Mercenary Kings - Available on Steam NOW [early access]- planned for Ouya, PS4.

So I spent $15 and downloaded Mercenary Kings on Steam.

Just some quick impressions: I like what I see so far.

The game has an interesting structure. You start at a Hub stage where you can talk to a bunch of NPCs and do a lot of things that I don't what they are yet (like weapon crafting, etc)

Right now I have a list of "Missions" available for me to go on. The mission's yield rewards like cash and other item/upgrades.

So far the both missions I've done have been timed. They both took place on the "Jungle" level. On both missions the layout and enemy placement was exactly the same. The level was not linear. There are many branching paths I could take and I still haven't explored the whole thing.

Anyway, first mission I had 5 minutes to rescue a hostage (Metal Slug style.) I had no idea where the hostage was, so I just ran as far as I could to the right blowing the shit out of various enemies until I found a hostage at what looked to be the end of the level stage (at least in so far that I couldn't travel to the right anymore.)

Second mission I had a 15min time limit to kill 8 of a specific enemy type. I knew where some were based on my previous mission but had to seek out more.

Controls seem pretty tight so far, I'm using a Saturn style USB pad. I can not change the button layout though in this Early Access version. It's driving me crazy as the setup is the exact opposite of how I'd want it.

Game looks to support the 360 pad with a decent button layout.

In this game you can:

Jump
Shoot
Roll
Knife

All those are assigned to different buttons. For now my Jump is A, Roll B, Shoot C, and Knife X. I desperately need to set this to a more traditional metal slug setup. (A shoot, B Jump, C roll - Knife on Z works well.)

You can also access a quick inventory to switch weapons/items. You have a lifebar, can take multiple hits, and there are healing items. When you equip an items like a grenade or first aid kit it takes place of your gun.

When you die in a level you respawn at some kind of first aid station, but each time you respawn the reward you get for completing the level gets weaker.

So far I only have a pistol. An interesting feature is that you have to reload your guns. It looks to have some kind of Gears of War type reloading system but I haven't figured it out yet.

Anyway, controls are still hampering me. I keeping rolling when I meant to jump

I hope that there are perhaps some actual set piece levels or at least boss fights instead of just fetch/assassination quests on the same levels over and over again.

Like I said initial impressions and wanted to throw up this thread to so who else is playing as I know there was some interest in the Steam Summer Sale thread.

Game also features 4 player multiplayer and has a way to search for people to play with.

Graphically you can see this looks like a run 'n gun scott pilgrim. Thank Crom this has online multi on day 1.

Lagduf said:

Graphically you can see this looks like a run 'n gun scott pilgrim.

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ya! the pixel artist/animator is Paul Robertson.... so of course (scott pilgram, fez, etc)

I have yet to download this, although I got the free code from kickstarter. need to spend some time with it soon. Thanks for the nice writeup!

Writeup was hasty and I really need to sit down and spend an hour or two with the game. I think I can replay the missions I already did to get higher scores. I haven't even checked out the achievements yet.

Hoping more people download this so we can explore it together!

Played a little more. A mission where I had to find multiple POWs and one where I had to rendezvous with some person. Failed both because I didn't accomplish the objective before the time ran out.

I'm not sure how the map works yet and if it reveals where these people are.

I did upgrade my gun, which was cool. I wonder if item drops are random or if you'll have to farm certain enemies to get certain items. Looks like there is quite a lot of upgrading of weapons to do, different ammo types, and I think you can even get some skills to tweak your character's play style.

Looking forward to actually getting somewhere in this game.

Looks dope hope it shows up on PSN, really digging all the references. Plus it looks like a solid game not just a nostalgia grab.

Very reminiscent of Metal Slug! Looks brilliant.

Looks pretty badass. Too bad there's no XBLA release.

I figured out the reload, it's actually keyed to my Saturn Gamepad on the Z button. It works exactly like in Gears of War complete with a little damage boost.

One thing to note: The enemies you've killed (at least the ones I've encountered so far) respawn after you've moved offscreen from where they were. I don't think that's always the case, actualy, but for the real low level grunts it was for sure. So there is lots of fighting always to be had.

So far I've encountered a few different enemy types and they each have something unique about them, whether it's their attack pattern or the way you have to kill them.

So far the areas I've played on have a 1980s action flick vibe to them. Lots of Jungle, POW camps, uniforms used by Junta dictatorships, etc.

I'll spend some more time with this game soon.

Looks awesome.

I'll be buying this on PS4.

This looks really cool. It takes a lot to get me to consider buying a DL-only title, but I'd go for this one when the PS4 hits.

So if the timer runs out, it's a game over instead of just taking away one of your lives?

SNKorSWM said:

So if the timer runs out, it's a game over instead of just taking away one of your lives?

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You fail the mission if you do not meet the time limit for that mission.

Additionally you fail the mission if you run out lives.

Stock amount of lives appears to be 3.

If you fail a mission you simply return to the hub level where you can retry the mission or go on a different mission.

I've started getting enough items to build new guns and rescued an NPC on a mission who will let me build new Knives! Very cool.

I also fought what could properly be called a mini-boss.

It was interesting in that I had to find where he was at on the level. I fought him once, and I guess got him halfway down on his health (no life bar) and he retreated in to a cave in the background. I then had to go to where another background cave opening was on the map and he reappeared and I fought him again there and defeated him.

The map did show a giant skull and crossbones on it to indicate both of his probable locations. The map actually is really useful, I just can't make use of it yet because I'm not using a 360-type pad and the options to adjust controls aren't enabled on the Early Access version of the game.

Fight was interesting. Guy had a couple different attacks, pattern was easily learnable.

Main interesting point of the fights: When I fought him, the area he was in became somewhat cordoned off. A shield type walls appeared on the left, right, and top sides of the boss. This created a decently largish boxy area area the mini-boss which served to delineate where I was to fight him in. You could move in and out of this shielded area freely, but you couldn't shoot in to the shielded area from outside OR shoot out of it from the inside. The boss had melee attacks only, and was able to attack outside of the shielded area. He did not, however, move outside of that area. Interestingly once inside the shielded area you could shoot at the shield and your shots would bounce off at a 45 degree angle. I wonder if making such bank type spots will play in to damaging bosses later? The boss had two weak spots and those were the only places he could take damage.

I'll be interested to see if additional boss encounters have this type of setup, to force you to get in close - since the game is quasi-open.

I've played it for about half an hour and these are my thoughts:

A lot of the design decisions in this game are super stupid.

The combination of the slow pace, reloading, infinite respawns, mission timer, and no mission markers stack pretty much everything against you.

Can't pause in single player, which is a problem with a mission timer. You can't abandon missions either, so you have to quit out of the game or die.

Modifying weapons isn't always super clear.

Reloading sucks. A full magazine will pretty much handle anything that would cause you to be in danger. So it's just lots of stopping and reloading.

The pacing is a lot more like early Mega Mans, if that. It's super slow. Nothing like Metal Slug.

My biggest problem with the game is the jumping. Every time you jump you stop moving, squat down, and spring up. This causes the screen to stop scrolling, if you were walking, and gives the game a very jerky feel. It makes it feel like there's frameskipping or just a real bad framerate, or tons of input lag. This is a deliberate design choice, and it's really dumb.


Coming off Rogue Legacy, Mercenary Kings feels like amateur hour.

not sonic said:

I've played it for about half an hour and these are my thoughts:

A lot of the design decisions in this game are super stupid.

The combination of the slow pace, reloading, infinite respawns, mission timer, and no mission markers stack pretty much everything against you.

Can't pause in single player, which is a problem with a mission timer. You can't abandon missions either, so you have to quit out of the game or die.

Modifying weapons isn't always super clear.

Reloading sucks. A full magazine will pretty much handle anything that would cause you to be in danger. So it's just lots of stopping and reloading.

The pacing is a lot more like early Mega Mans, if that. It's super slow. Nothing like Metal Slug.

My biggest problem with the game is the jumping. Every time you jump you stop moving, squat down, and spring up. This causes the screen to stop scrolling, if you were walking, and gives the game a very jerky feel. It makes it feel like there's frameskipping or just a real bad framerate, or tons of input lag. This is a deliberate design choice, and it's really dumb.


Coming off Rogue Legacy, Mercenary Kings feels like amateur hour.

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Depending on the mission there is a destination marker on the mini map. Most (aside from gather missions), have this. Is that what you were referring to?

You can quit a mission at any time by going to the mission info menu (you can get there from a menu when you hit select I t hink). It will tell you to hit 'Y' (on xbox controller) to quit the mission. You'll fly back to base.

Also, you probably already know, but you can hit the reload button again when it's in the green zone to reload quicker.

cannonball said:

Depending on the mission there is a destination marker on the mini map. Most (aside from gather missions), have this. Is that what you were referring to?

You can quit a mission at any time by going to the mission info menu and hitting 'Y' (on xbox controller). You'll fly back to base.

Also, you probably already know, but you can hit the reload button again when it's in the green zone to reload quicker.

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Yeah I didn't catch the abandon mission.

I know some missions have markers, but others where you have to find a boss spawn, find x hostages, or gather x things really don't give you the option to stand still. I get interrupted a lot (dogs, roommates) and it just suuuucks not being able to pause. It's basically an mmo.

I know about the active reload. I never liked it in Gears either, but the overall reload times seemed faster, there was no mission timer, and you were hiding behind cover 9 times out of 10 already anyway. Maybe it gets better with different guns but upwards of 1 second reload times are crazy.

different weapon combinations take care of reload time and how much ammo you have per clip..... I've been playing this a lot and it's pretty rewarding so far.. especially the multiplayer aspect.

Not Sonic is correct - this is not Metal Slug clone.

It's got elements of Run 'n Gun of course, but with lots of platforming, exploration, and collecting. It's an interesting merging of a few genres in to something somewhat unique.

I don't notice the jumping issue Not Sonic is having.

Not being able to pause the game is indeed horse shit.

I only have one more recruit mission left ( I think - it's The Snitch.) Does anyone know how to actually use the Shock Bomb? Dude I need to hit the driver of the steel soldier when the steel soldier is weakened (and flashing) or do I just defeat him and then throw the bomb at his remains or what?

Lagduf said:

Not Sonic is correct - this is not Metal Slug clone.

It's got elements of Run 'n Gun of course, but with lots of platforming, exploration, and collecting. It's an interesting merging of a few genres in to something somewhat unique.

I don't notice the jumping issue Not Sonic is having.

Not being able to pause the game is indeed horse shit.

I only have one more recruit mission left ( I think - it's The Snitch.) Does anyone know how to actually use the Shock Bomb? Dude I need to hit the driver of the steel soldier when the steel soldier is weakened (and flashing) or do I just defeat him and then throw the bomb at his remains or what?

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Shoot him until he is flashing... then wait for one of his attacks (the easiest is the sword chop) and throw the shock bomb at him. If you kill him it will automatically be mission failed...

Adderall said:

Shoot him until he is flashing... then wait for one of his attacks (the easiest is the sword chop) and throw the shock bomb at him. If you kill him it will automatically be mission failed...

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So it has to explode on the actual driver of the mech? That's what I figured. Thanks.

Lagduf said:

So it has to explode on the actual driver of the mech? That's what I figured. Thanks.

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Yeah the driver. This had me puzzled at first too and I had to do the mission 3 times haha.

Once you get past the recruit stage it really opens up a lot more weapons.

Trombone is hilarious.

the toilet makes farting shot sounds and flushing reload.

I'm in the 3rd tier of missions/weapons now.... getting harder to collect what I need to build stuff

oooooook

so, I have 1 mission left to beat and I'm done.

a few hints -

* There's some stage later in the game that is super quick and gives you 1500 each time. I ended up beating it 3 or 4 times in a row when I was poor and needed funds for new weapons. I think it's called Alpha Zone or something.

* for the Jungle Heist - equip hoarder to allow the gun enemy to drop the quality aluminum you're collecting.

* one of the stages has an almost impossible jump. call in a care package and then use that as a springboard to make the jump... works pretty good.