Last Sunday, Mercenaries 2 dropped.  I loved the previous game and had been looking forward to this next-generation implementation of it.  I've had about a week with the game, now.  Do I like it?

In a word....Yes.

So here's the thing.  gm_scorch is a big fan of Grand Theft Auto.  Not a super-fan, you understand.  He played Vice City on the PC, skipped San Andreas and then eagerly got GTA IV for the 360.  He brought it over not long after its release and I tried it and enjoyed it.  He offered to let me borrow it when he was done, which I did a few weeks later.  I gave it back to him within a week.  I'd played it for maybe two to three more hours.

Grand Theft Auto IV is boring.

There, I've said it. 

GTA IV is cleverly written, incredibly detailed and very immersive.  It is expansive and impressive and....DULL.  I think the media blow-job it has recieved, with it's plethora of perfect scores is...quite frankly, bunkum.  At first I thought it might just be that I didn't 'get it'.  That maybe I was missing something.  After all, hadn't I really dug the first hour or so with it?  But no, the more I reflected on it, the more I realized its not just that it wasn't the game for me...it just wasn't as great a game as it was being made out to be...and that it was only the brand name that was getting them a free pass from criticisms that it deserved to be dinged for.  Now that doesn't mean I'm trying to cast the game as BAD.  It is a top-tier, incredibly well-crafted piece of work.  But I also think it's somewhat over-rated...and moreover, its just not a game I enjoyed all the much.  What I was wondering is....why?

So I thought about it.  And the first thing I realized was that I didn't want GTA IV...I wanted Mercs 2.  And Mercs 2 was like Assassin's Creed, not Elder Scrolls: Redguard.  And now that I've had Mercs 2 in my hot little hands for nearly a week, I know I was right.  And here's some thoughts on those games.

1. GTA IV was so detailed, it hurt there verisimilitude.  Or, put another way, you notice the flaws much more closely when everything else is so well executed.  GTA IV features an amazingly detailed representation of a faux-New York City.  So much that even jaded NYers were impressed.  There were tons of cars, clothing options and other stuff that was stunning in its scope.  So much so that when presented with some of the many incongruities, they became more visible...like a black smudge on a freshly painted white wall.  It stands out....and GTA IV had lots of such stand-outs.  For a game that was touted on its realism, that became distracting.  When I'm driving 65 mph going the wrong way on a highway INTO TRAFFIC and I play chicken with a police car and scratch his paint and he doesn't even turn on his siren...but when I swerve, jump the concrete barrier, crash down and flee down an exit ramp, slow to 10 mph and then accidentally love-tap another cop car at the bottom of the ramp and then HE calls in police copters and SWAT teams?  That pulls me out of the game.    What kills me is that this SAME BEHAVIOR was so mocked in Assassin's Creed, but somehow its acceptable in GTA IV.  The exact same issue.  But GTA gets a pass.

2.  GTAs humor was too over the top for me.  I enjoy the occasional raunchy joke.  I certainly can appreciate gallows humor or black comedy.  GTAs humor just doesn't do it for me, though.  Peter Stormare's Mattias yelling "Why can't EVERYTHING be rocket-propelled?!?" strikes me as funny (usually delivered after he uses an RPG).  Stuff like the 'Republicans in Space' bit in GTA, to name an example, starts out kind of funny and then just becomes annoying.  Not so much offensive as just heavy-handed and not particularly funny.  GTA has lots of funny gags...and always overplays them and goes to the scat well way too much for my tastes.  Satire or no satire, the game just sort of gets bogged down under the weight of its own very conscious 'envelope pushing'.  Like they're being offensive just to be cool or something.  Not my style.

3. Freedom versus emergent gameplay:  the fact of the matter is that GTA provides me TOO MUCH freedom...and yet at the same time, not enough.  Case in point: early in the game, I tried to cross the bridge to one of the other islands of the city.  I couldn't.  The game had concocted a reason to limit my travel options.  I could walk the distance and cross a bridge...but the game chastised me and disincentived me from doing so.  That would be fine if it gave me a compelling reason to want to stay local...but it really didn't.  And it let me go other places when it wanted to...but only on it's terms.  Mercs 2 lets me go anywhere as soon as I get past the second mission (first is a tutorial, the second is a set up mission).  GTA's freedom to go places was limited until later in the game...and really there wasn't that much to do with the freedom I had.  One can only drive around and admire the scenery for so long.

The minute I actually wanted to do something, like explore all those lovingly-recreated locations...GTA IV shut me down.  Instead I could maybe find a bonus item...but more likely would have to end up calling one of two or three contacts and asking for a mission.  Mercs 2 gives me things to do on my own schedule from the start, with targets to hunt, buildings to destroy and hidden caches of money and weapons to retrieve...if I can find them.  I spent an hour yesterday exploring the corporate controlled refinery, picking up hidden stashes of money everywhere.  Mercs 2 lets me control the flow of play in a way GTA does not.  In GTA, I can spend hours doing trivial tasks, such as listening to their radio stations, watching TV or driving around town...but eventually I have to come crawling back to the main story missions to proceed.  For all the talk of the open setting...it's not really all that open.  You're just allowed to dick around A LOT before coming back to the story....at least, from what I've seen.  GTA IV also NAGS you, with NPCs requiring the kind of maintenance that would make an MMO blush with it's grinding aspects.  What's also odd is how GTA IV resembles a Japanese console RPG, like Final Fantasy.  You can't really change Nico's story, just his fashion choices along the way.  Vlad is going to die when Vlad is going to die...the only difference will be how many times you went to a strip club before you throw him under a bus.

And despite the open-ended approach, GTA IV still forced me to do things the way it wanted to.  Case in point:  early on, I was given a mission to shake down a shop-keeper who refuses to pay protection money.  I drive there, park the car and then I'm told to pick up something and throw it through his window after he locks me out of his shop.  There are nearly a dozen trash cans and boxes on the street in front of his shop and up and down the block.  But for over five minutes, while I can kick them, roll them and destroy them...I cannot actually grasp them in my hands.  After about six minutes of this nonsense, I end up just whipping out a shotgun and blowing the storefront window out.  That triggers the mission end cinematic, then I call the boss and I can screw around until the next mission.  Which, by the way, forces me to RIDE THE ELEVATED SUBWAY.  I can steal any car I can see, but apparently I still need to use the subway to get to a job.  Because, again, the artificial 'we've blocked the bridges' construct...which, like my inability to grasp a trash can, throws me out of the game.

In Mercs 2, I can handle most missions however I see fit, within limits.  I can sneak in with a minimum of fuss or blast in with a tank.  I can make my jeep into a rolling bomb or I can use a sniper rifle.  I can level a city block or just capture my target.  I have a lot of stylistic choices to make in my approach.  The game rewards different tactics in different ways...but it's clear that the game is about gratification, not frustration. 

4. Visceral Gratification.  Mercs 2 spends a lot of time letting me Blow Shit Up.  And unlike GTA, I don't feel morally conflicted in doing so.  In Mercs 2, if I can see it, I can destroy it, generally speaking.  And yes, that includes virtually all buildings.  But overall, the structure of the game is such that you know that you're in a moral grey area, but you're a professional.  In GTA IV, you're a criminal and a fairly nasty, albeit sympathetic, one.  That everyone in GTA IV is an over-the-top parody doesn't reduce the unpleasantness of some of your actions, for me.  Mercs 2 is a  bullet-laden Hollywood movie, and it never pretends at anything else.  It doesn't consider itself art, just a game.  And it's selective realism is a reflection of that.  It illustrates stuff needed for the game, not things like an Internet cafe that gives you access to a fake internet dating website. 

5. A tighter focus: GTA is like the Sopranos in tone, but from a standpoint of gameplay, it's got a lot of empty space.  I'd argue that the majority of people who purchase GTA IV don't ever finish the main game, but dick around for 20 hours or so before moving on.  That may be less true of GTA IV, with it's lessened difficulty, achievements and multiplayer elements...but I'd wager its probably still largely true for most players.    Mercs 2 is a game I envision playing more than once, using a different character.  In that respect, it's more like Mass Effect...the game can potentially play differently on another run-through.  The thing about a Viking, Assassin's Creed or Mercs 2 that may tick some people off who love GTA is that it does NOT create nearly as immersive a game world.  GTA is a big and consistent reality (although there are plenty of gaps).  The previous three games are far more transparent in their obvious 'video game world' ideas.  People only say a few phrases.  Their AI isn't always that great.  They take some ridiculous things for granted or totally ignore players doing really weird things.  There are a lot of elements that are, for want of a better word, video-gamey...such as flags just sitting on rooftops.  Older GTAs featured many of these elements as well, but again...the brand apparently gets a pass in these kind of discussions.

I'm not saying GTA IV is a bad game.  What I AM saying is that I would rather play Mercs 2.  Repeatedly.  When I had GTA, I really wasn't looking forward to playing it that much.  With Mercs 2, I am...and the coop only makes it much, much better.