Synopsis The game world takes place in
North Korea, where
General Choi Song leads a violent coup against his father President Choi Kim's government after years of gradually-increasing peaceful overtures between the two Koreas. Supposedly killing his own father, as well as several North and
South Korean delegates during a
peace ceremony, General Song seizes power and once again closes off North Korea to the world. Some time later, the
Royal Australian Navy locates a North Korean freighter in distress but also discovers its cargo of nuclear warheads bound for known terrorist elements, triggering an
Allied Nations invasion to topple Song's regime. The Allies are able to secure Song's nuclear missile silos, but they soon learn of another launch site, its whereabouts unknown. Though badly-battered and forced to cede control of much of the country, the
Korean People's Army stubbornly refuses to give more ground and starts launching counterattacks. Meanwhile, the AN must contend with the presence of the Chinese, nominally an ally but in reality there to annex North Korea, the Russian mafia, which sees the war as an immense opportunity for profit, and the South Koreans, who are set on reunifying Korea by force now that peaceful methods have failed. Desperate to locate North Korea's nuclear missile silos, the Allied Nations post bounties related to the "Deck of 52", an array of prominent North Korean businessmen, senior military officers, weapons scientists, General Song's personal guard as well as Song himself. The Mercenary can either apprehend or kill members of the Deck, though killing them only rewards the player with half their bounty. The bounty increases according to the importance of that member all the way up to General Song, who is posted at $100,000,000. Prior to entering the game world, the player is given the choice of playing as one of three available mercenaries. The choice does not affect the plot, and each character has slightly different statistics to each other and can understand a different language used by one of the four factions in game (except for the Allied Nations). The four factions are the Allied Nations, South Korea,
China and the Russian Mafia. Each faction concerns itself with one goal influenced by the mercenaries' actions. The Allies for instance, only intend to remove Song from power though they possess the missions for the "Ace" contracts that advance the game. China and South Korea respectively both want to conquer North Korea, bringing the two factions closer to conflict as the game progresses. The Russian Mafia concerns itself only with exploiting the conflict and setting up illegal activities, and dealing arms which the mercenary may buy.
Game The player is airdropped somewhere over the
DMZ, finding the Allied Nations headquarters under artillery attack orchestrated by the "Two of Clubs". The mercenary assists AN forces in repelling the attack, destroying the guns and verifies the Two before venturing on to meet the other three factions in play. In completing assigned missions for each faction, the player is given
intel relating to members of the Deck of 52 in the game world. By embarking on these optional missions, the player gathers enough intelligence to unlock the Ace contracts, the theatre of war moving from the Southern Province to the Northern Provinces midway through the game. The player finally arrives on the Ace of Spades contract: General Song himself. After heavy fighting against Song's remaining forces, the mercenary discovers through the still alive President Choi that Song has acquired the launch codes for his country's nuclear armament, and launches them before the mercenary enters battle with him. Depending on the player's actions, there are numerous endings. If the player does not abort the nuclear missiles in time, a post-ending news report details that
Seoul, as well as several other cities worldwide have been destroyed by the nuclear weapons. Furthermore, depending on who the player decided to assist the most, another report indicates that faction is assuming control over the North Korean state.
Characters There are three playable characters in
Mercenaries: Christopher Jacobs, Jennifer Mui, and Mattias Nilsson. Each are mercenaries employed by ExOps during the North Korean conflict, but only one character of player's choice is dispatched to the war-zone in the beginning of the game. They follow the same plot and handle similarly in terms of gameplay, but each of them has a different personality, as well as specific strengths that may alter the player's strategy. Also, each mercenary can speak a unique language in addition to English, so the player can understand conversations of a particular faction by reading the subtitles shown. •
Fiona Taylor (voiced by Amy Lee) is a support operative that presents plans and ideas and support to the player throughout the game. •
Chris Jacobs (voiced by
Phil LaMarr) is a former
Delta Force operator from the United States, and appears to be a confident and reliable personality with often humorous remarks. He can endure more damage than others and knows
Korean. •
Jennifer Mui (voiced by
Jennifer Hale) is a former
SAS operative and
MI6 agent. She is highly efficient in stealthy maneuvers as she does not alert enemies as easily as other mercenaries. Born to a Chinese-British family in Hong Kong, she can understand conversations in
Chinese. •
Mattias Nilsson (voiced by
Peter Stormare) was once a
Swedish Navy artillery officer who then became a mercenary. Extremely reckless, violent, and obsessed with explosives, Nilsson uses his faster movement on foot to overwhelm his enemies quickly. He is fluent in
Russian, and is thus able to understand private Mafia conversations.
Mercenaries contains unlockable skins as rewards for completing certain in-game tasks. For instance, picking up a certain number of National Treasures will allow playing as an NK Elite. Some
cheat codes unlock the numerous hidden characters such as the leaders of each faction. This being a LucasArts game, it is also possible to unlock both
Indiana Jones and
Han Solo as playable characters, but the differences between skins are only cosmetic and will have no effect on gameplay or the main character's attributes. ==Development==