With a game so dedicated to blowing stuff up, you might think that the plot of Mercenaries is lacking…wrong! The story is actually what got me hooked initially as I wasn’t exactly enamored by the design of the three main characters. This feeling faded fast as I was immediately thrown into the gripping narrative of violent military coup that disrupts the historical reunification of North and South Korea. The man behind this coup, North Korean General Choi Song, expels all foreign embassy personnel and orders no communication with the outside world. Two events open the eyes of the world’s superpowers to threat that a Song-lead North Korea becomes: nuclear weapons found aboard a NK cargo freighter, and a detailed Chinese report outlining NK’s nuclear missile capabilities. Finding Song becomes priority number one, yet the world’s various military forces are limited by certain protocols and politics. An open bounty of $100,000,000 is placed on Song’s head which is right up the alley for the Russian-based mercenary operation known as Executive Ops (ExOps). Sent in as a one-man (or woman) gang, it’s time to stir things up in the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) and collect on Song.

Before wreaking havoc, you’ll be faced with the choice of three highly trained mercenaries to take into battle. Each do play differently, and is enough to warrant trying out all three to find the one that best suits your style of gameplay. Jacobs (American) can take on a bit more damage, while Mui (British) utilizes stealth, and Nilsson (Swedish) is a speedster on foot. The other thing that comes in to play is that each merc is fluent in one additional language, aside from English. This becomes key while trying to gain intel on the movers and shakers in North Korea. If you can speak the native tongue of one of the factions currently stationed in the DMZ, the better chance you have in gaining important information on Song and his whereabouts. Mercenaries is structured around capturing or killing the most dangerous North Korean individuals that are part of Gen. Song’s assembly. Codenamed the “Deck of 52” each military or scientific advisor is further broken up into suit of cards from the deck (clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades), with Gen. Song being the Ace of Spades. Lower level advisors are number cards, henchmen are grouped as face cards, and the most dangerous Song supporters are categorized as the Aces. By taking on various contracts and gaining intel to the whereabouts of various cards, you’ll eventually open up missions leading to high ranking advisors. Capturing a card alive is worth the full bounty, while killing them results in only half of the payment. It should also be noted that after capturing the Ace of a particular suit, the chapter is over and any missions related to that chapter are now closed. This becomes important especially if you are looking to open up all the extras in the game.

There are five factions located in the DMZ each with their own agendas: Allied Nations, China, North Korea, South Korea, and Russian Mafia. The North Korean forces act as the main “bad guy” in the game and thus will always be hostile towards you, no matter what. The other four, however, are influenced by your actions in the field; this is gauged by the faction mood meter. Accepting and completing contracts for a particular faction will raise their mood toward you and will open up additional intel and supplies. This can be altered in real-time during gameplay when not currently in a contract. For example, running over a group of Chinese soldiers is not exactly the way to get on their good side. You can take out faction soldiers on occasion and not have it affect the mood meter, as long as your actions are not witnessed by other faction soldiers. If other soldiers happen to see your wrongdoings, the faction mood meter will immediately show a drop. Mood can fluctuate from friendly, neutral, unfriendly or downright hostile. Some contracts will play factions against one another so there is always a juggling act going on during the game. Should you accept the Chinese contract and possibly alienate yourself from the discounts of the Russian Mafia? This provides a nice thinking game within the overall “blow everything up” scheme of Mercenaries. Aside from completing faction contracts to raise mood, bribes also work, or just helping out soldiers in distress while out in the field.