Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction is a third-person shooter which takes place in the near future. It was published in 2005 by LucasArts.

The Story

In the near future, the president of North Korea, Choi Kim, extended an olive branch to South Korea. The hopes he had of a peaceful reunification spread to South Korea and South Korea agreed to send North Korea money on the condition that they disband thier military. North Korea agreed. All was good until the night of the reunification.

President Choi Kim's son, General Choi Song, was dissatified with the peace treaties and talks. On the eve of the reunification of North and South Korea, he staged a violent millitary coup, killing his father and seizing control of the country.

Song then expelled all foreigners from North Korea. North Korea "went dark". No weapon inspectors or foreign press were allowed in. Eventually, the world's eyes turned to other matters. Rumors ran rampant, all hinting the worst, but, as many hoped, they were just rumors. Then the worst came.

A North Korean freighter, floundering in a storm, is rescued by the Royal Australian Navy. The RAN finds the crew making a hasty attempt to scuttle the ship, and becomes suspicious. Upon searching the ship, the RAN finds nuclear weapons bound for an Indoneasian company known to be a front for terrorists. The link between Song, terrorists, and nuclear weapons is made. Within hours of the discovery, Chinese intelligence reports that Song's missile capabilities are much higher than once assumed- he can hit any target on all seven continents.

An organization of Allied Nations (read: UN) was formed, with troops from all over the globe, and smashed through a division of NK regulars and took the missile sites at Yongbyon. But their euphoria was cut short- they found documents containing evidence that Song was building 30 more nuclear warheads and missiles at an unknown launch site. Worse yet, the documents indicated that the weapons would be ready in three weeks.

The AN top priority became to find and capture or kill Song before he was able to launch the missiles. Two weeks after fruitless searching for Song, the AN issued a "Deck of 52", much like the one used in the Second Gulf War. Song, of course, was the Ace of Spades. A 100 million dollar bounty was placed on his head.

You are a mercenary working for Executive Operations, a private military company that provides military services to world governments and large corporations. You have been tasked with finding and either capturing or killing members of the Deck of 52, and most specifically, General Song, before he can launch his nukes.

Characters

The three initially chooseable characters in "Mercenaries" are sufficiently distinct to make the game somewhat replayable. Each has a particular strength which will alter your strategy somewhat, as well as a unique language proficiency which will render side conversations from a particular faction understandable (e.g., Mattias will be able to eavesdrop on his employers in the Russian Mafia before taking a contract from them).

Chris Jacobs

• American
• Speaks English and Korean
• Ex-Delta Force soldier
• Has specialized body armor – able to take more damage than other Mercs

Jennifer Mui

• British
• Speaks English and Chinese
• Ex-MI6 Agent
• Stealthy – Less likely to be noticed by nearby enemies than other mercs

Mattias Nilsson

• Swedish
• Speaks English and Russian
• Ex-Swedish Navy artillery officer
• Agile – Moves faster than other mercs

Like many console games, "Mercenaries" contains unlockable perks as rewards for completing certain in-game tasks. One of these are secret characters/skins. For instance, picking up a certain number of National Treasures will allow you to play with an NK Elite skin (presumably, your character's attributes do not change).

This being a LucasArts game, it is also possible to unlock both Indiana Jones and Han Solo as playable characters. The exact method is left to the avid player to discover.

Factions

After Song's coup, the Allied Nations moved quickly to invade and end the threat of nuclear armageddon posed by the dictator. Sensing an opportunity, a few other "interested parties" also established a presence inside North Korea. Now, five powers dominate the arena:

• North Korea:

General Song's dictatorship, busily engaged in mass-producing chemical, biological and nuclear weapons for sale to the highest bidder and to further Song's own plans for conquest. North Korea is cast as the primary enemy in the game, and is always hostile to the player. NK civilians, on the other hand, are strictly neutral, and strict penalties imposed for "collateral damage" to them.

• Allied Nations:

A stand-in for the United Nations, the Allied Nations commissioned a peacekeeping force, led by an American, Col. Garrett, to round up 52 members of the new North Korean power structure, including Gen. Song himself. The Allied Nations are the closest thing to the "good guys" this game has, and their only real goal is the neutralization of the "Deck of 52." As such, the Allied forces are generally friendly to the player. The Allied Nations control a great deal of the air-power in the region, and supply most of the airstrikes you can order. Most AN jobs are against the NK.

• South Korea:

South Korea's presence in the North is actually funded, fostered and backed by the Central Intelligence Agency, in the person of Agent Buford. The SK regulars take their orders from Langley. The South Koreans are after the reunification of Korea, and have moved aggressively to establish a strategic foothold. Needless to say, they aren't happy about China's designs on their northern neighbors. The South Koreans control technology much like the Allied Nations, and give you access to stealth fighter and bomber support (gets around those pesky SAM vehicles). SK jobs can vary, but most pit you against the Mafia or the Chinese.

• China:

The Red Army, commanded by Col. Peng, would like to make North Korea the newest province in the People's Republic of China. This naturally puts them at odds with both Koreas--South and North. The Chinese have access to a massive array of firepower, much of which is placed at the player's disposal when they have a job for him, like tanks and artillery strikes. When working for the Chinese, jobs will often involve work against the SK.

• Russian Mafia:

Success is a matter of exploiting opportunity, and the Russian Mafia sees plenty of opportunity in the war zone that is North Korea. Sergei, the local Mob boss, is out for one thing--to establish a branch of the Mafia's criminal empire in a weakened North Korea--and, therefore, they have no interest in seeing a strong power assuming control, although this also gives them an urgent need to see Song toppled. Maintaining good relations with the Russian Mafia is very important, since they run the "Merchant of Menace" website--your one-stop shop for in-the-field outfitting. Jobs here will often be against the Chinese.

Gameplay

"Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction" sacrifices narrative cohesion for the sake of gameplay, and, thus, apart from the general premise outlined above, there isn't really a "plot," per se. This distinguishes it from its obvious inspirations, Grand Theft Auto III and its sequels, rendering the game much more of a "sandbox" type of game than its forebears.

Insofar as the game has a structure, it revolves around the "verification" (i.e., death or capture) of the members of the "Deck of 52." As such, the game itself is divided up into four distinct "acts," one for each suit in a standard deck of playing cards, in the order Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, Spades. Each "suit", similarly, consists of 13 members of Song's power structure wanted by the Allies, each fulfilling a different function for Song (Clubs are Song's financial backers, the Diamonds are the officers who run the chemical weapons program, the Hearts are Song's nuclear scientists, and the Spades are Song, his inner circle, and elite guards). The "cards" for that act's suit, with the exception of the Ace and the face cards, are hidden around the map. In order to uncover the location of each "card," the player must perform missions for each faction.

For the Two through Ten of each suit (minor flunkies), a particular faction has a mission which will reveal the card's location as part of the reward for completion, at which point, the player can "verify" the card at his leisure and collect the bounty. For the face cards (Jack through King), each of the friendly factions (except the Allied Nations) has a mission requiring you to verify the card as a victory condition. Once you've gathered enough intel by verifying lesser cards, the Allies will make the Ace contract available to you, which takes place on a separate, mission-specific map.

After the player has verified an Ace, the next Act begins, and the new suit is placed around the map. After the Ace of Diamonds, a second map opens up, and Hearts and Spades take place there. Although the game's primary goal is to verify the Ace of Spades (General Song), the game can go indefinitely, up to that point.

Playground of Destruction mode

Once the Ace of Spades is verified, you are given the option to do another playthrough in "Playground of Destruction" mode, which is sort of a "victory lap." Essentially, you restart from the beginning, but with all the cash and unlockables you got during the first run-through, including the hefty bounty for Song. Furthermore, it is no longer necessary to verify the numbered cards to advance (in fact, they're pre-marked as captured/killed, per the first playthrough), although you must still complete all the missions normally. Obviously, having the full array of vehicles, supplies and airstrikes handy from the get-go, along with vast resources to buy them with, makes "Playground of Destruction" mode comparatively easy.

Influences

The free-form gameplay used by "Mercenaries" is clearly inspired by the seminal Grand Theft Auto III, by Rockstar Games. The player is deposited in a vast "sandbox-type" environment, and set loose to pick up missions, perform side tasks, collect items, or just shoot stuff, all at the player's whim. To advance the story, obviously, you need to perform certain missions, but the game doesn't lead you around by the hand to do so. In fact, you can level all of the buildings in the playing environment, including the faction HQs. This means that you can reach a point where you are forced to either load a saved game from before the destruction of the HQs or roam around and wreak random destruction.

Of course, the whole concept of the "Deck of 52" is borrowed from the method used by Coalition forces in Iraq to identify wanted members of Saddam Hussein's deposed government.

Executive Operations, the name of the fictional company the player character works for, is most likely a reference to Executive Outcomes, a private military company that ceased to exist in 1999.

Controversy

This video game is banned in South Korea.

External links

• IGN review
• Official site