Mercenary Kings Reviews
You'll constantly wish the annoyances would recede so you can wallow in the good stuff - because the good stuff is really good. It's just not enough to lighten what is ultimately a heavy and time-consuming experience. If I could freeze time for that moment, a few hours in, where everything fits into place and Mercenary Kings is my new favourite game, I would. We're so conditioned to equate quantity with quality in gaming that it feels counter-intuitive to criticise an otherwise great game for offering too much, but Mercenary Kings would be twice the game if it were only half the size.
An enormously entertaining shooter that starts to wear out its welcome after multiple repeats of the same stage maps
Mercenary Kings heads down several familiar paths at once, to mixed results.
Like any good game in the Metal Slug-style, Mercenary Kings is by turns maddeningly frustrating and wonderfully cathartic. A special brand of distilled mayhem keeps the pace fast and the payback high as Kings rewards you for every foray into its deadly world. But its unwillingness to fully explain its crafting element, the inconsistent mission design and the odd teeny-tiny bug hold it back from perfection. Still, the leaderboard system and simple, gung-ho mechanics ensure that it remains good fun until the over-long campaign eventually out-stays its welcome.
Less than the sum of its many and varied parts, Mercenary Kings never gets the mix of modern and retro influences right – apart from with the amazing visuals.
For free on PlayStation Plus, Mercenary Kings is an unbeatable deal. A great cooperative retro action title with plenty of challenge and reward. With the huge variety of customization, you can truly make the experience your own, while experiencing it with others. Even when this game leaves the Instant Game Collection, it will be well worth paying for. The few gaping flaws of not mixing the online and couch co-ops, and the lack of enemy variety throwing any real curve balls later in the game can be mostly overlooked by the sheer amount of fun you will have teaming up with a group of friends with independent builds and play styles to take on a particularly challenging mission. Whether you fail or not, Mercenary Kings succeeds at being a great experience on the PS4.
Initial control issues detract from Mercenary Kings' old school ambitions a little, but this is still an enjoyable romp that comes wrapped in a charming pixelated package. The ability to customise your weapons and armour is what sets this release apart, allowing you to inject the kind of personality into the action that its predecessors lack. The mission time limits seem unnecessary, but look past them and you'll find plenty of fun here – especially if you recruit three real-life soldiers to share the frantic foray with.
Despite the repetition, Mercenary Kings offers an addictive customization system and a good all-round shoot 'em up experience.
If you don't mind taking on a few slower quests with a couple of buddies, then Mercenary Kings can certainly help deliver on a fun time shooting bad guys with friends. If you're more likely to be playing a lone or you seek something with smoother fast paced action gameplay, then you might be best looking elsewhere. Mercenary Kings still provides a solid enough distraction for the former crowd.
Despite some questionable design decisions, there's a good time to be had with Mercenary Kings. Loads of content, great presentation values, and an addictive mission structure will keep you coming back for more.
Steep difficulty curve
There are moments of pure bliss, encounters that will require nimble rolls and quick trigger fingers, and plenty of looting and crafting to be done. But I can't help but wonder what could have been.
A great retro-styled game with a new twist.
It does take a bit of practice to become competent with the gameplay especially in the reloading of your guns, and figuring out how to upgrade your wares can be confusing at first, but Mercenary Kings is still a great casual game to pick up in between the epic blockbusters, or when you have twenty minutes to kill.
If it had much more of that fast-paced action instead of a plethora of tiresome fetch quests, it could have been a great and addictive title, but as it is, it simply falls flat and fails to realise its full potential.
Mercenary Kings is a royal retro rumble; an outstanding sidescrolling shooter with the depth and longevity of Monster Hunter. Though unwelcome repetition and grind can set in after long stints, grabbing some mates for local co-op fun with ridiculous customised boomsticks never gets old.
Mercenary Kings has a lot of interesting mechanics, but some are definitely stronger than others. There are moments of brilliance in its battlefield, but those looking for the next big thing best look elsewhere — this king is merely a prince.
For all the negatives there's a game in there that's so much fun to play and a blast when you can get a few friends together. If you can look past Mercenary Kings' flaws you're in for a great time – just bring your patience along for the ride.
Mercenary Kings is a good side-scrolling shooter, but when you play it alone, you're bound to get annoyed by quite a few things. When experienced with at least one more friend, things are much better and you can focus on the fun factor of the whole game.
A fun side-scrolling shooter marred with some frustrating design choices. There's a lot of interesting ideas here but nothing other than the crafting system really shines.