Mercenaries 2 on PS2: How Bad Is It?

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is probably the biggest game of this summer, and while it's irksomely glitchy, it's a lot of fun - on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, anyway. Of course the PS2 version, made for a console that's been obsolete for three years, isn't going to be as good as its current-gen cousins. That doesn't mean it can't be a good game on its own, though; after all, it's a fully destructible sandbox war game made using the same game engine as the first Mercenaries, which was fantastic.

So GamesRadar loaded up their PS2 copy of the game to find out - and almost immediately, they were bitterly disappointed by what they saw.

[Killjoy3000]

Most of the experience is arguably the amount of attention put in to the visuals, so the PS2 version feels like a step back in what Pandemic was trying to accomplish. Lets face it, the game play isn't crystal clear, especially on-foot, with lackluster sooting mechanics and such.

[SaiyanFury]

Well what do people expect? The game was obviously made for the current consoles and the PS2 has hardware limitations that the current ones don't have. CPU, memory, GPU, none of the PS2's hardware is up to the processing challenge that the current games have so of course they had to scale it back. It's a simple matter of numbers. And these guys are complaining? What did they expect? I'm sorry, but from a logical standpoint of course the PS2 version is inferior. An HD game down-converted to SD will not compare to it's HD counterparts.

[Killjoy3000]

But you're also forgetting that they could've used the Mercs 1 engine if they wanted to. But then again, I'm not quite sure if that engine runs sprawling, open environments well. Oh well. The bottom line is that on a technical standpoint, the game shows its weaknesses on all platfroms and that weakness is, of course, polish. It seems like for all consoles they released the game in a pre-beta stage. What gives?

[xaphanze]

Good point killjoy.

Why do you have 4 bubbles? Here have one.

[mfwahwah]

Well, Dead Rising is coming out on the Wii. It's weaker hardware, but they tailored the game for the Wii. Mercs 2 should have been *better* than Mercs 1 on PS2, yet it's not. That's pretty surprising to me.

[Jock]

Apparently really bad....The PS2 is so easy and cheap top develop for ..I dont see how they could have made the sequel be worse than the 1st game when they were just using a 4 year old game engine and everything was already in place from the game 1st...all they had to do was literally copy and paste...lol

[Killjoy3000]

No matter ow much I (and many others for that matter) want it to be that simple, it simply can't. They don't care if it's a quality IP or not. All they see in the Playstation 2 is a cash cow. Do you think they honestly care about satisfying their PS2 consumers ? No. When there is over 125 million PS2s out there, there's almost no hesitation anymore in making a quality port for any PS2 gamers out there.

I'm not questioning your knowledge, more-so reminding you of common sense you are probably already aware of.

[dan88123]

The trailer showed it.

[KobeT24]

Ports just dont go well. Especially next gen port to last gen consoles.

[juuken]

They just haaaaaad to mention the PS2, lol.

[Gamekilla]

i am agreeing with gamesradar...pretty much one of the worst out there...

[deno]

It's nice to see ps2 still getting games. I wish they still made good games for dreamcast and sega genesis and super nintendo. I gotta give capcom props for the old school graphic mega man 9 game coming.

[Killjoy3000]

Good games built from the ground up are appreciated, but in my mind, it seems like Pandemic and EA vomited this huge mess at the same time in to one pile. Sloppy ports anger the fan base of any specific console or franchise.

[Gam71]

They are still making genesis games.
In brazil they've released the genesis 3 with 4 new games one being a port of fifa 08 also the dreamcast has two games being released this year.
2d scrolling shoot-em ups but still games.

[cemelc]

Way to go picking on a 8 year old console, you must be proud

[bobokadof]

this game is a joke on any system. gamespot gave it the rating it deserves....a 5 its boring and glitchy among other things. how the heck do people like this game better than too human?

[Fade_Walker]

Wow I know the port was bad but not THAT bad.

[Adamalicious]

I'm playing through it on PS3 right now and it honestly seems like a PS2 game that was ported to PS3 and 360. It bums me out that it isn't taking advantage of current-gen hardware because I had a lot of fun with the original. It's not an terrible game by any stretch, but it is a disappointment.

[Gantrfaxx]

Well it's not that bad, if you drive a little bit slower this pop up problem could be solved, kind of...

[SL1M DADDY]

Is anybody actually shocked? I know I am not.

[Sir_Ken_Kutaragi]

;-D

More like -

'So GamesRadar loaded up their xBox 360 copy of the game to find out - and almost immediately, they were bitterly disappointed by what they saw' ;-D

[Gam71]

well if you're saying thats the 360 version then given the history of multi-plats i dread to think how bad the ps3 version is.

[pow3r of t3h c3ll]

better than the 360 version thats for sure!

[Gam71]

see my response to sir ken kun..tagiwhateverhernameis.

[Mukiwa]

Regarding the pop-up in that first video, I have just two words: Christ alive!

[Ju]

I am just wondering what - if they have an QA department - these guys are doing? Just ignore those things or what ? Or how can that get thru ?

[The Mikester]

i'm just going to say that it's not bad at all

[wolfehound22]

Everyone is missing the biggest issue with this article "Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is probably the biggest game of this summer". Lol dude what are they smoking. MGS4, Too Human, hell even Madden. Just thought i would point that out seems kind of odd.

[Gam71]

lol, biggest game of this summer? they haven't seen the weather where i live.

Definitely no longer summer.

[Shroomy]

Not as fun as the first mercs, regardless of what console it is on.

[Wii60Fan]

Just stick to making RPGs for the ps2.

[The Milkman]

Wow is that a game or a puddle of colors?

[SolidSnake93]

It's a bad game on current gen consoles so on a last gen it will be even worse.

[KBDuB]

"But Mercenaries 2 may be the only game we’ve ever played in which huge, significant objects don’t appear until you’re right on top of them, and sometimes not even then." Well.. At least they give you a radar!

[jerethdagryphon]

they had to modify the engine extensivly to work with ps2

it was menat for ps3 360 type tech

mercenarys 2 ps2 should have been a entirly differnt game remodeled assets and simplified texture

it should not have been done as a port

ah well live learn
good effort though

[Fux4Bux]

why did they even both?

[Xlll]

"Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is probably the biggest game of this summer"
uh no. MGS4 was the biggest game this summer. Not this turd.