed with no detriment to the progress of the game. Best yet, if the mission fails, a penalty-free Retry Mission option is displayed, taking the unnecessary and un-fun mechanics out of the loop, and allowing players to get right back into it.
While the post-GTA3 installments of that game basically start from a premise that the game is perfect, and the only benefit that can be added is larger size, more mini-goals, and simple fine-tuning, Mercenaries clearly isn’t adopting that conceit as a given. So many of the fundamental gameplay elements that remain unaddressed after three iterations in that game have been re-thought and implemented better in Mercenaries. Were I at Rockstar North, I’d be thinking about recruiting those Pandemic designers for some fresh insight.
If you have enjoyed GTA, or if you thought you’d like it but had avoided it due to the gangsta-flava, check out Mercenaries right quick. It’s way good.
Mercenaries is the bomb. I loved every moment of it.
ReplyDeleteI am having trouble making the time to finish playing it. I wrote most of this before E3, and when I went to play it yesterday, found that my most recent Save Data was from May 12.
ReplyDeleteThe game does a much better job of presenting interesting challenges than San Andreas.
I also picked up Simpsons Hit and Run during the trip, in case I run out of GTA-like gameplay.