After over 50 years of military tension, the aging President Choi Kim of North Korea began to embrace the "Sunshine Policy" of South Korea, reviving hopes of peaceful reunification, but the North Korean military became disgruntled with the turn of events, fearing a dramatic loss of their power.

Their leader, the brilliant and ruthless Choi Song, believed that his father, President Kim, was losing sight of "North Korea's true destiny".

Following this, the player character - either Chris Jacobs, Jennifer Mui, or Mattias Nilsson - is called in to hunt down Song and his men during the chaos.

[4] The announcement of the game came less than a week after the closure of Pandemic Studios by Electronic Arts as it had been in development there under the name Project Y.

The game was being developed by remaining Pandemic Studio staff members located at EA Los Angeles until the company was closed down in 2009.

[citation needed] A third game was cancelled when Pandemic Studios shut down, a showreel of early development footage was leaked in November 2010[5] The player is deposited in a vast "sandbox" environment, free to pick up missions, perform side tasks, collect items, or employ game mechanics in exhibition.

The completion of a mission rewards the mercenary with cash, increase in the faction's disposition, and tips regarding the Deck of 52, and it occasionally unlocks items, vehicles, or airstrikes.

In a suit, the number cards (from 2 to 10) are located throughout the in-game region, and they can be found by exploration or by receiving tips from friendly factions.

Each of the three face cards (Jack, Queen, King) is only made available by one of Chinese, South Korean, and Russian factions.

This is followed by three fighters appearing to shoot the player down with a large salvo of explosives that are impossible to completely dodge and tough to survive.

Mercenaries 2 expands upon the original's third-person shooter gameplay through contracts and side missions using a large variety of weapons, vehicles, air support, and airstrikes.

The game has approximately 170 types of vehicles; this includes monster trucks, bikes, heavy tanks, and helicopters.

There are three mercenary NPCs that may be recruited: Eva Navarro, a mechanic, who can supply custom vehicles and unlocks access to the grappling hook; Ewan Devlin, a helicopter pilot who has the ability to pick up valuable objects the player may encounter and also provide transport and extraction; and Misha Milanich, a fighter pilot, who can be hired as a source for airstrikes.

Prior to use, support items have to be purchased from faction outposts, rewarded from missions, or found in the field, for Ewan to extract.

The game includes numerous side missions that can be completed to increase the player's reputation with a faction and earn him or her extra cash.