Rounding out the cast of players in Venezuela are the Jamaican Pirates, who being pirates have no loyalties to any local faction and are in the local hotspot for financial opportunity, and the Chinese People?s Liberation Army, returning from the first Mercenaries game to add a thread of story continuity. The Venezuelan Military are also represented, fighting on behalf of new dictator Solano, as well as a pseudo-UN prescence in the part of the Allied Nations, whose peacekeeping forces present in the country are generally better equipped.
The P.L.A.V., or People?s Liberation Army Of Venezuela, are a backwoods guerrilla insurgency force attempting a retaking of their country in an armed coup.
Factions you can take on work from in the game include Universal Petroleum, a large oil corporation with a small standing armed force to protect their local interests. Consequently, players will want to maintain a balance and play each of the factions off against each other if they wish to see 100% of the game. Working for individual factions in the game will increase your standing with them, allowing the purchase of items and services for your mercenary company such as airstrikes, bombing runs, and vehicles ? however, repeated aggression against one faction will lower your standing with them, and potentially cut off whole plot sections or mission strings. Six factions are dominant in the country and are competing with each other for position in the country?s new order, and as one of the three main merc characters (all of which play relatively the same, with minor differences ? Mattias heals damage more quickly, Jen runs faster, and Chris carries more ammo) the player will take jobs for hire from the different factions, generally blowing up valuable structures, reclaiming stolen/occupied stations or verifying (or killing) HVT?s, or Highly Valued Targets. Sequel to 2005?s Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, Mercenaries 2 follows Mattias Nillson, Jennifer Mui and Chris Jacobs to Central America where the opening cinematic leaves Mattias betrayed by his newest employer, Ramon Solano, who has established himself as the de facto ruler of Venezuela and controller of the country?s contested oil supply. ?These are scary people,? Frankowski writes, ?and you would not want one living in your neighbourhood.? Pandemic?s Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is exclusively focussed on this second variety of merc, and is your chance to play out a fantasy of destruction where you blow the country of Venezuela to hell and back, and turn a dime doing it. And then there are those with not only the skills and training for war, but an appetite for it that they are all too happy to employ for cold cashy money plus the thrill of the kill. Author Leo Frankowski once wrote that there are two kinds of mercenaries in the world ? there are those who are forced to fight to defend family and country, who may not have a standing military to turn to in times of need.