Mercenaries 2: World in Flames [PS3]

At a recent GDC event, EA and Pandemic showed off the latest pre-alpha build of Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. It's been almost a year since we've seen the game in action, and Pandemic has been hard at work constructing a new "Playground of Destruction" in the Venezuelan countryside, shanty towns and cityscapes. We managed to get a progress report on the game, and check out a new mission which featured everyone's favorite crazy Swedish merc, Matthias.

The objective Matthias had in front of him was treacherous: he had to infiltrate an enemy base deep within the jungle and destroy its headquarters by any means necessary. This provided him with a lot of flexibility, and as we watched the demo more than once, we noticed how well Mercs 2 implemented Havok physics thanks to the debris scattered around the level. Part of this was due to Matthias' constant use of explosives such as launching rocket propelled grenades at towers, which brought them crumbling down after a few hits. Matthias also managed to create car bombs by loading jeeps up with sticky C4, driving them towards an outpost and leaping out before the collision, immediately turning the bunker into a scrap heap. Since there will now be 130 different vehicles in the game, that means that you can potentially turn any motorized machine into a flying or rolling bomb.

Of course, that's assuming that you can capture the vehicle to begin with. In the original Mercenaries, players could "carjack" any machine, with a cutscene showing off your feat. In Mercs 2, there's a button press mini-game surrounding any carjack attempt. We noticed this as a tank came bearing down on Matthias. As he jumped up on the turret, he had a couple of sequences to manipulate the analog stick and pound specific buttons. Successfully doing so managed to deflect an aimed gun, wrest a grenade from the tank driver's hands and kill the occupants inside. Were Matthias not able to complete these button presses, he'd be thrown from the tank, which is much more of a threat this time around. Even cooler, the AI will attempt to take captured vehicles back if you leave them unattended now, so you'll definitely have to watch your back, because that tank that you abandon could come back to bite you.

Even though it was a pre-alpha build, there were still classic Mercenaries air strikes that could be purchased and triggered at any point in time. One of these was carpet bombing, which allowed Matthias to scope out (via bomber sights) the area that he wanted to destroy before the shells were dropped. Another was a surgical strike, which called for Matthias to pitch a homing device onto the target before a stealth bomber flew down and shattered the mark. In fact, he used this to destroy the headquarters and complete his contract, which was quickly tallied with a number of criteria providing bonus cash. Some of these were self-explanitory, such as the amount of time it took to complete the mission and the amount of time left. Others were a bit more mysterious, such as "In-Character Destruction," which implies that if you perform a task in keeping with that particular mercenary's personality, you may wind up gaining additional money.

This "In-Character Destruction" also augments the original title's feature of providing different characters with varying advantages depending on the faction they interacted with. While this system does make a return in Mercs 2, the details weren't specifically stated at the GDC event. Nor were the number of factions, although the Pandemic representatives we spoke to stated that it has grown to at least five or six sides fighting in Venezuela. What we were told was that the team is now focusing on fleshing out secondary characters to be as interesting and unique as the playable Mercenaries themselves. While we weren't able to find out any other details on Eva (the newest merc) or any other hidden characters, we were able to confirm that Fiona, the private military corporation handler from the first game that briefed the characters on missions, will make a return in the game. We'll have more on Mercenaries 2 soon.

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