Monday 5 June 2006
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, the sequel to developer Pandemic's GTA-in-a-warzone actioner Mercenaries, will skyburst a ton of exciting new features into the series, including cooperative multiplayer, massive environments and - at last! - the ability to swim and steal boats.
As we revealed early last month, Mercenaries 2 will take place in Venezuela, where a tyrant overlord has been getting his hands dirty with the local oil supply, triggering an international invasion by the world's leading powers.
According to the game's excitable official site, we'll be able to play through the whole of the Mercenaries 2 campaign "with the help of your friends", suggesting online action for more than two players. Other add-ons are a grappling hook for hijacking in mid-air - like Just Cause - and options to build your own army of mercenaries by hiring tooled-up private soldiers stationed in the danger zone.
Above: At least one of the old characters, Swedish soldier of fortune Mattias Nilsson, is set to return
The gameplay has also been bolstered with new, next-gen effects - one example is that you'll be able to shoot a hole in the side of a fuel truck, watch the oil stream around the feet of your unsuspecting enemies and then make it all go WHOOMPHF! by tossing in a match.
As the original Mercenaries was, and still is, one of the best GTA clones around, we'll be keeping an eye on Mercenaries 2 as it gears up for release next year.
Stellar Blade director "grew up too poor to afford" a PS1, but when he finally got one in college, Ridge Racer and Final Fantasy inspired him to make games
Oh, that's why the Stellar Blade devs were terrified by demo players: one fan's spent "about 60 hours" maxing Eve's skill tree before the action RPG is even out
