The first few levels set the game up, taking you through basic manoeuvres and how to use your PDA. Unfortunately straight away there seems to be a few problems, there are far too many buttons to press, calling in airstrikes or chopper assist is not very easy, even using the PDA is a giant quest through menus. I don’t mind this in a RPG but in an action game whilst getting shot at, no thanks.

The size of the game world is impressive, with the main land and loads of little mini islands to explore and destroy. To help with the travel arrangements there are a few options available to you. You can use your chopper to airlift you into or out of hotspots or take you to one of you safe zones for new contracts once you have unlocked it, or alternatively you can use one of the many vehicles littered around the game. Some vehicles are just lying around whereas to get control of others you need to take out the driver first. When taking out a hostile vehicle like a tank, an icon will appear at the bottom of the screen telling you what to press to start the attack movie/mini game, the game then goes really close on the action with you and an enemy struggling over a grenade, mash the buttons on screen fast enough and you take him out, drop a grenade in the tank and take over it. This is OK at first, but after a few repeats of this small mini game it gets really tiresome and in fact, really spoils the pace of the game.

Away from the tanks there are plenty of other vehicles like boats, motorbikes, jeeps, sports cars and choppers. This is where the game really falls down, the control of each vehicle is terrible, the first game was not too hot in this area either but once you learned a few tricks, like hand brake every turn, you got to grips with it, however in this game, they either drive too fast or too slow, the turning is totally unnatural and in the end it just feel like you are driving on water, this of course is fine for the boats, but even then it does not feel right.

The main objective of the game is to take out contracts with the warring parties, flitting between five different sides, taking their money and hopefully steering the government into complete destruction. For each mission you are given a few freebie weapons to help you along the way, but it’s the cash you earn that will get you the bigger toys to play with including vehicle drops, surgical air strikes and nukes. It’s in this area that the game really shines through, with all of its control issues the game excels at destruction. If you stay on foot for most of the game it really rocks. Dropping a bomb run on a bunker and then running in to clear up the mess is satisfying, the rubble and wreckage stays in game so you could be running over part of a wall or roof that used to be 20 feet in the air, but is now in pieces on the floor. Whilst the main objectives are well varied you also have lots of mini tasks, these are dotted around the map earning you cash deposits and fuel, here you can liberate these funds from the enemy by clearing out the area and calling in air support to pick up your winnings, this will help you fund bigger and better artillery as well as support for the tougher missions later in the game. 

Being a sequel there is going to be direct comparison to the earlier version and whilst most games do better, this one fails in too many areas. They have even removed the playing card system for taking out the enemy officers, an idea that made the original a truly “play your own way” game. Thankfully the new gen systems have an ace up their sleeves, online co-op. This mode has you play with another merc, they join in on your game so they can earn cash but their own story will stay at the same position until they host their own game. The amount of carnage on offer here is tremendous, though just make sure you make use of the player chat as you don’t want to be blowing up your teammate with a nuke by mistake. The action is as smooth as the singleplayer mode, which is good to see.

Though some may think I may have been harsh with regards to the controls, In my opinion they do ultimately contribute to the game being a bit of a let down, however on the flip side the game does offer an unrivalled amount of destruction both online and offline which at least adds a bit of icing to an otherwise soggy cake.