Here comes the "boom" ready or not!

After a seemingly endless wait, the day that fans of the first Mercenaries game have awaited has finally arrived. That's right fans who fight for the right to blow s**t up...your time has come. Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, while not deep on the storyline, or heavy in the multiplayer department, and not totally original, does what it was intended to do, allow you to...well...blow s**t up.

What you get in this sequel is a nicely sized, open world environment full of enemies, vehicles, and tons of stuff to blow up. You'll venture your way through cities, jungles, lakes, mountains, and other terrain types that encompass a larger area than if you were to put all the maps from the original Mercenaries titles together. Set in Venezuela, you are in the thick of survival and against formidable odds in an already war torn world.

What's more, you get to choose who you work for, what factions to join, and even have the option to turn on them, at a price of course. You work for the highest bidder as the best of the best in the Mercenaries arsenal of characters. Along the way you have over 130 vehicles to man, from civilian cars, to tanks and choppers, not to mention all the toys and weapons to help you create havoc among the enemy. If you choose, you can opt to not go it alone by recruiting other mercs to make your damage making even more intense. What's more, you can even have a friend go with you either in split screen or online multiplayer and as we all know two heads are better than one.

While your objectives to get from mission to mission are linear, the ways to do them are limitless. Sure the beginning of the game provides a nice tutorial of things best suggested to do to accomplish each goal, but that's not the letter of the law. Thanks to fantastic destructible environments, you mostly make and break your own paths to complete your objectives, as nothing is more satisfying that watching buildings and the world around you crumble beneath your path of destruction. A nice addition as well is the landing zones, that once captured, allows you to access points across the map to be transported to so you don't have to make the long journey across the terrain and jump to a hot spot.

While visually strong enough, it is fair to say that it is immediately noticeable that this title started on older technology and made subtle adjustments to make the "next gen" cut. The draw distance and effects are nice, but some of the textures are lacking and the game appears to have a lower polygon count than expected. Not that Mercs 2 is a slouch in the graphical department, but you can definitely tell the difference between this game and another that may have had its architecture started on more next gen technology.

Audio does its part with great use of surround sound, big time explosions, and even a riveting score. The voice work on the other hand isn't stellar and I could have lived with or without it if that gives you an idea of its effectiveness.

The game play, while not totally unique, is solid, tight, and very pick up and play. Trust me; it won't be long into the game where you get to enjoy the sheer pleasure of mowing down a wall with an air strike attack and watching it happen from a safe distance. This is true for co-op multiplayer as well. While I would have liked to have seen more players than just two, I can also see with the game's design how this may have been an issue if the map was filled with bloodthirsty mercenaries.

While it's true that a couple years ago I claimed to friends that I wanted a new Mercenaries title, even if they were to add multiplayer to the original game and I'd be happy. Times and games have changed and evolved so much that actually delivering only that is just not enough in 2008. For better or worse, Mercenaries 2 won't be a surprise if you thought like I did a couple years ago, as long as you don't expect anything significant or deep in the game play, plot, or even options department. You grab a merc, a vehicle, and a weapon and get paid to blow things up...period.

That being said, if what I say appeals to you, then Mercenaries 2 will fill your need for destruction. If on the other hand you have been spoiled by the evolution of gaming the last 2 or so years, then you may be a tad bit let down by what has transpired here. Mercenaries 2, much like their in-game avatars, succeeds by getting the job done with no frills and nothing more. To many gamers that just may be enough.