Ka-boom

Mercenaries is a PS2 game I have been playing lately. It is like Grand Theft Auto without the bad language and racist slang. You play the part of a soldier for hire and complete missions for various factions in war torn Korea. Allied, South Korean, Chinese and Russian Mafia are your potential employers and everyone's enemy is a North Korean dictatorship. The missions range from simple "point A to B" speed tests to "wipe the enemy out". They are very challenging but not impossible. As you complete a mission for one faction you probably have teed off another faction and need to mend your relationship with them. Cold hard cash tends to buy their forgiveness or you just have to kill some of their enemies.

A big part of the fun is that virtually every building can be reduced to ruble if you have enough fire power. And the variety of vehicles available makes for a lot of variation in how you approach a task. Everything from airport baggage carts to helicopter gunships are in the game for your destructive pleasure.

On the negative side, the AI isn't always very smart and occasionally your vehicle blows up for hitting a bump in the road. But this doesn't take away from the fun. Also there isn't an on-line component which could have been fun.

My advice is rent it and see if you like it.