Maybe you've heard this one before: as a battle-hardened badass, it is your job to explore an expansive free roaming Menvironment by stealing vehicles and using overpowered assault weapons to clear your path. Of course, the landscape is also peppered with various characters eager to assign you missions and reward your efforts. Sound like a tune you've been dancing to for a while? Though you may not find Mercenaries incredibly original or compelling, it gets a ton of mileage out of the fact that it is always fun to watch things explode. Always.

Set in a politically unstable North Korea (with several foreign powers vying for supremacy), Mercenaries puts you in the shoes of one of three elite soldiers-for-hire. Though each character technically has particular strengths, the effect they have on actual gameplay is negligible – any character can use any weapon and drive any vehicle. Fortunately, there is a ton of each to experiment with, leading to some truly hilarious carnage. I especially loved flying around in a helicopter, lowering a winch to grab a passing civilian car, and then slinging it into enemy fortifications. Then again, it's hard to beat that warm feeling you get after brutalizing an international criminal and leaving him lying handcuffed and prone next to some C4.

Though I certainly enjoyed dinking around like this for a while, Mercenaries banks on the appeal of wholesale destruction rather than genuinely engaging gameplay. Though it is to be commended for trying to expand the standard "cruise around doing missions" experience, the things it adds don't really contribute much. For instance, though the concept of warring factions and fluctuating loyalties is cool, it is painfully weak in execution. If you work with the Chinese, you cheese off the Russian Mafia. However, if you bribe them, then everything is fine again. In other words, who you work for and who you blow up doesn't have any real repercussions; if you've got cash, you've got friends.

Much like the impressive and abundant explosions the game contains, whatever spark of interest Mercenaries may ignite quickly fizzles out due to lackluster mission objectives, flat story and characters (though Matthias, the Swedish merc, has some funny moments), and a generally derivative feel. Like the boring guy the girl always dumps in romantic comedies for the dynamic and spontaneous "Mr. Right," Mercenaries can temporarily fill a void in your life, but you won't want to hang on to it forever.

Concept:
Run and gun while pledging your allegiance to whoever has the deepest pockets

Graphics:
Apart from some really pretty particle effects, nothing stands out visually

Sound:
The game's high point. The mayhem is accompanied by a rousing and majestic score

Playability:
Great job giving each vehicle a unique feel, but none of them are particularly fast or fun to drive

Entertainment:
Your enjoyment directly depends on how long you can stand the "go here and kill these people" formula

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction is a revolutionary third person action-shooter game, set in the near future and inspired by real world events. A military leader stages a coup just as North and South Korea are preparing to unify, turning that region's political situation into violent chaos. As diplomacy fails, this new dictator threatens the world with nuclear war. The world's nations put an unprecedented $100,000,000 reward on him and his advisors. You're a solider-for-hire and you've decided to claim that bounty.