Mercenary Kings - Review

Title: Mercenary Kings

Format: Windows/Mac OS X, PS4 and Steam digital downloads

Release Date: March 25th for PC and Mac, April 1st for PS4, July 23rd, 2013 (Early Access) on Steam

Publisher: Tribute Games

Developer: Tribute Games

Original MSRP: $19.99 (free for April for PS Plus users)

MSRB Rating: M

For this review, I'll be playing the PS4 version

In the 1980's arcades were littered with quarter-munching machines like Galaga, Mrs. Pac-Man, and Metal Slug. As the NES flourished, we picked up Contra. Things were quiet for a while as newer Metal Slugs came out every year, yet there was nothing too new about them. Then, in 2013, we were given a gift. A gift that, on the name tag, said Mercenary Kings. Is this gift one of divine intervention that breathes new life into the genera, or is the box full of farts from your college room mate? I played about 7 hours of the game so far. Here's my review:

Story: Mercenary Kings opens up to you assaulting Mandragora Island, the hideout of the villainous organization known as CLAW. CLAW has kidnapped a lead scientist who has created a formula that heals wounds back to 100%. By using the local mandrake population, this solution was created. This attracted the attention of CLAW who has: kidnapped the head scientist, taken over the island, and has turned some mandrake into rogue fighters for CLAW. 

You play as the KINGS: a para-military group of five soldiers who have the important task of getting control of the island once more. That is, until you die by the hands of CLAW's goons. The only two who make it out are Code Name: KING, and Code Name: EMPRESS. These two are given an early version of the Mandrake Serum that recovers their wounds. Now, it's time to take on CLAW to rectify what they've done. Move out!

Conversations are text-based in a Metal Gear fashion

Game Play: Mercenary Kings is a 2D Action-RPG-Shooter, among so many others. Primarily: this game's major elements of game play contains elements of Monster Hunter, Borderlands 2, Metal Slug more than anything else. Each mission begins with you on the base, setting up your pack and gun for the next mission. There are five initial locations available, and you can acquire more allies as you progress through side missions within the game. If you've played any Monster Hunter games before this (specifically 3 Ultimate), you'll feel right at home. 

I mentioned guns above, and boy are there a lot of them. The amount of parts you can buy/craft is even higher than that. Each weapon has five basic parts, and you can unlock a sixth attachment after finishing the first group of missions. Completing missions, as well as selling treasure and materials, earns you money that you can use to buy new weapon attachments, elemental damage, and different bullet types like homing missiles and an impressive spread-shot that yields high damage. Half of the fun is running through the mission grouping, unlock the next rank of missions, and see what new weapons have been unlocked. There's tons of nods to pop culture within the game: everything from Army of Darkness, to Metal Gear and Rambo. I spent a majority of my time trying to craft a bad-ass weapon and kept finding myself saying "Aw man, now I want THAT part" once I unlocked new stuff. 

All of this sounds great, but does the actual game hold up? Thankfully, it does. The style is a 2D,

objection-based shooter. Each mission is broken down into a few different categories: fetch quest, enemy elimination, rescue mission, a final mission, hostage rescue, and a few others. There's ten different levels of missions, from Private to 5-Star General. As you progress, missions become harder, but the loot gets better. Missions are timed depending on their difficulty: quests in which you need to find stuff tend to have a 20-30 minute timer (which is way more than enough; on average, it takes about 9 minutes to finish a fetch quest), whereas missions where you rescue companions or have to kill "X" amount of enemies tends to have a shorter timer (around 5-10 minutes). 

Each mission is comprised of one main mission, and
occasionally one to two side missions.  Completing the side
missions yields extra money and collectibles that can be
bought with in-game currency.  

One last thing I'll mention is the weight mechanic. Logically, the more stuff you have on your person, the heavier you will be. The heavier you are, the slower your character will move. Things like your gun, extra weapons and first aid kits, and accessories such as mods increase your weight. The game does seem like it is unintentionally penalizing you for not having the best weapons. It does ass a little bit of strategy and realism, but for a game that's set on a fictitious island in the future-past where there's magical human-plants littering the island, it seems a little off.  

Visuals: The art direction is done by none other than Paul Robertson, the creator of such amazing sprite are as: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game and Fez. Although 16-bit visuals seem like they are back "in", this is no amateur work. You can actually check out some of Paul's work here. Environments are highly detailed. I've paused for a moment to look at some of the forest backgrounds and was supremely impressed; the same can be said for the outside and factory settings. 

The animations for the characters are "top-tier". Animations are fluid and there's little to no latency issues. Every once in a while the game would freeze, but it never crashed on me. after about a second, the game would return to normal. To clarify: this only happened once or twice. 

Audio: Background music isn't anything fancy: it's a catchy chip-tune soundtrack that fits into the universe well. It's dark, yet upbeat within a mission, and incredibly lax when you're on base managing your inventory. For each mission location, there's about 3 or 4 different songs that play. I'm not sure if this pattern continues all the way through the game, however what is there is great. 

Mission Loading screen. Load screens aren't too bad, but
get used to seeing this screen. 

Bosses have zone-specific music, which, although subtle, is a nice touch. There is one overlaying theme for some of the optional missions, which is fine. The song isn't bad, I suppose it's wishful thinking to ask for a little more variety. Compared to Monster Hunter, Borderlands 2 and Metal Slug, there is significantly more music in the main game. 

Online/Multiplayer: For once, I'm reviewing a game that actually has multiplayer. Mercenary Kings has both on-line and off-line co-op, up to 4 players. For online play, the host of the game is in control of the mission select, but the missions are limited to how far along the host is in the main game. Your weapons and equipment do carry over into the host's game, as well as your unlocks. When in a mission, the screen follows only your character, as opposed to most multiplayer co-op games where it zooms out. This gives you the feeling of exploration, without all of the work. It's a nice detail that works well in covering a lot of ground quickly. It's especially useful when your group is trying to find and activate the Final Boss on a stage. 

Pros: great music and sprite animation, catchy music, insane amount of weapon customization makes for a great meta game, 

Cons: missing a little more polish, a little more music variety would be nice, could use a higher enemy count for characters on screen

Final Score: 9.0/10 - near perfection; a little more substance and polish (and maybe diagonal shooting) needed. This game is a must have. 

Agree/Disagree with the score? Have a suggestion for a game? Questions about the ratings system, or anything in general? Ask me on Twitter @AdHocMan, or on Google+ at +ZacHockin

Next week - review of the new HTC One M8