Mercenaries in Popular Culture - Computer and Video Games

Computer and Video Games

The computer game series Jagged Alliance focuses on a team of mercenaries doing several missions in fictional underdeveloped nations. In 2005, LucasArts released a game for PlayStation 2 and Xbox titled Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, where the player controls one of three mercenaries in North Korea, and is able to accept mercenary contracts from the Allied Nations (a fictional version of the UN), South Korea, China, and the Russian Mafia. The game Army of Two and Army of Two: The 40th Day focuses on a pair of Mercenaries. More recently, the game Far Cry 2 allows the player to take control of one of 9 mercenaries in a fictional African conflict; this portrayal of mercenary ethos is thought to be particularly realistic. Borderlands is a first-person role-playing shooter from Gearbox Software that puts players into the shoes of one of four playable mercenary characters as they traverse the hostile planet of Pandora in search of a mysterious "Vault," said to contain priceless unknown riches. Also the game Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War puts the player in command of a group of mercenaries.

Mercenaries from the board game BattleTech were featured in several of the spin-off MechWarrior computer games.

Many video games feature mercenary characters or organizations, either in a modern setting such as Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, the Far Cry series, the Metal Gear Solid series; or in a fantasy/sci-fi setting, such as Mass Effect, MAG, Haze, Final Fantasy VII's Cloud Strife; or a full organization like SeeD from Final Fantasy VIII, the Star Fox team, or the mercenaries from S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, who form a separate faction in the game. The latter is presented mainly as independent groups of loosely affiliated private military forces, and although most are professional soldiers, they are ill-equipped and inexperienced with many of the "special" dangers posed in Chernobyl's contaminated zone. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Mercenaries can be completely routed and almost entirely driven from the region by the last installation of the series. The faction itself is unique because its members utilize small numbers of modern and sophisticated NATO-type weaponry in contrast with the outdated Warsaw Pact equipment still used by most other groups. Due to a general lack of fresh ammunition and supplies, however, the Mercenaries apparently found their own small arms increasingly difficult to maintain while attempting to support a permanent presence in the Zone. By the end of the storyline, many have simply started using the Soviet-era weapons utilized by rival factions.

In Red Faction, "mercs" are used by the corporation ULTOR to kill rioting miners before the Earth Defense Forces arrive. Players may also participate as mercenary pilots in Air Combat, Ace Combat 2 and Ace Combat Zero, and the game Strike Commander features a player-run mercenary air force. Armored Core features a mercenary organization consisting of pilots of huge Mecha. In the Total War series, battalions of mercenaries can be hired at inns (in Medieval: Total War 1) or in the field (in Rome: Total War). In various Fire Emblem games, the protagonists are mercenaries, usually working for the benefit of everyone as well as for personal gain. In the Treasures of Aht Urgan Expansion for Final Fantasy XI, players are recruited into the "Salaheem's Sentinals" mercenary company, for which they can take on various missions called "Assaults" for various rewards. This is likewise for Dante (Devil May Cry), the protagonist (antagonist of Devil May Cry 4) of Devil May Cry.

In a recent release, Age of Empires III and Age of Empires III: The War Chiefs allows a feature that mercenaries from foreign countries may be hired. In the Halo universe, the Kig-Yar (Jackal) species are employed as mercenaries and privateers and are commonly deployed as scouts, snipers, or special infantry. Blizzard Entertainment's award winning series Diablo II features several mercenaries for hire in each Act to fight for the player. The same applies to Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, Blizzard's expansion to their strategy game Warcraft III, where players can hire mercenary heroes for a slightly higher cost than regular heroes from a special building called the tavern, and as well in the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty campaign where you can hire mercenaries based on normal units with higher attributes in the cantina in the Hyperion. Numerous mercenary characters are found in the Resident Evil, groups that provide such services as mercenaries include the U.B.C.S. or characters like Hunk, Jack Krauser, etc. In the Xbox 360 game Chromehounds, a mercenary organization called Rafzakael guides the player throughout the story mode and the online mode. A highly known series regarding the government hiring mercenaries in order to fight a threat is the Soldier of Fortune (video game) games; it regards a Capitol Hill conspiracy about Specialized mercenaries hired by G8 and the United Nations.

In Splinter Cell: Conviction, Sam Fisher has several run ins with a notoriously ruthless private military company known as "Black Arrow". Although nominally based in Panama City, the corporation conducts business on the global scale and is implied to rely mainly on American operatives. Due to controversy over previous dealings, Black Arrow is eventually expelled from the United States and works on improving its business in third-world conflict zones such as Uganda, the Comoros Islands, Haiti, and Suriname.

Several different mercenary groups appear in the 2008 video game Fallout 3; most are presented as antagonists to the player.

In the DC Comics video game Batman: Arkham City, a specialized team of highly-trained mercenaries are featured, contracted from a clandestine private security agency known as "Tyger". Made up of former military and police operators, Tyger is implied by viral marketing sources to be one of the best mercenary units "in the world". When the denizens of Gotham City are rounded up and carted off to rot in a walled-off prison district known as 'Arkham City', Hugo Strange arms the perimeter of the new project with Tyger troops to prevent inmates from escaping. Dressed from head to toe in starched black uniforms, berets, and flak jackets, the mercenaries are equipped with high-powered assault rifles and night vision goggles to go about their tasks. Some personnel also make overhead passes in armored helicopters to monitor the situation on the ground, although their main purpose seems to be to eventually take down Batman, the protagonist, himself.

Early on in the game, players are given an option to hack Tyger's radio frequencies, giving them insight into the organization and its goals in and around Arkham.

In Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, "Wolfpack" is a featured mercenary group employed by Umbrella Corporation. They are dispatched into Raccoon City to run various missions on behalf of Umbrella’s interests ranging from destruction of physical evidences to assassination of incriminating eyewitnesses.

• In Call of Juarez: The Cartel, a bankrupt PMC known as Peacekeepers International become a rogue group that supplies weapons to the Mendoza Cartel.