Better than what you thought. Worse than what you hoped.
The straight up PROS:
-Good music. It flows nicely with the type of game and setting.
-Great explosions, and lots of them. Mercenaries is a very destructible game. It's a bundle of fun to stock up on air strikes and attack helicopters and level an entire city.
-Co-op. Co-op mode is a somewhat iffy subject in M2, so its going in both pros and cons. It's great fun to go around with a friend and complete the story, or even just free play and ,together, blow as much up as you can and piss off all the factions.
-The achievments. They are easy to get just playing the story. All of them go with the game and are a blast to get (Pun Intended :) ).
-A multitude of weapons/store items. This game has an amazing variety of items to purchase and pick up. Each air strike is unique and B-A-utiful. There are also quite a few weapons and vehicles.
-Picking from 3 mercenaries. I have only experienced 2 of the mercenaries, but it is rather interesting to catch the small differences in dialogue and also to take on other tactics in the battlefield. It's a nice touch in the game.
The downright CONS:
-All guns seem to have the same accuracy. Whether it be the carbine, AK, automatic rifle, or light MG, they all seem to have bad accuracy. It takes me around 15-30 shots to kill one enemy (Infantry of course).
-The graphics. The graphics are nowhere near as bad as to distract from the gameplay. This con is not a big one. If your like me, and are in it mostly for gameplay and not necessarily the graphics then you'll enjoy this game just fine. They are by far not the best, but definitely not the best.
-Co-op. The major problem with co-op is that frigin' red circle. In co-op its set up so you cannot travel too far from your partner otherwise bad things happen. Also in co-op you can only work on one persons game at a time, there is no function allowing a strictly co-op game only that you and your friend can save and load up anytime together.
-The dialogue. The dialogue is not too horrible, but is not top notch. It feels as if the characters are being forced to say their lines, and it doesn't flow too well. There are ,however, some funny moments throughout the conversations in the game.
Neither Pro Nor Con:
-The difficulty. The game is easy...it's that simple. Some people have problems with this. I don't mind. It's a game of massacres (too put it violently), hundreds of people dieing because of you, and all kinds of stuff being blown up, it doesn't need to be hard for you to enjoy it. The difficulty is neither a pro nor a con in my opinion.
-Replayabilty. Some people will want to play this game for a while, others will only want to play the story and maybe blow up a city or two after, and be done with it.
Well, there it is. Mercenaries 2. I enjoyed but not all people will. If you like large explosions, destructible environments, and more large explosions. And if you don't mind the graphics and shallow story, then you'll like Mercenaries 2.
.......BOOM!