Mercenaries Preview
Pandemic Studios and Lucas Arts have a new game in the works. Well actually Lucas Arts probably have quite a few in the works as will most games companies. But the important one concerning this article is Mercenaries – the game where you saddle up and go round killing people. Nice.

From the title it is pretty obvious what role you will be taking on. You head off to North Korea where some political unpleasantness is going down. Really not good in a country full of missiles and nuclear weapons. Your job is to bring the 52 most wanted individuals in, courtesy of the United Nations.

As you start the game you get to pick your character. Chris Jacobs the American ex-solider, Jennifer Mui (aka the hot goth chick ;) the MI6 agent and Matthias Nilsson the Swedish solider. Then you can get started playing through the game as you wish, with each target having their own card.

Mercenaries comes with a nice selection of weapons and you can blow almost everything which is always a welcome addition to the game, especially once you have equipped yourself with a rocket launcher. Or beyond that you can even call in air strikes when a rocket just won’t do.

You can also find plenty of vehicles. From the basic jeep to rolling a tank into your next area, there is plenty of selection when it comes to borrowing transport. The great thing about having a tank too is that you don’t need to use your own ammo – and the more ammo you save the more people you can kill later.

The new 3D engine provides some great graphics and the two maps in the game provide a huge landscape for you to explore. Some of the walks can take up to fifteen minutes which shows you just how big the areas can be.

In terms of audio Mercenaries is shaping up to provide a top class arrange of sound effects most notably explosions and gun fire as well as a soundtrack and plenty of ambient noise to add punch to the games aesthetics.

So, so far Mercenaries is carrying a lot of promise. Though it isn’t going to be redefining the genre it should make an enjoyable and flexible game. Currently it is scheduled to ship January 11th - Gamer Forge.

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This article was posted by mworld.

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