Quick Look: Mercenary Kings (PS4)

Everyone is too busy watching Super Professional Fridays.

this looks like a good time to be had with fellow Gb duders, gonna have to download this.

I'm finally going to fire this up on the PS4 after work. Saw some streams of it on Tuesday and watched people stumble and struggle their way through, so I know what I'm getting myself into. Looks hard but fun. Definitely going to rustle up some friends to play it with though. Some of the missions look overwhelming for one merc.

I love this game so much. It's probably my favorite game this year so far.

The game gets better the longer you go, and it has changed and grown nicely from the early access business now that it's "2.0" on PC. It's just that it feels like only two weapon builds are worth it for me.

Still, 12+ hours into it having a wonderful time, only one crash. I could have had Infamous platinum instead. Makes ya think.

I don't know, man. By the end, I felt a lot like Jeff. Had this already downloaded; now I don't know if I even want to play it.

Wow that boss fleeing is really bumming me out. Everything else looks really great but I don't know if I can cope with having to go through the same path just because an ennemy flew away.

To anyone interested in this game, you should know that it's basically Monster Hunter + Metal Slug. If those things appeal, go for it! But if you hate the mission structure and gathering side of MH, I really wouldn't bother

I was done with pixel art about two years ago and, unfortunately, games just keep on using it. Seeing how much work they've done to make it feel "authentic" with the music and everything, I think I'd be fine with it if the game then didn't stick to the same old conventions developers use to optimize games such as the bullet cases disappearing after three seconds. If the game is already using a shitty pixel artstyle, I want all bullet cases to stay on the level permanently. If the PS4 can't handle that, why even bother with buying new consoles?

@thevgamer: What

Did you send out a memo to various developers letting them know you were done with this art style? Maybe they didn't get it?

I didn't have that boss run away nearly as often. Like once or twice max.

Man I was looking forward to this game but the boss chasing really turned me off.

Man, I played this in the early access, and I don't remember this boss running immediately on me more than once or twice. Did they make them run away faster? This looked like no fun at all.

Do they not realize that you can radio in for health and also teleport around the map?

Am I a lunatic for pondering a PS4 purchase for this game, even though I can just grab it on Steam? I think I am.

Why do I get the feeling that Brad is doing this wrong? Seems to me it would be better to throw the shockbombs in the open cockpit

I think there are a couple of good reasons to buy a PS4-- and I'm really enjoying mine-- but that sounds crazy to me ;) I also don't have a PC decent enough to play most modern games, so if you I'd say just grab it on Steam.

Yeah, that boss running away mechanic looks like it suuuuuuucks. Since I play basically no games multiplayer, I think I'm going to pass on this one.

The whole boss fight system breaks this game for me and it also seems kinda slow paced (I wish everything would move a little quicker)...great art style though.

This just makes me want to play Metal Slug. This is so slow and leaden and dull.

He keeps leaving the boss zone which causes the boss to move to another area.

@caskstrength: If you're on PS4, hold L1 and then down to select the radio and then use up and down to select health drop, teleport, shock bomb, or C4.

Another thing you can do is in the options you can choose to make either the d-pad or the left stick the item select (so basically if you use the d-pad for movement like me you can then use the left stick to change between your gun, radio, C4, etc). This can make switching to heal in the middle of a fight much easier.

I love Paul Robertson's art but this seems super boring and tedious, like they just threw in a bunch of crafting and grinding to pad out the length. It's the same problem I have with Assassin's Creed and a lot of modern sandbox games, having more systems doesn't automatically make your game better.

@thevgamer: I like Paul Robertson's art but your idea sounds pretty neat. Just stack up art everywhere.

Though I get the fatigue on pixel art in general.

Gameplay has zero similarity to Metal Slug. Not saying it's necessarily a bad thing, but has Bradster actually played MS?

EDIT: oh yeah, Metal Slug was all about looking at the map every five seconds and also maybe shooting a guy every couple of screens.

music on this seems pretty awesome

I think it might be time to change the term "quick look" to "Look".

Well that boss fight sure made this game seem like garbage.

Looks like a little too much Monster Hunter, not enough Contra. As a personal thing, fleeing bosses, or bosses you have to chase from location to location is one of the most annoying things you can do to me. I just want to fight. I just want to fight.

However the customization stuff looks pretty great.

This was a really poor showing for this game. A shame, because it's actually quite fun.

@three0nefive: The core gameplay is fun but it gets super grindy if you want all the gunparts. I burned out some time in earlyacess, trying to get a rare mat from a boss that didn't drop it after 15 or so tries.

@meauntienora: Same here. I he left maybe like twice at most. I think maybe the issue Brad is having is his gun is super weak because of its clip size, so he's just not putting enough damage in? I dunno. I know I didn't have the same problem as Brad is having here at all.

I think he might be wasting a bit too much time getting between the zones he spawns at too.

Alright yeah, there's something wrong. Been a while since I played the PC version (at least a couple of updates), but the boss never split on me as quickly as it was here.

The only times he ever got to run away from me were the first couple of times I fought him, since I wasn't as familiar with his pattern. After that, I killed him first try every time.

I hope they actually know how to play it this time.

Doesn't seem to be the case most of the time. Also that would seem like a somewhat shitty system

This is a good time when you play with a group. Don't let the poor showing of the QL dissuade you. Gun and knife crafting have some silly and fun things in there.

Also, from playing in early access, I've never come across bosses running as much as Brad experienced.

I really had a ton of fun with this game playing it in early access. But so much of the game is playing around with weapon crafting and learning level pathing. Neither of which is very easy to showcase in a quick look.

But it's fun! Seriously!

Only if everyone are paying customers.

I honestly don't understand why people like you even bother playing games.

Three retro-style pixel graphics quick looks in one day is too many.

Played a ton in early access, but I'm not sure I'm in the mood to return to it. They added more features, but haven't done anything to fix any of the design choices that I hated.

1. Chasing the boss down. I can see they were going for a game of cat n' mouse, but in practice it's not fun, at all. Maybe if I could do something to keep him from escaping, or if each escape signaled a new phase or transformation. But no, it's just random.

2. It's so freakin' grindy. The missions are so samey and yet it's so stingy with progression and rewards. If I was able to go through the rankings quickly, then the loot and leveling could keep me entertained. As it is, it's so stingy.

Looks super dumb. Give me Metal Slug any day over this grindfest.

I played this game during early access on the PC and I wanted to say that yeah, there are some similarities to MH in the boss fights, but this game does a few things that are real dumb.

• Bosses don't stick around very long. Only at very low health will monsters in MH run anywhere nearly this frequently.
• The zones are nowhere near as convoluted, even if a monster used a monster-only shortcut it's rarely more than 30-45 seconds to catch up.
• There are very rarely trash mobs and you never have to wade through them like this.

Lastly, and I want to say in advance that this isn't a 'Brad sucks at video games' crack, but I really, really dislike the assault rifles in general and Brad is using almost the default gun (which is kinda shit). When I did this mission I went in with an acidic two-shot doom cannon. I tore that robot apart in maybe 10 shots total because my shots were hitting for ~1500 damage.

yeah, its super unclear how to beat that boss. you have to get it down to low health where its flashing red, then throw a shock bomb into the open cockpit. its a shame they didn't explain that better.

If you step over those laser to designate the boss fight zone the boss will leave.

Moving bosses.... good choice game maker.

When I learned that it borrowed a lot from MH I was excited to play it. After trying it out, it's just super boring. Exploring the map is a huge fucking pain in the ass compared to MH too.