Girlz 'N' Games #42: So close yet so far...

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I've been meaning to do this comic for quite a while. If memory serves me correctly, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, which was originally released for XBox, the PlayStation 2 & 3, and PC in August 2008, is already in video game bargain bins the world over.

Still though, having watched the bf devote hours and hours to this game, my sentiments remain the same.

Basically, Mercenaries 2 is a fun, free-roaming action game - pretty much an EA knock-off of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, except instead of negotiating the criminal underworld of a corrupt city, you play a mercenary in a corrupt country (Venezuela) who gets to harness all kinds of military hardware in your quest to make as much money as possible off the political chaos.

You can play as 1 of 3 characters: a punk viking with a lust for destruction, a buff former Delta Force operative and, of course, the sleek and ambitious Jennifer Mui, a Chinese-Englishwoman who used to work for MI6 until she discovered she could make much more money working solo. And you learn very quickly in the game that earnings are very important to Mui. Her catchphrase is "Time is money, and money is money."




Anyway, Mercs 2 has its flaws (dumb AI and lots of bugs), but the character of Jennifer Mui is definitely not one of them. It's a pity that apparently few people bothered with the game because honestly I think Jennifer Mui is one of the best female video game characters of all time... better even than Lara Croft.

Voiced by Jennifer Hale (who also voiced KOTOR's Bastila) Mui is smart, sexy, funny but at all times realistically feminine and realistically proportioned (and this in a game where you use a grappling hook to hijack helicopters in flight). Mui is not a cliched sexpot male fantasy... UNTIL, that is, the player unlocks one of her 4 alternate outfits: this eye- and cleavage-popping catsuit!


To be fair though, the makers of Mercs 2 clearly have a sense of humour. When Mui puts on the catsuit, she strikes a pose, rolls her eyes and with her trademark disinterest sighs, "God, I might as well be in a video game."

Comments

MC said…
Jennifer is who I played as in the first installment of that game. She was dressed a little more appropriately in that one.
10:38 PM
Pfangirl said…
Thanks for commenting, MC. Yeah, I did some research about the first game and it was interesting to note how the characters and general gameplay changed.
8:54 AM
Unknown said…
Hey I wish they would've made it to where you could store copters and boats and cars without having to buy them like if you bring one to the pmc you could do that on the ps2 version
7:27 PM
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