If you grew up playing video games such as Mega Man, Contra, and Metal Slug, Mercenary Kings is a game that’s probably going to knock you back a few decades with its nods and references to other titles. It’s got those clunky controls that definitely make you feel like you’re playing a retro title, an unforgiving system where everything has to be timed just right and judged to perfection, and the graphics and music also give the game an air of retro authenticity.
A side-scrolling action game, Mercenary Kings is slow to start with a reliance upon crafting in order to become equipped with better armour and weaponry. The crafting system takes some time to get used to as does building up your weaponry/armour, so if you’re looking for a game that is quick and easy to get into, Mercenary Kings is probably not a game for you.
With a controls system that can at times feel incredibly unintuitive, playing Mercenary Kings can sometimes feel like an extremely frustrating experience, as though the developers have deliberately made the game as difficult to get into as possible. A criticism often levelled against modern video games is that they’re too easy, that the developers hold your hand throughout the whole experience and that this has therefore led to the dumbing down of certain video games; Mercenary Kings seems like it’s trying to directly address this criticism by being deliberately awkward and clunky to control, forcing you to get used to a system that feels unnecessarily fiddly to navigate. Also fairly irritating whilst playing the game is how quickly the enemies respawn after you have defeated them, sometimes resulting in having to defeat the same enemies multiple times over when you’re seeking to explore a particular area. The game can feel quite repetitive at times, all the more so when you’re forced to keep beating the same enemies.
Although Mercenary Kings certainly has a lot that’s frustrating about it, the game can definitely be quite fun and the requirement to collect items and craft better weaponry to progress adds something more to the title than just being a straight up shoot ’em up. The controls could be less fiddly, the system is a rewarding one though as you work your way up to building better guns, giving you something more to focus on than just creating utter carnage and destruction. The game can be quite repetitive and it’s certainly not without its flaws, the fact that you have to put time into the game to progress onto weaponry and armour that’s better than useless though definitely helps increase the longevity of the title, and without its crafting aspect the game would surely be a whole lot less appealing to most.
There have been some questions raised about the £15.39 price tag of Mercenary Kings on the PS4, with the game priced at a similar amount on Steam this is certainly not another Angry Birds situation, however, and both Steam and the Playstation Store tend to offer some pretty generous savings from time to time so it’s worth keeping an eye out for this as in all probability the game will drop quite significantly in price at some point. It’s also worth bearing in mind that the game is currently free to download for PS Plus subscribers during the month of April, so if you’re already subscribed to PS Plus then don’t forget to give this game a download as you may just enjoy it.
Due to the nature of this title there is unlikely to be much middle game here and Mercenary Kings is a game that you’ll probably either really enjoy or find incredibly disappointing. If you enjoy playing 2D shooting titles then you’ll appreciate the nods to the likes of Mega Man and Contra, if those kinds of games aren’t really for you though then it’s highly unlikely that you’ll find much joy in Mercenary Kings. It’s repetitive, clunky, and at times a downright pain in the arse, the game will certainly still click with some people though and given its current free to play status for PS Plus subscribers, it’d be pretty silly really not to at least give this game a try.
Rating: 3/5
UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.
