bit-tech Shopping: Electronic Arts Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (XB360)

Rating: 8

Time with product: 2 Months

Strengths: Almost everything can be destroyed, co-op is a lot of fun, lots of different vehicles, explosions are pretty

Weaknesses: Lots of pop-up, lots of glitches, not much replay value once you beat the campaign, can't switch between Mercenaries, faction mood gets annoying when you just want to shoot people or capture HVTs

Summary: If you enjoyed the first Mercenaries that came out on the Xbox and PS2 then you'll probably like this sequel. It still has Mattias, Chris, and Jennifer. It still has huge explosions. It still has a sandbox-type feel to it. It still rewards cash for killing bad guys. But it gets rid of the 52 card assassination missions from the first game and goes with a revenge story which takes place in Venezuela. The story is ho-hum and you'll mainly be doing objective based missions for different factions until a story-related mission finally pops up. You can get around Venezuela with a wide variety of vehicles that include cars, trucks, helicopters, tanks, boats, and even a motorcycle with tank treads for wheels. Travelling is fun but there is a huge amount of pop-up which makes driving missions annoying. The graphics also fluctuate between beautiful and just plain ugly. The explosions are really nice and you'll see a lot of them throughout the game since you have the ability to blow up anything you want. The controls are pretty good although a separate crouch button would have been welcomed (left trigger causes you to crouch and aim at the same time). This game is also very glitchy. Some glitches I encountered: getting stuck in walls, free falling from the sky after accepting challenges from Fiona, random explosions. I really wish the story incorporated all three Mercs, instead you choose one and are stuck playing him/her for the entire campaign. One bright spot for this game is the online co-op. It's a blast having a friend jump in and the both of you can tackle the campaign together. Overall this is a pretty good game and a nice follow up in the Mercernaries series. If you ever wished you could blow up buildings in GTA then this game will satisfy your craving.

Rating: 8

Time with product:

Strengths: Online Co-op, large world to explore and destroy, variety of vehicles to hijack

Weaknesses: Story is short, no online multiplayer other then Co-op, car controls

Summary: Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is a fun game especially if you play online Co-op with a friend. the single player story is kind of short but replaying the game in Co-op adds a lot of replayabilty since you can hop into a game online and help out a friend or stranger and it is just too much fun to be able to destroy anything you can see in the game. If you are a fan of the first game, you will enjoy Mercenaries 2: World in Flames as it brings more of the same with much better graphics.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 2 Days

Strengths: Its Multiplayer makes the game 100 times better the ability to blow up anything in your way or just to blow some crap up.

Weaknesses: You only want to play as the main character, the lag from bombs going off is sometimes so bad that it slows gameplayand that sucks because your friend joins you and a bomb goes off and your stuck.

Summary: The gameplay is incredible the lag is just about the only problem, story is solid and keeps you wanting more i would recomend this to everyone who does'nt mind a little lag and loves guns, bombs, revenge, and one pissed guy who got shot in the butt and has all of the above. It's rated T for teen so anyone can get it.