You've gotta hand it to Pandemic. With some of their previous efforts - namely, Destroy All Humans! and its sequel, and now Mercenaries 2: World in Flames - they've shown they have this whole sandbox genre down. With a Venezuela that makes Liberty City look like a stroll to the corner mailbox, Mercenaries 2 offers plenty of opportunities to blow stuff up. Sure, it's not the most polished game out there, and there are issues which make it miss the mark slightly, but it's pretty fun anyway.

Playing as one of the three mercs from the first game, you pull a job in Venezuela - where Hugo Chavez apparently isn't Mr. Popular anymore - and rescue an Army general at the behest of an oil tycoon, who promptly not only refuses to pay you, but also shoots you in the butt. You swear revenge - because, you know, you got shot and not paid - and set off to destabilize the country and kill said oil tycoon. If that story doesn't sound award-worthy, well, it's not. Were you expecting something else?

Obviously, since you have a lot of ground to cover, people to meet (and in many cases, kill), jobs to do, and stuff to blow up, you won't ever find yourself without something to do. You can blow up buildings, assassinate people, or, if you absolutely must follow the main storyline, you can do that too and hunt down the oil tycoon. It's up to you how fast or slow you proceed. You can also make acquaintances with several factions in the game, and perform a delicate balancing act of keeping those relations solid. (It is a balancing act - did I mention that some of those assassinations are offered by one faction against another? You have to be careful to avoid word getting out about your actions. Or you can bribe a faction to be your best buddies, but come on, that's just embarrassing.)

Unfortunately, although you will always have stuff you can do, the first time you blow up a building is definitely the most fun. After that, the thrill isn't quite there anymore. Oh, sure, watching the building collapse into rubble brings a smile to my face, and probably will to yours, but not as big a smile as the first time. It doesn't help that you're not dealing with well-trained enemies. One job you'll work has you destroying a castle that one faction is using as a base. Sounds like a tough job, and at the beginning, you're shown a lot of materials you should buy to get through the job alive. I skipped those. I basically fought my way up to the front door. And I won. Yes, it took a long time to get through everyone, and I almost died a couple of times, but I killed everyone and destroyed everything. Obviously, you're not intended to walk all over your competition like that, but it's so easy. It doesn't kill the game by any means, and indeed, in some ways, it makes it more fun. But it just doesn't feel right.

For the record, I give this game a 4.25. It's a solid, fun game which will last for a long time, and even has some potential for replayability value - finished with one merc? Play as the others. They actually have different characteristics, so it works. It's not the best-looking game out there, but hey, GTA IV certainly had its problems. Consider this a common man's GTA IV.

This game is great!!!. Easy to getting into and you don't want it to end. If you played the first game you may be a little let down, those of you who have not will be in love with Mercs 2. The game has glitches, but they have only been helpful( $200k and autosaves ever time you drive past a location). The game is short if you what it to be and long if you what, but the game could use more missions and side missions. The playable characters could be a little more developed and would be nice to collect vehicles in the game, but it is still what GTA should have been.

When I first heard about this game, and it was only annouced for the PS3, I was shocked, but then it was finally annouced for the Xbox 360. Pandemic was purcheased by the mega corporation EA(Electronic Arts). The game released August 31. I was excited to play it, along with other people im sure. Anyway. I put the game in and i was pretty suprised with what I saw. I started up a co-op and we began. I'll begin with the Story. Mercenaries 2 really has a horrible storyline. The voice acting is good for Nielson at least(only character I played as). The AI, is well, horrible. The graphics were very...dated. I mean that in an early Xbox 360 garphics type of way. The gameply was a solid compnent of mercs. The co op was great, except for the barrier that would come up if u strayed to far from your partner. The drop system was very good, and I personally enjoyed the nukes, and daisy cutters. As a recommendation to peopl estill looking into this game. I myself would not suggest buying it, becasue it has easy Achievements, and a one play through type of If you liked Mercenaries, youll like World in Flames, but youll also find out that nothign was reall changed. Only a few add-ons in my eyes. It's a RENTAL. Oh and if your playing for Achievements, I suggest doing it alone, besides the co-op achievements, becasue if your partner kills an HVT instead of you in your game, youll have to start all over again, because you didnt verify that HVT.

Yo, I rented this game off of Gamefly a couple weeks ago, and I was hyping the hell outta it, only to be let down. Sure, the bombs are fun, and the vehicle controls are good, and going on homicidal rampages are good, but at the end of the day, it just wasn't very good. Impressive visuals, but just bland gameplay, very generic, and a lame, short story. A good rent, just for the Mercs 1 nostalgia feel.

This Game Is Crazy My Bro Played It Its Amazing graphics very fun love the online this game is all out good EVERYBODY PAYS