* EnsembleDarkhorse: The character most featured in released screenshots is fan favourite HUNK whose absence in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'' had him as the most requested character for DLC. Krauser and Barry are also in.
* GameBreaker:
** Rebecca's loadout. She only gets two weapons, a submachine gun and a grenade launcher primed with explosive rounds but they're damn useful. The submachine gun is good for wider hits and the Grenade launcher is good for clearing crowds and when used in conjunction with the submachine gun and the right skills, can kill off a Garrador in short order. Even better is that said loadout also starts you out with 5 herbs from the off. And since you can equip any character with any loadout, giving someone like HUNK or Wesker this loadout makes them near untouchable.
** Another contender for the best loadout is the unique 9th loadout. [[spoiler:Much like Rebecca's it's only two weapons: The Red9 and the "Two-way" Grenade Launcher. The Red9 is the best handgun in the game only held back by its low clip size meaning you'd better aim your shots correctly and get used to reloading frequently. Even if you find yourself in a sticky situation because of those setbacks, the "Two-Way" Grenade Launcher is more than enough to compensate; it's both incredibly powerful and can hold a lot of explosive rounds making short work of crowds and even boss fights. While Rebecca's loadout is especially effective for characters with strong melee attacks, the 9th loadout is just incredibly strong on its own so long as you exercise a bit of caution.]]
** Rebecca's Explosive Grenade Launcher and Claire's Electric Grenade Launcher can fit in here. With some good aim and the help of the laser sight you can use any of the two launchers as a deadly, splash damage causing sniper rifle and score some real monstrous long range multi-kills. [[spoiler:The same applies to the secret loadout's "2-Way" Grenade Launcher which is effectively twice as effective as Rebecca's since it fires two separate explosive rounds at once and can hold more rounds as well.]] HUNK's flash launcher works to a lesser extent since any of the enemies that have become Cephalos or Duvalias can be instantly killed by flash grenades.
** Even with the Weapon Master skill (which powers your weapons but severely lowers your healing rate), the invincibility frame during your character's healing animation can save your life from anything up to and including an Executioner, a Chainsaw Majini and to a lesser extent, Super Salvador.
** HUNK's "The End" and "Executioner" and Krauser's "Stinger" and "Throat Slit" melee attacks. Instant killing and stops parasites from spawning so you don't have to worry about any Duvalias popping out of the woodwork. Equip them with the right skills and the aforementioned Rebecca loadout and the game's very much easy from there. The Stinger in particular is considered a critical hit, which means it can combine with the upgraded Medic skill (which heals you on a critical hit) and Krauser's natural durability to make him stupidly hard to kill. To a lesser extent, Chris and Jill also have instant kill melee attacks in "Neck Snap" and "Head Grab", respectively, but their animations are a lot slower than you'd probably like to the point of negating the five second melee kill bonus.
* HilariousInHindsight: HUNK has often been compared to ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'''s protagonist. In this game, he has a BladeBelowTheShoulder. Guess what the Doomguy's getting in ''VideoGame/DoomEternal''?
* ScrappyMechanic: The news that you can't erase data (thus removing the ability to play through the game from the beginning) was met with some disapproval.
* SpecialEffectsFailure: While ''Mercenaries 3D'' generally looks great, any enemies a significant distance from the player character have their framerates cut in half. This gives the bizarre effect of far away foes looking like stop motion puppets. Thank God this was fixed for ''Revelations'', however (it ran on the same engine).
* ThatOneAchievement: Platoon of Two, which requires you and a co-op partner to land five melee attacks in a row on an enemy five times over. While every other achievement can be acquired through sheer attrition, Platoon of Two generally requires outright coordination with your partner to pull off, and is nearly impossible to do in an online pub game.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: While the roster is essentially a selection of mainstays and fan favorites, more than one fan has lamented the fact that characters like Leon and Ada didn’t make the cut for whatever reason (even more strange that Krauser made it so they clearly had no issues porting characters from ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4''). The roster ends up feeling a bit incomplete because of that, especially if you’ve played the Mercenaries modes in other games.
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