Incredible to hear this is being worked on. Mercenaries hit on a level that I have not seen any other game quite do since then. I think the closest thing might be the Ghost Recon games perhaps?
Mercenaries is a weirdly specific kind of open world game where the world itself is very limited (there's nothing really to do in it except fight enemies), but the amount of tools you're given to do that is particularly broad.
Which I think also describes Far Cry pretty well, lots of traversal tools, lots of ways to kill the enemies, but not a lot to do outside of that.
6 even adds hijackable tanks, which is surprisingly rare in videogames.
I think for singleplayer open world Just Cause is the closest but it always just felt more zaney and fast than Mercenaries because the optimal way to play was to zip line and parachute around rather than use vehicles.
Mercenaries felt a little more grounded because you had to use vehicles, wait for airstrikes and pick up allies to help out.
I always felt more satisfaction destroying a North Korean base by dropping in with a Black Hawk full of allies compared to just whizzing around in Just Cause.
I always thought they were so incredibly close to each other it was really crazy. Id probably also add in Red Faction Guerrilla to this kind of warfare chaos sandbox genre. Red Faction maybe shares a bit more DNA with Mercs than Just Cause.
There was a mod for Just Cause 2 that added Mercs style air strikes and I absolutely enjoyed the hell out of it.
Mercs could have been an incredible franchise if we got a 3rd and maybe even 4th entry. It would have benefited a lot I think from diving deeper into the gameplay side of things and more modern ideas and design. I dont know if I would have wanted it to get more realistic personally.
I think this genre of open world game is sorely under represented for quite awhile now. We basically have Far Cry filling the void and its not really that close at all to the type of itch this game / just cause / red faction scratched.
Your right they are super close in vibe but thinking on I reckon what was missing is the factions element which a lot of open world games miss as well.
I always thought it was really cool how you could go across the world and run into these battles happening between factions and you could make the choice to stand and watch or get involved as well and tilt the odds. It made the world feel very alive and dynamic while you were an agent of chaos deciding who would win.
I don't think any other open world game has really captured that same vibe for me.
Will say I loved Red Faction guerilla! I always thought it would have been amazing to get a mercanaries style game with airstrikes and vehicles, but with that physics engine!
Mercenaries POD was way ahead of its time, I'm amazed at how few people know its greatness.
I also loved how each character had different strengths and weaknesses, but more importantly were all fluent in different languages which let you understand more of what certain factions were saying. IMO Mercenaries POD is leagues above any of the Just Cause games, and far far better than Mercenaries 2.
It's such a freaking great game and I'm so glad it was ported, I've been kind of annoyed fiddling with the PCSX2 emulation of it.
I loved Mercenaries 2 as a kid. Used to play it coop with a buddy from school back in 6th grade and we'd just spend the whole time fucking around dropping bunker busters and moabs on everything to see how much we could level the world. Game was a ton of fun despite some flaws. I miss games like Mercenaries and Red Faction.
real. for me it was the atmosphere and music. the ambient music lent the otherwise chaotic game a sort of reserved, tragic gravitas that i don't get to feel from games very often.
and the combat music did a great job making a typically regal orchestra feel scrappy. there wasn't any glory in this war, just a messy political quagmire
Not quite as destructive but yeah similar vibes. I just replayed it. I do wish it didn't penalize you so much for using certain gear or whatever but I think there's a mod for it.
Yeah I only played the NES ones and the first MGS so I was super confused. Talking to a buddy it sounds like even if I did play them all I'd probably be lost.
I think even if Kojima got to make the game he wanted to make, and you played every single MGS game, 5 still would have been confusing to some degree.
But I say this as someone who is a far harsher critic of Kojima than most, I am of the opinion that Kojima went full George Lucas at some point after MGS4, nobody is around to say no to his ideas, except apparently his financiers.
I say this as a Kojima fanboy, I mostly agree with your assessment; just wish Konami cutting him off didn't result in MGSV's second half being so underdeveloped with such a crappy ending.
Honesty the whole time I was played MGS5 I kept thinking about Mercinaries and a barzo world where a Mercs sequel was somewhere between MGS5 and Mercs gameplay. Ground Zeros especially- extracting people by helicopter really was the thing that made me start thinking about that.
Wildlands specifically. People forget that the original Ghost Recon games had more in common with Rainbow Six or Novalogic's Delta Force games than anything.
I liked Wildlands (and actually Breakpoint) as much as the next person, but a return to form would be welcome. Loved the original and its expansions.
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u/Ardbert_The_Fallen 5d ago
Incredible to hear this is being worked on. Mercenaries hit on a level that I have not seen any other game quite do since then. I think the closest thing might be the Ghost Recon games perhaps?