ninja666 said:
I'm thinking of playing it, but I'm not entirely sure if that's a game for me. Will I like it if I loved the shit out of Mercenaries and Saints Row 2?
In a word: Yes.
What I'm expecting:
- action that's over the top, but still grounded in reality enough for it not to be cartoony,
I wouldn't call it cartoony but it's certainly full of action movie tropes, like being able to jump out a car window onto the roof, jump onto another car from that one, and then parachute off of it and parasail behind it with a grappling hook.
- lots and lots of fun and satisfying destruction, using a large assortment of weapons and armed vehicles,
There's plenty of this, lots of different weapon types and weapons, every city and even small town has various infrastructure like gas tankers, water towers, SAMs, etc. that can be destroyed through various means, as well as statues you can destroy, special enemy officers you can assassinate, and the like. It's very much like Mercenaries but without the air strikes and buildings themselves aren't destructible usually but it's still just as fun.
- lots of diverse stuff to do in the game world (side missions, assassinations, challenges etc.)
Yes, all of this, the world is HUGE, a lot is full of empty wilderness but even with that you have tons of cities, towns, fortresses, and landmarks to explore and cause destruction in. You can undertake missions to take over every single town in the game and expand a factions influence which unlocks weapons and vehicles. You also have to cause "Chaos" which is racked up through destroying enemy assets or undertaking side missions to unlock the main story missions, so it paces itself really well.
- humorous approach / not taking itself entirely seriously,
It never takes itself serious at any point, there is no high degree of emotional pull in the game, it's just a fun action romp through a sandbox. The humor in the story can be hit or miss but there's a lot of comedy just in the gameplay being able to pull off crazy stunts, you can also use your grappling hook to tether two objects together to create trip wires, hoist up enemies to a roof, or keep a vehicle from escaping.
- a badass, likeable protagonist
He's certainly a badass, and while he is likeable (He's kinda like Jean Claude Van Damme meets Antonio Banderas in terms of personality) he is easily forgettable, but the story isn't a very high point of the game anyway.
Will JC2 provide me with all of this, or should I look for a different game? I'm especially interested in how it compares to Mercenaries, since those two seem to be very similar.
It is VERY similar to Mercenaries, the only thing truly lacking I believe is the airstrikes from Mercenaries but the world size is much larger and it has a lot of content to make up for this fact. There's less of a "war-like" feeling to the place, as really until you show up nobody is invading or causing chaos on the island, it's just a locked down dictatorship. That being said there's still plenty of tanks and helicopters around to wreak havoc in.
If you get it on PC it's often on sale, I've seen it go as low as 3$ though it's certainly worth paying full price if you like open world action sandbox games.