Mercenaries

It came out of nowhere, blew me away, then left me blowing shit up for hours-upon-hours.

It might look like a Grand Theft Auto knock-off at first glance. But put a few hours into it and you’ll see that it varies quite a bit from the usual GTA gameplay. It’s much more linear and mission based. Graphically, it’s miles ahead of the blocky figures we’re used to in GTA. The lighting and use of ‘light-bloom’ or over-brightening is simply beautiful. The sound and music are incredible – mostly due to the fact that Michael Giacchino (who is also responsible for the Medal Of Honor and Call of Duty series) scored the music. But most importantly, it’s crazy fun and insanely addictive. I’ve never had so much fun blowing shit up!

With having already put over 12 hours into the game and being about half way through. It looks like I’ll be getting my money’s worth in terms of play time. Aside from the missions, there’s tons of extra things to keep you busy. Like GTA, there’s collectibles scattered across the country-side which unlock bonuses such as weapon and vehicle drops, airstrikes and cheat codes. My favourite of the cheat codes so far is the Han Solo player model. Hilarious! The PS2 version has Indiana Jones as the unlockable Harison Ford character.

There’s a huge array of vehicles you can commandeer. Aside from the standard civilian cars and trucks, there’s all sorts of military vehicles from all factions including; humveees, APCs, tanks, jeeps, helicopters and tons more. Each having unique weapons and capabilities. One thing I really enjoy doing, is loading up a vehicle with soldiers and storming an enemy base. Pure chaos when you roll through the gates – rockets flying from every direction, shit blowing up, bodies being tossed… good times!

I’m looking forward to playing through the rest of the game and unlocking the Playground Of Destruction.