Mercenaries 2: World in FlamesPlatforms:PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Publisher:EA
UK Price (as reviewed):£26.99 (free delivery)
US Price (as reviewed):$49.99 (free delivery)

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is a game that presents itself as being built on two simple concepts: Go anywhere, destroy anything. All well and good perhaps, but the reality is that the concept is actually much simpler and Mercenaries 2 is really just trying to be like every action film you’ve ever seen.

We’re not talking about the James Bond action films here either – there’s no decoder watches, skyscraper abseils and jetpacks. This is more like a James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger film – True Lies in foreign climes and on an adrenaline rush. Urban airstrikes, mid-air helicopter captures and exploding fruit stalls are the order of the day here.

It’s this influence more than anything that makes Mercenaries 2 a familiar experience, even though it is structurally almost identical to the predecessor Playground of Destruction.

In fact and in truth, you don’t even need to have seen the first game to understand Mercenaries 2. The backstory and origin of each of the three playable characters have no impact or relevance here; all that matters is that you can read a map.

Still, for posterity, there is some semblance of a story here. You the player operate as a quarter of a four-man mercenary team who is betrayed in a deal by a man named Ramon Solano and his associates. One of them, Blanco, shoots you in the ass too. Then the battle is on – and the fact that Solano has staged a coup and taken over the presidency of Venezuela is little more than icing on the cake.

As a mercenary you only have two rules. First; everyone pays. Second; nobody shoots you in the bum and lives. It’s you against the entire national army of Venezuela, but there’s more than enough warring factions and corporate skulduggery going on in the nation’s capital to keep you in business while you chase leads and collect high-powered weaponry.

Of all those elements though, which could arguably create and unbelievably immersive experience if done right, it’s the weaponry which takes the centre stage. Your character may be given a few individual traits to make them stand out – faster healing, faster running, more ammo – as well as some snarky dialogue filled with utterly misspelled atti-tood, but the guns are the stars of the show here.

In Mercenaries 2 you’re constantly on a quest for bigger and better explosions, climbing from grenades and RPGs right through to airstrikes, cluster bombs and tactical nuclear warheads. We do not jest.

You’ll have to work to get hold of these bombs and super-attacks, but when you do they tend to be worth it in terms of wow factor. When the back of the box says ‘Destroy Everything’, it isn’t lying. Mercenaries 2 really is a world-crushing, building flattening and car flipping extravaganza of explosions and smoke. At times you can practically smell the cordite and concrete dust, marvelling as you wreak more havoc than World War Hulk.

Admittedly though, World in Flames doesn’t have a huge amount of depth to it beyond that – which is just the start of its troubles. There’s a huge area to play in, a lot of cars to drive and bombs to drop, but there isn’t a compelling storyline or anything besides the promise of bigger explosions pulling you through to endgame.

And, as we said, that’s just the start of the trouble...