Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D

A behemoth of a masked man covered in spikes and nails paces slowly towards you hefting a giant axe. From behind you come three men brandishing knives and axes. You are surrounded, your ammo is dwindling, and time is ticking away. This is a pretty typical situation in Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, the latest in the Resident Evil series from Capcom.

The Mercenaries is inspired by the similarly titled mini-game in Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5, and the game takes a lot of cues from the console titles. Not only is the same action-packed combat style brought over to the 3DS, but a lot of familiar faces and locations from many of the Resident Evil titles make an appearance. The transition from home console to hand-held is smoother than one might expect, and The Mercenaries 3D looks great on the 3DS and plays smoothly, but is there enough content to keep gamers playing?

On A Mission

The Mercenaries is broken up into subsections of different missions, with different mission representing levels of increasing difficulty. There are six different mission levels, 1 – 5, and level EX, which is unlocked by completing all the other missions. In total there are 30 different missions, with somewhere between three to eight missions in each mission level. There are eight different stages for these missions, and if you have played Resident Evil 4 or Resident Evil 5, most should be recognizable. The reason they are so recognizable is because these stages are replicas of different levels from previous Resident Evil games, which is a nice homage, but adds little to originality.

Missions are slightly varied, but they either boil down to ‘kill all the enemies within a certain time limit’ or ‘stay alive for a certain time limit.’ Most missions end up going in the same overall direction, where players run around trying to find items that give them extra time, or kill parasite infected humans and other monsters in order to not be slaughtered horribly. The main variety in missions is found in the monsters you fight and the specific locations in which you find yourself; the mission objectives themselves are rarely unique.

Meet the Mercenaries

Rebecca Chambers waves hello to the local cultists.

The Mercenaries has a large and robust list of different playable characters – if eight characters counts as a large and robust list. Normally spoilers are a concern when listing unlockable characters, but considering the final character you unlock, Albert Wesker, is on the back of the box fighting side-by-side with Jill Valentine, it doesn't look like there is much left to hide. The playable characters you can unlock include Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Rebecca Chambers, Claire Redfield, HUNK, Barry Burton, Jack Krauser, and Albert Wesker. They managed to bring a few characters back from the dead for The Mercenaries, but Leon Kennedy was apparently still too busy to join his friends, which was probably a good call.

For those concerned about eight characters not being enough variety, be concerned no more, for the game has costume changes for each of the characters. By 'Costume Change,' they really mean that each character as an extra outfit, some more ridiculous than others. This means that there are 16 total different character options and costumes to play with. It still remains a question as to why anyone would not want to play as Barry Burton in his 'Patriotic' costume, which has him half-naked and covered in a Mad Max-meets-the-American flag style of protective football pad armor.

Each character and costume has its own requirement for being unlocked. Usually, to unlock just the characters minus their Halloween costume, a player just needs to earn a B rank on a particular level. To get the extra costume for each character, the challenges are usually a bit harder. For some costumes players will have to unlock 'X' number of medals, score S rank or better on a particular level, or in the case of Rebecca's nurse outfit, score an S rank or better on all of the levels.

Rack 'Em Up - High Score Is King

The decision to choose kneepads over a riot shield was a poor one.

When Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D boils down to its simplest form, it shows its roots as an arcade shooter more than anything else. As an arcade shooter, score means everything, and in The Mercenaries that is no different. Getting a SS rank is always the ultimate goal, and that is accomplished by killing enemies efficiently and in a timely manner. In order to keep the clock ticking, items are hidden all around the levels that extend the time, and more time left on the clock generally means more points.

You get extra points for getting combos, where an 'x' long combo is as simple as killing 'x' number of enemies in a row. Players only have so long to kill another enemy to extend their combo, and if they wait too long the combo will fade away. This means that in order to really rack up the points, players will need to make sure they have a constant stream of enemies around for them to kill; while it may be possible to take out all foes at once, it may not be the wisest move.

Fighting the Undead is More Fun With a Friend

Family time is important in the Redfield household.

The Mercenaries offers both local co-op and the option to find a random partner over the greater Internet. Local co-op is nice, but the ability to play over the Internet is a great addition for players without many local friends who own a 3DS. The gameplay does not change much if you add a friend – instead of one person against a horde of monsters, it is now two people against a slightly larger horde of monsters. That said, adding another person almost always increases the fun, as it is just more interesting to play when you have someone to watch your back while you watch theirs.

The online mode is not flawless. There are a lot of connectivity issues, so players will need to be persistent to finally get into a match. Most matches are able to run pretty smoothly, but occasionally there will be one with too much lag where unfriendly cohorts decide it would be a great idea to warp around all over the screen. As one can imagine, it makes it a lot harder to fight when the guy with the seven-foot axe magically warps behind you without you noticing, but hey, that’s what your partner is for.

Carry a Big Stick

Locals are confused as to why Krauser decided to go hunting in the middle of town.

Weapons come in packages in The Mercenaries. Each character has their own weapon 'package,' which contains between two and three pre-set weapons. Weapons range from knives to bows, handguns, shotguns, rifles, grenade launchers, and rocket launchers. Players can unlock different packages for different characters in-game by scoring high enough on enough stages, or by using the built in 3DS play coins to buy them. The weapon themselves are nothing out of the ordinary; they shoot satisfyingly and are effective at killing what needs to be killed, but if you've played Resident Evil 4 or Resident Evil 5, not much is new here.

While every character comes armed, they are also quite capable of delivering punishment in hand-to-hand combat. If a player manages to stun an enemy, they will have an opportunity to run up and perform a special melee attack, or in most cases, a special melee execution. Each character has a few different moves depending on the situation the enemy is in, but effectively they are just used as finishers on stunned enemies. On top of an usually violent and spectacular execution, players who kill enemies with melee attacks get extra time added on top of their timer, which gives them extra incentive to get up close and personal.

Never question the loyalty of an Iggy Pop fan.

In Resident Evil: The Mercenaries, most players will end up fighting a lot of humans infected with Las Plagas, and when they get farther into the game, they will fight slightly tougher humans infected with Las Plagas. For those who are unaware, Las Plagas is a parasitic organism that just so happens to infect every enemy fought in the game. Notable symptoms of Las Plagas include major mutations, increased violent behavior, increased strength and, in a few cases, constipation.

There are two major varieties of Las Plagas infected: the Majini from Resident Evil 5, and Los Illuminados cultists from Resident Evil 4 – chocolate and vanilla for short. Most of the fighting in the game will occur against these guys, and as a whole, they are slow, dumb, and inaccurate. Los Illuminados are apparently really good at making robes, since they can take a few more rounds than their Majini companions. The fighting against the masses of Las Plagas-infected regularly sized humans is usually broken up by mini-bosses, who are usually really big parasite-infected humans with equally gigantic but significantly less parasite-infected weapons. The mini-bosses are capable of bringing the hurt, and they seem to have significantly higher intelligence than the regular Joe infected humans, so players need to always keep a watchful eye out for the next one.

Take a Gander

Rebecca always attracts the weirdest fans.

In Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, the graphical quality is one of the high points of the game.

While it certainly does not look as good as Resident Evil 5 on the Playstation 3 or Xbox 360, The Mercenaries certainly shows gamers everything the 3DS is capable of, and it is pretty impressive. The character textures all look great, and their animations all come off smooth and realistic. Walls look wall-like, explosions look explosive; overall it is a rather impressive show of the force we can expect from 3DS games in the future.

The 3D mode for The Mercenaries looks good, and manages to work well in bringing the game into new dimensions while also not frying the brain within 15 minutes of playtime. This is something most 3DS games have not been capable of so far, and a genuinely good thing.  It might be the less colorful environments compared to other games, but the 3D feels subtler in The Mercenaries, and it works a little better because of that.

Cartridge Controversy

Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D will forever be known for its inability to delete save game files. For gamers this kills replay ability; if everything is already unlocked, there is not much left to aim for when you play the game, unless you're just a big fan of killing things without objectives. This created a bit of an Internet flurry, because if every game did this it would effectively destroy the market for pre-owned games. There are no signs that we are headed towards a future of permanent save files just yet, but for The Mercenaries this is a major demerit: replay ability is a good thing, but the lack of it is a solid negative.

Final Verdict: Close, But Not Quite

Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D is almost a really good game. The looks and artistic style of Resident Evil 4 and 5 are successfully transferred over to the 3DS. The gameplay of The Mercenaries is solid all around. Combat is fast, fun, and functional, and plenty of memorable characters stick their heads into the game, but something always feels off.

The biggest issue with The Mercenaries is that it aims to be a simple mini-game when it has the potential to be so much more. It suffers because there really is not much depth to The Mercenaries. While the game has plenty of memorable characters, they all come off as completely two-dimensional; all personality appears to have been sucked out of them from the transition of survival horror to arcade shooter. There is no real over-arching narrative, nor is there any actual flow between missions. The game suffers serious demerits for lack of any type of campaign or story at all – even the cheesiest arcade brawlers usually try to throw in some sort of story.

The Mercenaries may not live up to its full potential, but it’s a good first step for Resident Evil on the 3DS, and it builds a strong base for the next 3DS title in the series, Resident Evil Revelations.