Playing more of this recently, wrapping up the campaign at last after putting it on hiatus for over 1/2 a year.
It's not a bad game by any stretch, but it screws up so much that the original got right. Last night I invaded a UP's Caracas airstrip and set up camp on the main hangar's building, parking a stolen helicopter on it. There's an Achievement for sniping 50 vehicle drivers, so I set about getting that done; UP already hated me so why not pick on them, eh?
Soon after I opened fire, the game's new tattletale mechanic kicks off. In Mercs 1, if the faction sees you do something bad to them, they'd drop your reputation an amount based on what they'd witnessed. In Mercs 2 this has a two-step process: someone in the area will begin calling their superior officer, tattling on you. There's a countdown timer, and if you take the tattler out before it runs down, you're safe. If you don't, the faction reduces your reputation -AND- sends reinforcements.
In this case, I'm up on this building, going postal on the various mounted-weapon pickup "Technicals" running around the base of the building, and the reinforcement that arrives is a helicopter. I 'jack that (so much easier than in Mercs 1... unfortunately way too easy) which gives me the heli I rode in on, and this new one, which I also deposit on the roof, then begin sniping again.
To trim the story a bit, I sniped the remaining headcount without another heli showing up, and after awhile I needed to leave and come back just to repopulate the base with trucks. The reinforcements, though announced, could not arrive until I'd cleared the wreckage of my previous efforts. And at no point did things "escalate." They sent the same technicals time and again, and no tanks or mortar lobbers/recoilless rifles. The helicopters that showed up were the same cheapies over and over. The game seriously would benefit from a GTA-style escalation in wanted level, with ever-more-dangerous vehicles and troops showing up. Also, helicopters apparently cannot manifest more than two at a time, or it may have been the overall vehicle count, with all the burning heaps below preventing anything new from showing up.
Taking and holding the airstrip was complete cakewalk, though I'd never dream of trying a similar stunt in Mercs 1. I recall helicopters were very hard to hijack, almost impossibly so, and they rained down holy hell and chopped up my health pretty badly. These Mercs 2 choppers could just as easily hang off and stay annoying permanently, but the AI appears designed to give players a chance to grab the vehicle frequently, and you're invulnerable while going through the hijacking QTE. Also, what the hell is the idea of having any high value area with NO, none, nada ground-to-air defense. Mercs 1 had AA vehicles pretty much no matter where you went, even within 30s drive of the first, main AN HQ. Why not at least even spawn some guys with rocket launchers? Not manifesting something appropriate to deal with the current threat just makes the game feel really dumb, really dead.
Oh, and I've not seen it in Mercs 2, but the original had entrances to underground bunkers; these would disgorge vehicles until you hit them with enough high-damage ordinance. I guess Pandemic thought they could just send reinforcements in from any other direction, but it hasn't turned out that way at all.
OK, I'm done harping and comparing them. Mercs 2 is OK, and I'm looking forward to finishing it. I enjoyed Mercs 1 more than just about any other sandbox game that isn't BULLY, so I'm worried some errant nostalgia is clouding my memories.
Scenester, I'll catch you for some game time this weekend, but I think after I wrap up the main story this game is going on the long-storage shelf.
