Mini Review – Resident Evil: The Mercenaries

Action/Shooter

Hell, I’ll kill a man in a fair fight… or if I think he’s gonna start a fair fight, or if he bothers me, or if there’s a woman, or if I’m gettin’ paid – mostly only when I’m gettin’ paid.

Colin

The Resident Evil series is one that has not traditionally migrated to a handheld system, the DS remake, a few iOS games and even the Gameboy colour haven’t really captured the atmosphere and suspense of neither the older traditional RE games or even the newer action-heavy ones, so why bother? Capcom has taken perhaps the series’ weakest component, the points based score attack Mercenaries mode, thrown in a few extras and a demo of the upcoming Resident Evil: Revelations and hope that this is enough to satisfy the fans, but is it?

Anyone who has played the recent Mercenaries game modes know exactly what the deal is, start level, kill the infected, get time bonuses, get combo bonuses, get point bonuses, end level. Mercs 3D mixes things up a little by varying the levels you work through, there’s the standard ‘get the highest score’ levels, ‘kill all the enemies’ levels, ‘survive many waves’ levels, and even a couple that involve killing that really annoying flying thing from RE5 whose pink underside was its only weakspot. Once these levels are unlocked you can play them in any order you wish and even play online co-op, granted not every level is available for online play but arguably the best and more challenging levels can be co-op’d with decent connections and little lag (in my experience).

Throughout these levels you will face either the Majini from RE5 or the Las Plagas from RE4, thankfully there are no dogs to combat here but the lack of character variety is a little underwhelming,. Aside from a few handheld weapons characters pretty much all act the same way with the exception of the few ‘big bad’, chainsaw man, big chainsaw man, claw man, minigun man, African chainsaw man, fat bald man and big axe man. These guys keep you on your toes, without whom the whole thing would be a piece of piss and you still get that feeling of unease when you hear the chainsaw revving from afar and drawing ever closer…

Surely you'd die from the heat but whatever.

You have the choice of eight characters who for the most part handle all in the same way with the exception of the melee attacks they use on stunned or downed opponents. It may not seem like much but you’ll get a giggle from seeing Chris snap necks from behind, Rebecca macing anyone that gets too close or Barry shooting a downed man in the groin (Krauser is present but he doesn’t have any of the special powers he had in RE4). The weapons are the real difference between how you have to play, as each character has their own 2-3 weapon loadout that cannot be modified although later in the game you can unlock the ability to swap entire loadouts between characters. Weapons are supplemented on the battlefield by the ammo you find in addition to herbs, mines, flash and frag grenades.

The weapons are going to be the main influence on whomever you choose, be that the all round combo of pistol, shotgun, rifle for Chris or the more unique setup for Krauser’s infinite ammo bow and two shot rocket launcher. Some sets take more skill to use but they’re all satisfyingly different from each other and fun to use. To further enhance your abilities, perks are gained as you progess and become extra effective the more you use them, better herb healing, time bonues under certain conditions and the ability to escape some ‘instant death’ situations will keep you playing to find more and ‘level them up’.

The controls work really well with the circle pad, aiming is fluid and it’s even possible to aim and walk at the same time, although more accurately it should be called ‘walking with your gun drawn and shooting in one direction’ which insanely isn’t as useless as it sounds. Just staying out of reach of axe man whilst plugging him full of magnum slugs in the chest whilst walking backwards = sore fingers + epic wins.

Other than headache mode and using the touch screen as a map and weapon select point, not many of the other unique 3DS features are used, I can’t see how feasible the game would be to play with gyroscopic controls but perhaps trophy/bottle cap trading via street pass would have been nice.

Oh man not this town again!

Graphically the game looks as good as it can, granted the forthcoming Resident Evil: Revelations looks quite superior but there’s a lot more going on in this game and much larger areas for things to happen in, scenery can look a little flat and muddy if you really examine the surroundings but who has time to when fending off countless waves of cannon fodder?

Sure the game is just a repackaged game mode, but it makes no allusions to this fact, having more content would always be better but there should more than enough to keep you amused, it’s a game that will draw you back for just one more shot. Admittedly when playing online it would be nice to keep the game going when you or your partner get their head sawn off or at the very least allow you to gain some xp for your perks but unfortunately it’s an all or nothing deal, if he dies, he dies.

Resident Evil: The Mercenaries has a lot of fun to offer if you know what to expecting, for a gamer like myself who was never a massive fan of this mode I have really enjoyed collecting and levelling up perks, playing co-op online, and especially the questionable slaughter of the various nations and races of the world (it’s ok, they’re monsters). It’s a game you can invest time in with the collectables or just waste five minutes in and frankly I don’t understand why so much of the gaming media has been whinging about it, what exactly were they expecting?

Rating: 8/10