Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PS2)

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Some of the explosions in Mercs 2 are truly spectacular

A case in point: tank hijacking. Here you need to position yourself in front of the metal monstrosity, climb up the barrel and trigger a QTE mini-game. Using the thumbstick to balance yourself as you cross the barrel, you then need to press B (on the Xbox 360 pad) when prompted to open the tank hatch, A to wrestle a grenade off the driver, drop it in the tank and seal him in. You'd think that would wreak havoc with the tank's innards, but, pleasingly, it doesn't. You jump in and then it's playtime.

We're not big fans of QTE mini-games of this kind. Most of the time we can't see any good reason for their existence. It's almost as if they're in there because developers couldn't work out what to make players do to overcome a repeated challenge. But in Mercs 2 it fits. The mini-game is in keeping with the tone of the game. This is silly, accessible fun. Mercs 2 is not to be taken seriously. It's a playground for innocent fun and slapstick laughs.

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The PDA mini-map in the bottom left corner is unmistakeably open world game design, with the now standard route-plotting facility. Players have an on call extraction for when the going gets tough or when you simply need a lift - an Irish helicopter pilot called Ewan will do the honours and bring you to any friendly place on the map. We play a mission given to us by the P.L.A.V. (People's Liberation Army of Venezuela), to liberate an entire area from the tyrannical civilian-killing antics of a Venezuelan army general. The idea is to draw out the skulking coward from hiding and, essentially, blow him and his cronies to kingdom come.

The mission requires you to destroy three buildings (you'll find most of your time is spent blowing up buildings in Mercs 2) which lure him out of hiding. You get wind that his forces are attacking a church which you speed towards and defend from relentless army goons. Eventually you lure the general into a soccer stadium where he has a number of civilians held hostages. Not one for subtlety, you storm in, destroying everything in sight. Unlike Solano, the P.L.A.V. pays up, allow you to use their faction base and open up some more of the map for you to explore.

We can't wait to get some hands on with the online coop

Mercenaries 2 has a lot going for it, most notably the destructible environments and seamless drop in and out online coop (which we haven't seen in action yet, so can't comment on). But there remain technical areas of concern. The frame rate issues of earlier builds have been improved but there are still moments of noticeable slowdown when things get busy and the draw distance is working overtime. The AI often suffers from complete moronic stupidity and the vehicles can be frustrating when driven in confined areas because they get stuck on bits of the environment. These are all trials and tribulations any developer of an open world game must tackle, and, given that the game isn't due out for a few months, there's still time for Pandemic to optimise, so we have hope these problems will be less noticeable when the game is finally released this September.

Mercs 2's in your face over the top blow everything up action won't be for everyone of course. The lack of a competitive multiplayer might turn away some, but the online co-op is hugely promising. Some people baulk at the ridiculousness of the Mercenaries franchise, but it's this ridiculousness that is shaping up to be the game's main draw. Some of Mercs 2's explosions are right up there with the most spectacular in gaming. Like we said at the top of the preview, if GTA 4 is a skinny decaf latte then Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is a double shot full fat Americano with a can of Red Bull saved just in case.

You might be surprised to find out that the first Mercs game was the biggest selling new IP of 2005, so there are plenty of gamers out there anxiously awaiting this sequel. From what we've seen, they won't be disappointed.

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is due out for Xbox 360, PS3, PS2 and PC on 5 September 2008.

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