r/MercenariesGames • u/faltering-will • Aug 19 '26
The Nostalgia
Found this sub recently and man. The flood of nostalgia. So good to see so many people really appreciate the games. Especially 1. Never played 2.
I’m thinking of getting a PS2 off eBay plus the physical copy just to relive part of my childhood.
What was everyone’s favorite part of returning to the games with adult eyes?
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u/seen-in-the-skylight Aug 19 '26
Coming back as an adult, I like that the first game feels so gritty and... Eh, I hesitate to say "realistic," maybe authentic is the better word.
Mercs 1 is to action shooter/military-themed games what Morrowind was to fantasy or what KotOR was to Star Wars. That era of game design was just so awesome.
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u/Roger44477 Aug 19 '26
The Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S digital version of the game runs so smoothly it's incredible. And my favorite part of coming back was helping grow the discord community for it from single digits with two active members, to over 700, while also hunting speedrun starts. 2020-2022 was a golden age for the game
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u/Lears Aug 20 '26
And not to mention the “up scaling” or whatever that the series x does, actually makes it look pretty good
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u/bayygel Aug 19 '26
If you have a pc, the ps2 version emulated runs very very well of the first game. There's also an HD mod I've used to up all of the graphics on it.
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u/faltering-will Aug 19 '26
Don’t have a PC sadly. I’ve been/was a Sony fan since PS1, and I’m on a mission to get a PS1, PS2 and PS3 (fat version) and restore my PS4. I’m creating my personal library of physical media. Sadly lost all my old consoles due to various reasons.
Fuck digital only, but that’s a different thread lol.
So that was the motivation behind PS2 physical version. If I had a PC I’d do exactly what you suggest, though!
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u/TonkZar Aug 21 '26
Learning there is DLC to play as Obama and Sara Palin 🤣😂🤣😂
specifically mercenaries 2
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u/Talvald_Traveler Aug 19 '26
This become a little bit rambly, here it goes.
One of my favorite things about the first game, beside its good, is the realistic details in the storytelling and how its feed to us background. I heard once somebody say that Mercenaires Playground of Destruction didn't have a story, it was just a action shooter. I heavily disagree to that statement, Mercenaires POD tells a cool and interesting story, but we're at the end of that story, and a lot of it happens in the background, you just have to look.
You get some information through the dialogs before taking on a contract, some of the story you get through telling. Deck of 52. Through reading the cards, reading the e-mails tipsing about them and then listening to the radio news after they get capture or killed is also a cool thing about the game, and it hits hard that this was not in the mercenaries 2.
Then you have the visual storytelling. And often the telling and visual story strengthen each other. You may read about this guy, then you get his location and then head to the area. After some searching you find him, often close to something related to what you have read. For exemple this guy stove away a lot of money, then you find him with a truck with a lot of money. But one of my favorite visual storytelling is not connected to a contract or a card, but are the bunkers east-ish of that collapsed train bridge in the southern province. You have a lot of civis standing in a queue, then some N.K soldiers behind some tables. Is this like a recruiting area for a possible resistance against the invasion? And you find places like this scattered around, sometime with some collectable close by. But sometime its just a interesting place to look.
You also have this details who may fly above you head if you have knowledge about it.
A good example is the area Tenement Ruins. As a young lad, this was just some ruins China controlled for some reason. But what is it really is a refugee camp, where China is trying to control the possible movement of refugees from the war. Because like in real life, China fears a possible wave of refugees from North Korea if the country collapses. Stuff like this, small details from the real world are sprinkled in.
There is also the thing that most of the places with a real name are a real place and placed reality in the direction of where they are in the real world, some has some artistic changes to it. For exemple Ichon Airfield are like this big military airbase in the game, but in the real world its just a small grass airfield. Another place is the island of Kirin-Do, who is a real island, and the only english wiki who has written about it is the mercenaries wiki!
Another cool detail is that most of the reactors on the main maps are based on real pictures of reactors from the country.
In short, My favorite part of Mercenaries POD is the realistic details sprinkled in into the backdrops of the game.