With Mercenaries 2: World in Flames dropping into your favourite video games retail outlet in a little over three months we thought it an opportune time to revisit the controversy which surrounded this title back in June 2006. We also really wanted a reason to republish an article which first appeared in a slightly different guise in June 2006 over at PALGN. You might think of it as reheated left-overs, enviromentally correct recycling, or a slow news day. We call it Classic Incomplete Gamer.

All of those clamouring for greater realism in games will no doubt be pleased by the latest publicity surrounding Pandemic’s upcoming game, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. The game has Venezuelan politicians in a lather. According to a Reuters report, the video game provides a blueprint for violently overthrowing President Hugo Chavez. That’s right. You read correctly; a blueprint! Pandemic lead designers need to take a bow. Sure, IGN voted you runner-up in the PS3 Best Action category, E3 2006, but that pales into comparison to these accolades from the Venezuelan pollies.

Let’s just suspend our disbelief for a few minutes, and consider for a moment that the Venezuelan law makers are actually onto something. I’m as cynical as the next man. Venezuela is the world’s number 5 oil exporter. You’d have to expect that if the Commander in Chief of the world’s most powerful country did have a list of destinations he’d like to send his troops to, that Venezuela would at least make the top ten. And the fact that Pandemic were responsible for the video game Full Spectrum Warrior, and its sequel, Full Spectrum Warrior – Ten Hammers, both of which are based on a simulation commissioned by the US Army, obviously can’t help but increase the Venezuelans anxiety levels. But are we seriously to believe that Department of Defence top brass are using this game as a blueprint for an invasion of Venezuela? I’m willing to believe the US would invade another country without a plan. Hell, they may already have done so on a number of occasions, but frankly, I’m not entirely convinced that on present form, the US military could be bothered to actually complete the game 100% on the highest difficulty levels, before green lighting the mission.

Now if we are to believe it’s a ‘virtual’ blueprint of the coming invasion, then President Chavez need only pre-order his PS3 at downtown Caracas, play through the game, jot down some notes and set up his defensive strategies accordingly. Hell, he can even save himself the cost of the PS3 and game bundle (the not insignificant sum of 1,417,218.00 Venezuela Bolivares at current exchange rates), and simply download a guide from Gamefaqs.

The whole virtual blueprint argument loses a bit of steam however when you head over to Pandemic’s Mercenaries 2 game site and discover this next gen title is an open world action game. Pandemic boasts that one of its key features is that it’s “a massive, reactive, and completely unscripted game world!” Completely unscripted! That bit of news is bad, both for the US military planners who Venezuelan authorities may have feared would follow the single player mission to a victorious conclusion, and at the same time for President Chavez who can no longer simply rely on a game guide to repel the mercenaries.

Venezuelan politicians have suggested that the game could even help lay the psychological groundwork for an actual invasion. Sure, a recent AP-AOL video games poll conducted in April indicated that 4 out of 10 Americans are playing video games. By all accounts, that represents a much higher figure than the Bush administration’s current approval rating, but you’re never going to get this particular game into the hands of all 40% of Americans, so it’s not exactly going to be a terribly effective way of getting the word out to the US general populace.

Pandemic has, not surprisingly, been keeping low to the ground on this one, but lead designer, Scott Warner did have this to say on the Pandemic forums: “Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is a work of fictional entertainment. The story, characters and setting of the game should in no way be construed as negative towards the current Venezuelan government or the people of the country. One of the key reasons Venezuela was chosen for the setting of Mercenaries 2 is that is a fascinating and colourful country full of wonderful architecture, geography and culture…”

So there you have it. Pandemic just wanted a nice ’sandbox’ for all you mercs to play in. After all, there’s no reason war has to be ugly. There’s no conspiracy, no impending invasion. And if the US Department of Defence do pre-order a few PlayStation 3’s in the coming months, I’m sure they’re just for use in the Pentagon rec rooms.