Pandemic Studios latest release, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, was something that I was actually looking forward to. Unfortunately I haven’t gotten through much of it so this review is going to be lacking quite a bit. Now, you might be asking why even write a review if you didn’t finish the game. Well to be honest, it’s not like I didn’t try to finish it’s because the game would freeze on me all the time. After swapping the disc for a new I attempted again, to no avail. It would seem that I’m not the only person having the problem, as is evident on the official XBox forums and Pandemic’s own forum. Having said that, I’ll give as thorough a review as possible.

In the game you choose a mercenary to play who’s found themselves in the middle of a Venezuelan revolution. Your target is a Venezuelan drug lord who successfully pulls off a coup, reneges on a contract with you and then shoots you in the ass. The point of the game is to meddle with local revolutionaries, oil companies, pirates, all the while planning your revenge.

Graphics? They’re ok, but nothing special. Cut scenes look a bit sloppy to be honest. The environments seem like they’d look great with a little bit of extra effort, but then again so does most of the game. The games AI is laughable at best, when it is working properly. All too often I could just stand in the open and take out enemies while bullets came nowhere near me. Co-op is available, but like the rest of the game I was unable to access due to the constant freezing issue that were occurring.

Overall, it’s disappointing that a more thorough review can’t be given. It seems like the game has some potential, but I’ll never know. After going through two discs and having the same problems I will not even try a third disc. You might be asking how is it possible to receive a half a star? Quite frankly they get it because they suckered me out of going after the game not once, but twice. I was so into it that I actually made an attempt to get another disc so I could finish the game. Cheers to Pandemic Studios. It’s like the old saying goes, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.

Maybe one day it can get a proper review, then again maybe not.