Mercenaries: Is this all there is to it?

[ATB]

Forgive me if this has been covered in another thread, but I don't want to stumble upon any spoilers.

I closed out the Clubs deck last night and I have a decidedly 'eh' feeling about the game.

Does the gameplay change as you move forward?  I just seem to drive from place to place kill some NK, run a random faction mission and repeat.

Where's the intrigue?

Will the factions become more important as the game progresses? Will there be real choices I have to make- play one against the other with consequences?

Chinese Faction Spoiler-

I did the mafia hit, only because that was the only way to find the Queen and the 9.  Initially I refused because I didn't want to jepordize my access to Merchant of Menace...

I did the job and WAS detected (as Chinese, not as the merc) and there's been no fall out...that I can tell.

End Spoiler

Also, I'm playing through as the American and he's not doing it for me.  I had originally started with the Swede, but again, blah..  Is the girl any good?

Who's your favorite merc?

And does it get HARDER?

[Eightball]

I'm playing as the Swede, because he's insane and has some funny dialogue.

Honestly, diamonds is harder than clubs was.  Some of it you won't have any trouble with, but some missions are really tough.  And you'll start getting into the faction missions that pit you against other factions, regularly.

I'm in the hearts missions right now, and pretty much full blown war has broken out between two of the factions.  New map for hearts and spades, btw.

[Arkon]

The clubs are a cakewalk, as they should be, they are all businessmen.  The diamonds ramp up th difficulty quite a bit.  Also starting with the diamonds many more faction missions have you going against another faction other than the NK.

[AttAdude]

does it get harder lol.

yeah man you are gonna get harder missions starting right now with the diamonds but the game does not really get challenging untill the face cards for the hearts.  As for how you feel about the game, the whole thing will play out just like the clubs did, so if you really dont like it now there is nothing later in the game that is going to change your mind.  Now how you can come away with a meh feeling after bunkerbusting that huge tower in the ace of clubs mission, ill never know.

[ATB]

does it get harder lol.

yeah man you are gonna get harder missions starting right now with the diamonds but the game does not really get challenging untill the face cards for the hearts.  As for how you feel about the game, the whole thing will play out just like the clubs did, so if you really dont like it now there is nothing later in the game that is going to change your mind.  Now how you can come away with a meh feeling after bunkerbusting that huge tower in the ace of clubs mission, ill never know.

I was underwhelmed by the explosion....everyone said bunker busters are amazing...not much happened...

[EngineNo9]

does it get harder lol.

yeah man you are gonna get harder missions starting right now with the diamonds but the game does not really get challenging untill the face cards for the hearts.  As for how you feel about the game, the whole thing will play out just like the clubs did, so if you really dont like it now there is nothing later in the game that is going to change your mind.  Now how you can come away with a meh feeling after bunkerbusting that huge tower in the ace of clubs mission, ill never know.

I was underwhelmed by the explosion....everyone said bunker busters are amazing...not much happened...

I like the game, but I'd have to agree that the bunker buster didn't live up to people's hype at all...it left me waiting for the big boom.

[whiteboyskim]

And I thought the boom was awesome. Each to their own, I guess. I'm on the Diamonds and the new map and still loving it. The challenge is definitely going up, and I'm having to approach each card differently which is way cool. For example, I stumbled onto the 8 of hearts last night and he was surround by tanks. I did a precision strike on one of the tanks that set off a chain reaction. I found his body several feet from where he started, but then another couple of tanks came over the hill and killed me. I have no idea how I'm going to handle that one in the future as I turned it off then.

[ATB]

And I thought the boom was awesome. Each to their own, I guess. I'm on the Diamonds and the new map and still loving it. The challenge is definitely going up, and I'm having to approach each card differently which is way cool. For example, I stumbled onto the 8 of hearts last night and he was surround by tanks. I did a precision strike on one of the tanks that set off a chain reaction. I found his body several feet from where he started, but then another couple of tanks came over the hill and killed me. I have no idea how I'm going to handle that one in the future as I turned it off then.

That's good to hear.  Basically all the club missions (with the exception of the ace) were straight up the middle run and gunners.  Glad to see all the toys that I didn't need to use in those missions will come in handy later.

[whiteboyskim]

By all accounts, most people that have finished the game beat the last mission only after spending between $3 and $6 million on the mission. That's how insane it's supposed to be. The second Ace was tough as nails to crack, but it's great how you can approach it from so many different ways. It's like a third-person Commandos, which is just awesome in my book. I won't argue the repetition of certain missions, but the faction missions not only get harder but they do get more creative the further along you get.

[AttAdude]

And I thought the boom was awesome. Each to their own, I guess. I'm on the Diamonds and the new map and still loving it. The challenge is definitely going up, and I'm having to approach each card differently which is way cool. For example, I stumbled onto the 8 of hearts last night and he was surround by tanks. I did a precision strike on one of the tanks that set off a chain reaction. I found his body several feet from where he started, but then another couple of tanks came over the hill and killed me. I have no idea how I'm going to handle that one in the future as I turned it off then.

That's good to hear.  Basically all the club missions (with the exception of the ace) were straight up the middle run and gunners.  Glad to see all the toys that I didn't need to use in those missions will come in handy later.

I have finished the game and captured or killed every card and done every mish.  It is worth noting that i played the game from the standpoint that i should be saving every dime i made in an effort to bring down Song in the end.  Because of that plan of attack, i spend very little money and used very little air strikes.  Insteed i focused on using subterfuge and disguise as my main weapons.  When i got to the last mission i spent every single dime i had on Air strikes and would have loved to have more if could have.  So i council being frugal with your money and dont get too bomb happy just yet.  you can do most missions with out ever spending any money at all.

[Eduardo X]

I'm finding the diamonds to be actually challenging, which just wasn't the case with the Clubs. I had fun with the clubs, but none of those businessmen stood a chance against my rifle butt.

[Fuzzballx]

By all accounts, most people that have finished the game beat the last mission only after spending between $3 and $6 million on the mission. That's how insane it's supposed to be. The second Ace was tough as nails to crack, but it's great how you can approach it from so many different ways. It's like a third-person Commandos, which is just awesome in my book. I won't argue the repetition of certain missions, but the faction missions not only get harder but they do get more creative the further along you get.

Eh, i only spent about 1.1mil on the final mission, but then i used some seriously unconventional tactics....which i won't post because of the possible spoilage.  It was a seriously awsome climax for the game.  I played with the Swede.

As the girl, i think you'd definitely have to spend 4-6mil on that mish at the end.  She can't take as much damage.

I did resupply my tank about 10 times though during the final mission.

Currently i'm in the clubs on my second time through now using all the unlocks from the first time through.

I can't wait for Mercenaries 2, they better come up with that soon.

I agree on the bunker buster being underwhelming but i thought that wasn't what people were ooing and awing over.

Now carpet bombing and Fuel air bombs are NOT underwhelming, they're fucking awsome.

You can also create distractions in missions that pit you against other "friendly" factions by dropping in fully crewed tanks from SK or China into the opposite factions base allowing you to go about your mission while the panic ensues.

[Fuzzballx]

I'm finding the diamonds to be actually challenging, which just wasn't the case with the Clubs. I had fun with the clubs, but none of those businessmen stood a chance against my rifle butt.

The clubs are like a tutorial.

[Fuzzballx]

And I thought the boom was awesome. Each to their own, I guess. I'm on the Diamonds and the new map and still loving it. The challenge is definitely going up, and I'm having to approach each card differently which is way cool. For example, I stumbled onto the 8 of hearts last night and he was surround by tanks. I did a precision strike on one of the tanks that set off a chain reaction. I found his body several feet from where he started, but then another couple of tanks came over the hill and killed me. I have no idea how I'm going to handle that one in the future as I turned it off then.

That's good to hear.  Basically all the club missions (with the exception of the ace) were straight up the middle run and gunners.  Glad to see all the toys that I didn't need to use in those missions will come in handy later.

I have finished the game and captured or killed every card and done every mish.  It is worth noting that i played the game from the standpoint that i should be saving every dime i made in an effort to bring down Song in the end.  Because of that plan of attack, i spend very little money and used very little air strikes.  Insteed i focused on using subterfuge and disguise as my main weapons.  When i got to the last mission i spent every single dime i had on Air strikes and would have loved to have more if could have.  So i council being frugal with your money and dont get too bomb happy just yet.  you can do most missions with out ever spending any money at all.

Frequently spending some cash on an airstrike can earn you even more money back by killing tons of vehicles.

[Thin_J]

Frequently spending some cash on an airstrike can earn you even more money back by killing tons of vehicles.

I think my best return yet on an airstrike was just about double what I spent on it, something like 60k.