The game is pretty fun, four hours in. This will be my first new game purchase in a while.
One of my friends tried it out and didn't like it at all. He said it's like they stapled a bunch of GTA shit onto Bolivia. I like it for exactly that reason.
In the PS2 era, I loved GTA III, but when LucasArts' Mercenaries came out, it was a revelation. There were so many interesting things done right in it, despite how much it cribbed from the then-limited number of open-world games. They'd taken most of it from GTA III, but they also used the faction and camouflage car mechanic from GTA II. They dropped the lock-on-to-shoot, and added a suspenseful sound and visual filter when the player character was nearing death. By placing it in a war zone, the emphasis changed dramatically. I hoped it would become the next big franchise but then, between EA and Pandemic, they REALLY screwed the pooch with its sequel.
What I'm feeling here is that I finally got the sequel I wanted: it's a drive-here-and-shoot-that-guy model, but they've cribbed all kinds of fun stuff from other games. The weapon-crafting, loadout revisions, character appearance customization, as well as all the Perk progression from other popular online shooters. The drone / binocular combination for doing the titular recon is fun on its own. Driving feels pretty good for heavy cars on dirt roads.
