Phoenix
08-23-2005, 11:40 PM
I picked up Mercenaries a few weeks ago and it's so much better than I expected. I thought it was just going to be game where it's fun to blow up stuff and maybe a bit more. And, it's a lot more than just blowing stuff up. It's about the freedom to do what you want. You probably saying that's what GTA is about, but I'm talking about freedom during the missions. Yes, in GTA you can do a hole bunch of stuff when you not on a mission, but during a mission there really isn't that much freedom. All you really do is shoot some punks then shoot some more and that's it. In San Andreas, there may be many ways to do each mission but there's really no need to even try to think about doing something different because for at least 90% of the missions all you need is a machine gun with adequate ammo.
However, in Mercenaries, you really can't just go in with a machine gun and beat each mission. You have to plan you way though each mission; there's tanks, enemies in vehicles with mounted guns (and they will run you over with every opportunity), enemies with RPGs, etc. So, you see how you could get blown to pieces rather quickly. And, in each mission, enemies are skillfully placed as if Mercenaries was a level-to-level game (where each mission represents a level not just some area on the map) not just a sandbox type game.
I played what wasn't even a mission more like a mini-mission to take down the 6 of clubs (I think). He was on a small mountainside with a small army of about 10 men with gun turrets and a tank. Many options were open to me; I could have came in with a helicopter and taken everyone out, taken out the tank with an air strike and gunned the down the rest of the enemies, ordered up a weapons supply and take out the tank with a RPG, come in disguised as a North Korean by driving a North Korean vehicle then park next to the tank and blow the area to smithereens with the stolen tank, come in with a tank of my own, and there are still a few other options. And, this wasn't even one of the game's missions. I decided to snipe the most of the enemies from a distance, ordered up a RPG from the Mafia's website to destroy the tank, then took out the few remaining enemies with my SMG, and finally captured the 6 of clubs.
And, in one of the missions you have to destroy 10 Chinese fuel trucks and 3 fuel depots. This mission basically has "piss off the Chinese" written all over it but I did this mission without lowering my standing with the Chinese. The first thing the you'll think of when doing this mission is that you have use a RPG or rocket launcher on the fuel trucks (which will make the Chinese pretty mad), but what I did was hijack the fuel trucks driving around and parked them all next to each other, planted some C4, and blew them up. For the fuel depots; I RPGed one from a distance, C4ed one, and used an airstrike to blow up the one in Chinese territory.
It's just that so many options are open to you when you're on a mission, which is what makes Mercenaries a breath of fresh air and GTA:SA just tired. I'm not a hater of the GTA games (I really enjoyed GTA3 and VC), but I just never got into GTA:SA for some reason. I really feel VC had better mission variety but maybe GTA:SA was the 3rd game and I just got tired of GTA's gameplay. Plus, I didn't care for CJ that much (Sweet was still pushing CJ around when Sweet had nothing and CJ had a boatload of money, lots of businesses, and living in a mansion). I thought the city design of SA was the worst out of the 3 games (I liked the city design of GTA3 the most - it just had more character than VC and SA), and the back country just sucked. There were no huge gameplay advances in SA, the biggest one was that you could have a gang fight by your side but the AI of your gang was horrible.
The control in Mercenaries is so much better than GTA. When you're just running around shooting enemies, it feels very much like a FPS even though it's in 3rd person because the controls themselves are very similar (if not exactly the same as other FPSs) and it feels silky smooth. Graphically the game looks a lot better than GTA, but each game suffers from the same graphical problems like pop-in. Driving controls are pretty much equal (Mercenaries driving definitely has a different feel) because the GTA driving engine works well for GTA and the same goes for Mercenaries.
And, to anyone that discounted Mercenaries as another crappy GTA clone, it's not and it's better. No matter how someone describes Mercenaries to you, it'll always sound just like GTA but the feel of the game is not at all similar to GTA. I also was weary of Mercenaries because I finished GTA:SA not very long ago (and was disappointed - gameplay wasn't that great and the ending completely sucked) and didn't want another game like that. Anyone that likes action games, sandbox games, FPSs, and third-person shooters should definitely try Mercenaries. Also, the factions in Mercenaries is another nice plus that I didn't think I would really care for.
With Mercenaries, Pandemic has evolved the sandbox gaming genre while GTA:SA is left just kicking up sand in its own sandbox.
However, in Mercenaries, you really can't just go in with a machine gun and beat each mission. You have to plan you way though each mission; there's tanks, enemies in vehicles with mounted guns (and they will run you over with every opportunity), enemies with RPGs, etc. So, you see how you could get blown to pieces rather quickly. And, in each mission, enemies are skillfully placed as if Mercenaries was a level-to-level game (where each mission represents a level not just some area on the map) not just a sandbox type game.
I played what wasn't even a mission more like a mini-mission to take down the 6 of clubs (I think). He was on a small mountainside with a small army of about 10 men with gun turrets and a tank. Many options were open to me; I could have came in with a helicopter and taken everyone out, taken out the tank with an air strike and gunned the down the rest of the enemies, ordered up a weapons supply and take out the tank with a RPG, come in disguised as a North Korean by driving a North Korean vehicle then park next to the tank and blow the area to smithereens with the stolen tank, come in with a tank of my own, and there are still a few other options. And, this wasn't even one of the game's missions. I decided to snipe the most of the enemies from a distance, ordered up a RPG from the Mafia's website to destroy the tank, then took out the few remaining enemies with my SMG, and finally captured the 6 of clubs.
And, in one of the missions you have to destroy 10 Chinese fuel trucks and 3 fuel depots. This mission basically has "piss off the Chinese" written all over it but I did this mission without lowering my standing with the Chinese. The first thing the you'll think of when doing this mission is that you have use a RPG or rocket launcher on the fuel trucks (which will make the Chinese pretty mad), but what I did was hijack the fuel trucks driving around and parked them all next to each other, planted some C4, and blew them up. For the fuel depots; I RPGed one from a distance, C4ed one, and used an airstrike to blow up the one in Chinese territory.
It's just that so many options are open to you when you're on a mission, which is what makes Mercenaries a breath of fresh air and GTA:SA just tired. I'm not a hater of the GTA games (I really enjoyed GTA3 and VC), but I just never got into GTA:SA for some reason. I really feel VC had better mission variety but maybe GTA:SA was the 3rd game and I just got tired of GTA's gameplay. Plus, I didn't care for CJ that much (Sweet was still pushing CJ around when Sweet had nothing and CJ had a boatload of money, lots of businesses, and living in a mansion). I thought the city design of SA was the worst out of the 3 games (I liked the city design of GTA3 the most - it just had more character than VC and SA), and the back country just sucked. There were no huge gameplay advances in SA, the biggest one was that you could have a gang fight by your side but the AI of your gang was horrible.
The control in Mercenaries is so much better than GTA. When you're just running around shooting enemies, it feels very much like a FPS even though it's in 3rd person because the controls themselves are very similar (if not exactly the same as other FPSs) and it feels silky smooth. Graphically the game looks a lot better than GTA, but each game suffers from the same graphical problems like pop-in. Driving controls are pretty much equal (Mercenaries driving definitely has a different feel) because the GTA driving engine works well for GTA and the same goes for Mercenaries.
And, to anyone that discounted Mercenaries as another crappy GTA clone, it's not and it's better. No matter how someone describes Mercenaries to you, it'll always sound just like GTA but the feel of the game is not at all similar to GTA. I also was weary of Mercenaries because I finished GTA:SA not very long ago (and was disappointed - gameplay wasn't that great and the ending completely sucked) and didn't want another game like that. Anyone that likes action games, sandbox games, FPSs, and third-person shooters should definitely try Mercenaries. Also, the factions in Mercenaries is another nice plus that I didn't think I would really care for.
With Mercenaries, Pandemic has evolved the sandbox gaming genre while GTA:SA is left just kicking up sand in its own sandbox.