Blowing Stuff Up (Mercenaries 2 Impressions)

Since the end of the 80s, it’s been more and more difficult to find one man willing to open up a can of whoop ass on an entire army of foreign stereotypes. But Mercenaries 2 features just that sort of singular mantra we’ve been craving since Sylvester changed his name to Sly.

Mercenaries 2 is an open world game that’s not just about blowing up the bad guys, but levelling every building in their entire country—where they may or may not be hiding.As you run around the open world with, say, a rocket launcher, you become a one man wrecking crew, dropping buildings not with massive explosions, but what resembles a perfectly executed controlled demolition. The buildings fall evenly, like a tierred cake, floor by floor into a pile of dust.

Plant a few charges of C4 around a block, and you can simultaneously level entire streets of the game. It may get old, but not during the 20 minutes I spent with the demo.

Hopping into a helicopter proved to be a more difficult task. Stiff controls or a bad but intentional gameplay mechanic made it tough to float over more mountainous areas of the map. Plus, the birds eye view also showed a huge draw distance problem that is probably only because we were playing an early version of the game.

Overall, the graphics aren’t the dazzling spectacle we’ve come to expect with the current generation, but those looking to blow up a world without scrutiny may find solace in the warm embrace of Mercenaries 2.