Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Apr 21, 2015

  I like the game but it is kind of a mixed bag. The story was way better then i expected from a game like this and even if you don’t like it the story sequences are easy to skip. The sprite based graphics are very easy on the eye and the animations look right. Gameplay wise it may look like metal slug but it reminds me more of the slow and precise nature of the old mega man games. You can’t take a lot of damage so its all about positioning yourself to easily take out enemies. The locomotion of your character depends on the weight of your equipment, particularly your gun. The weapon system works like this, when you kill enemies they drop items, you use these items to craft gun parts and assemble these into guns. If you assemble enough parts with the same stats you can use special ammo, like shots that bounces all over the place or homing missiles. All parts fit together, i.e. you can combine a shotgun stock with a sniper receiver. Now all guns you build are not guaranteed to work well, most probably won’t, but finding one that does is very rewarding and easily my favorite part of the game. The level design is in general pretty decent. You progress in the game by doing missions, but a lot of missions use the same map. This would not be a problem since there are several kinds of missions and those on the same map are generally different, but crafting gun parts require farming. This can make the repeating levels quite tedious. (mitigate; proficiency: medicine, slot 1: hoarder, slot 2: lucky penny ) The bosses in the game inhabit specific places on the map and maps generally have multiple of those. Once you find a boss the mechanics of the boss battle itself is quite good. Easily the worst design decision in the entire game is that unless you are really fast some bosses disappear mid boss battle and appear at some other spot. If you are to slow finding this spot they might teleport again just as you get there. This can lead to some frustration. (mitigate; slot 1:computer, consumable: shock bombs) The question is whether or not to recommend this game depends on if you like mega man style platforming, farming for materials, experimenting with crafting and can work around a few annoying design decisions. If unsure wait for a sale.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 7, 2018

  I understand why some people don't love this game. You see these lovingingly late-90's pixel-esque (well, I mean, they're definitely pixels, but you get it) graphics, you think Metal Slug! RUN N' GUN BABY But yeah. This isn't Metal Slug. It's Monster Hunter, but instead of flashy dragons and stuff, you're shooting dudes and the occasional bosses. That being said: This game is fun as hell. But it's not for everyone. I will say this: The grapics are amazing, the sound design is amazing. I (personally) think the combat is fun- but it is slow and it does take time to learn. Also, you really need to understand- this is a game of patience and learning. Sometimes, these missions take over 15 or 20 minutes, and you need to accept that sometimes you'll have to learn that you're going to fail. Honestly, give this game a shot. Look up some guides, figure out your play style- the first time you take down one of the bosses while rolling around and shooting your custom gun, I GUARANTEE you'll feel some satisfaction. Also, the writing is pretty darn good.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 15, 2014

  Massively recommended for fans of Mega Man and other such games from the 1980s and 1990s. Decently-paced, however at the same time could do with less completely unguided fetch quests before it is released properly (at time of writing this was purchased on Steam Early Access). As for the Metal Slug vibe a lot of people got from this game, I personally do not see it, given that Metal Slug games are (for the most part) linear experiences, however Mercenary Kings allows the player to explore the map, not to mention Metal Slug's one hit and you're dead gameplay is not present in Mercenary Kings.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 24, 2014

  When I heard the description "[i]Metal Slug[/i] mixed with [i]Monster Hunter[/i] with [i]Scott Pilgrim vs The World[/i] graphical art style", and the screenshots that complimented it, I bought this immediately. That's my like dream game! How could you go wrong? Well, upon playing the first few missions, I realized it was *nothing* like Metal Slug. Unlike actual run n gun games, where combat is hectic and explosive, enemies are strategically placed and tend to be bullet sponges. Even the boss battles manage to be boring. This, in combination with the sluggish character movement, makes the game-play very slow paced at times. But hey, "two dimensional Monster Hunter with guns" ain't that bad of a description, so does that aspect of the game redeem it? No. The main problem of the game is that [b]you can only use one gun for the entire mission.[/b] This little factor completely changes my opinion of the game; missions can take from ten to thirty minutes to be completed, maps are repeated constantly with different objectives, and enemies are predictable in style. I wouldn't mind these faults, but with only one gun, your customization and freedom can never be unleashed to use different play styles for each long section and thus it gets boring very quickly. You can equip different kind of grenades and melee weapons, but they are far from sustainable to make a difference. It's such a shame, because the game has got a lot going for it. The art style is beautiful, and the smooth animations and characterization add a charm to the game. The music is also very well made, although voice acting is cringeworthy. The crafting system is incredible, in every mission you can pick up materials such as iron or animal skins which can be used to craft weapon upgrades and items, and the gun customization is a great concept that allows you to use revolvers which fire grenades and other ridiculous variables, but it's overall executed poorly since only one damn gun can be used at a time. The main saving grace is the local co-op multiplayer, which is much more fun than playing it alone, but even that can get boring at times. Overall, it's a very pretty game, and can be a worth a try, but overall I can't recommend it. It's such a damn shame, because it has so much going for it, and one of the few indie games I bought at full price (£9) because of its concept, but once you get over the pretty icing, there's not much left of the cake.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 14, 2014

  Like Metal Slug? Like gun customization? Like stabbing people with a fish? I do.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 22, 2017

  Sadly can't recommend this game: Crafting feels cool at first but gets extremely boring and tiring over time. Scraping together rare crafting materials isn't fun, if you have to grind through the same uninspired maps over and over again. Boss fights are especially frustrating, since the boss will likely walk off in the middle of the fight - leaving you no choice but to walk to the other side of the map, just to see him walk off again, while your time limit runs out...
• gamedeal user

  May 29, 2014

  I really want to love this game. I'm a fan of Paul Robertson, action rpgs, and weapon customization. But the game makes it so hard. The very core design of the missions is just dull. Over and over you are given a timer to search a giant maze like map for a randomly placed item or enemy. Because the maps are large, even if you luck out by heading in the right direction it's still going to take you 5 minutes. If you get unlucky it'll take 15 minutes easily, and if you run out of time or die you have to start over. It's like they greatly overestimated how much people enjoyed this, because constant navigation is built into things that don't make sense at all. You spend 10 minutes searching the random boss spawn points to find which one is active, only for the boss to move to another part of the map mid way through the fight. Now you spend another 2-5 minutes finding the new location, rinse and repeat, and hope you don't run out of time. The game actually expects you to wander through each map a hundred times at 10-20 minutes apiece. The weapons you construct have no creativity to them and are just not fun to use. Sure they are creative art-wise, where you can create a toilet gun, but the moment you try to create a shotgun with more than 2 ammo the game cripples the damage so much as to make it useless. The real potentials for creativity (piercing shotgun?) are completely unavailable, because you are forced to create a 100% sniper rifle to select piercing ammo. So you are stuck with a few preset weapon paths, creating incrementally damage increasing versions of the same weapon. The balance of it works against the mission design, because when you are searching aimlessly through a map of endlessly spawning enemies, making it take 3 seconds to dispatch each enemy (from either low damage ouputs or excessive reload times), it just makes the thing a chore. It's highly unlikely that this will be patched either, the devs seem hung up on this idea of a grinding time sink somehow being fun, as similar things were in scott pilgrim too.
• gamedeal user

  May 12, 2014

  I had high hopes when I bought Merc Kings, I was expecting a Metal Slug/2D platformer. It is very far from that. The concept that drives most of this game is fetching objects/seek and destroy targets. While it doesn't sound bad, the problem is that it uses the same areas while examining every square inch for anything that might get overlooked. The art style and music is great, but the idea of replaying the same areas over and over again for minor accomplishments got old very quick. I enjoy games where grinding is a requirement, but the incentive to continue with Merc Kings seems too far away with no variety in between.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 9, 2013

  KICKSTARTER GAME This is a kickstarter game and at the time of writing is not completely finished ( although there is a lot of content already present). It has a very metal slug esque feel in terms of both graphics and gunplay. It does have a very weird control system which takes some getting used to and I would reccomend a controler until they fix the keyboard layout or at least support a mouse. This game takes the metal slug formula of platforming, crazy bosses and twitchy gunplay and adds customizing guns, collecting items, and quests (which are either fetch quests or go here- kill this quests) to the mix. While I would normally reccomend buying this game on sale, there are two reasons I will instead reccomend full price: 1) They consistantly add more content as time goes on. This of course lends itself to waitin until the game is actually complete before purchasing but 2) Being a kickstarter, these guys are a small indie (indy? ) studio and as such would benifit more directly for a full price purchase as a larger portion of the sale would actually go to those who directly made the game VERDICT: BUY IT IF YOU LIKE RPG IN YOUR METAL SLUG. BUY FULL PRICE IF YOU LIKE INDIE GAME STUDIOS. GOOD ENTERTAINMENT VALUE FOR THE PRICE AND MORE CONTENT IS CONSTANTLY ADDED.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 17, 2018

  Before I start, I'd like to address a few things that the other reviewers have cited as issues: - You can get the kickstarter achievement in-game without spending any irl cash - You can move faster by holstering your gun and switching to your knife / transmitter / etc - You can reach higher places by calling a supply drop and jumping on the box - You can jump slightly farther by shooting downwards during a jump and gliding on the recoil - You have a (now) comprehensive map available by pressing the submenu button - You can deflect bullets with your knife attacks - Standing in an infirmary will heal you over time - You can look around with the right stick to check for enemies or hazards, and take potshots Anyway. Mercenary Kings a fantastic game. I had difficulty with it on a variety of fronts before the reloaded patch, and barely played it at all due to all the trouble I had meeting objectives and understanding how things worked, but now it's just great and I've been binging on it daily. All I can really say to anyone wanting to buy the game is READ UP ON IT BEFORE YOU DIVE IN. It has a bunch of secrets and hidden mechanics, and it's quite difficult to make sense of it all without experimentation. There's a lot of depth in the weapon customisation, a lot of really interesting shit you don't see and have no way of knowing exists in the early game till you progress - like all the enemy variation, unique bosses and interactions, hilarious codec sequences and MUCH improved level design after the first 2 areas, and a whole bunch of unlocks via missions that aren't clearly labeled. The big problem Mercenary Kings seems to have is that it does very little to keep your attention at the start, forcing you to commit your time out of pure hope and curiosity where you otherwise wouldn't want to, just to see the game open up later. Frankly MK is terrible to begin with, and the first area is extremely boring. Your gun is weak, your movement and aiming seemingly unwieldy until you learn all the ways you can manipulate it, particularly distinctive is the lack of diagonal aiming which makes gameplay seem incredibly stiff at first, your arsenal is very limited and gated behind an imposing grind for materials, and the starting enemies, particularly the snipers, are bullet sponges that just aren't fun to kill. Everything gets better the more you play, with weapon choices ballooning out until you can barely keep track of all the components and ammo types, and enemies becoming very fun to mess around with and kill when you start meeting their powered up forms, but you really need to tough out the early game if you want to see everything improve. Otherwise, presentation and UI is endearingly pesudo-retro, the art is gloriously distinctive and amazing to behold, the animations are equally incredible, the environments are colourful and detailed but a victim of the prefab copy pasting level design workflow that plagues indie games right now, which makes all the levels feel randomly generated despite being "handcrafted", the music is average at best, in that you'll want to mute the first area's BGM within an hour of starting, and it doesn't get better until well beyond 2/3rds of the way into the game, and while the bosses have interesting mechanics and they get downright crazy towards the end, it does get boring waiting for some of them to make themselves vulnerable. The levels are a particular sticking point for me, as while they do absolutely improve the further into the game you get and offer a plethora of secrets to discover, the mid to latter ones also providing genuinely difficult platforming challenges compounded by some devilish enemy placement to throw you off your game, I found myself constantly checking the map due to how similar everything always looked, even when I'd played the same level 10 times in a row. I also found myself wondering if a visual representation of the level you're visiting in any particular mission might have been better than a simple name mentioned on the selection screen. I often glossed over it while I was hammering A to get through the menus, and found myself surprised when I spawned in as to what level I'd entered and where. The story is great. It's simple and filled with little puns, lampshades and double entendres, never taking itself particularly seriously. All of the characters have unique personalities and it was a joy to speak to them at base camp, and watch them interact via the post-mission codec whenever the option arose. Personally, finding out what they had to say with regards to the missions I'd undertaken and seeing where the plot would go was a huge driving force behind my progress through the game, and it was sorely missed in the beginning when I found myself grinding for materials to swap out my peashooter of a starting weapon. I'm not even close to being done with MK, but the characters and their interactions are definitely a big part of why I keep playing, and it really does make me wonder why so many indie games omit story and characters when they can be put to such excellent use in shaping the world around them. I can't think of a good way to summarise this so... Overall great game. Buy it. Has its flaws but most of them vanish after a few hours of play, and the rest, like the cardinal (lol) sin of no diagonal aiming in a run-and-gun, you tend to get over pretty quickly. I can only imagine how fantastic MK would be on the Switch with its quickfire mission-based structure, but it still works very well on PC. Empress is bae. 7.8/10 not enough jiggle.