If you're a person that takes great pride in the Iraq war and the
people that serve there, stay away from Army of Two. The multiple jabs
at the U.S. Army, and actually killing Iraqi suicide bombers is
definitely not for everyone. On the other hand, if you're looking for a
good 6 hours of fun, co-op action and you're able to get past its
strong subject matter, Army of Two should suit you just fine.
Army of Two follows two guys named Rios and Salem. Rios and Salem serve
in the US military, but soon find out that being a mercenary is a much
better-paying and much more exciting job. While Rios and Salem are
working as mercenaries they find out that the people that they served
with in the army are getting killed off one by one as part of a plot to
privatize the military. The plot manages to intrigue you in the
beginning, but a plot twist that a blind man could see from a mile away
and a poor execution of it just makes the story feel like a missed
opportunity. Games like Army of Two are rarely about the story, but the
story in Army of Two had the potential to be a pretty good one. It's
just a shame that the developers didn't make better use of it.
If you can get past a pretty mediocre story, Army of Two actually
provides some pretty great gameplay. Army of Two's main hook ever since
it was revealed was the aggro system. Aggro pretty much works like
this: There's a big-ass meter slapped across the middle of the screen
with you and your partner's face put on the right and left side of it.
The more you shoot at your enemies, the more they will focus your
attention on you, leaving your partner with the opportunity to take
them out easily, and vice versa. It's a really neat system that works
great, but it can feel a bit overpowered at times, making Army of Two a
pretty easy game. You can basically just order your opponent to fire on
the enemy, focusing all the attention on him, making it criminally easy
for you to just run up behind them and fill their asses with hot lead.
It's not too big of a problem, but a slightly bigger challenge wouldn't
have hurt the game. A way to boost your aggro is to pimp out your
weapon. This works out just as you would expect: You have a menu system
where you can upgrade your weapon with silencers, a bigger clip and a
little shield to shield you from some of the bullets – pretty much the
usual. But you can also pimp out your weapon by covering it in gold,
giving you a huge boost to your aggro, meaning that every shot you fire
will attract more attention to you than usual.
Army of Two also features some neat order-giving mechanics. At any
given point you can just press a button on the D-pad to give your
partner an order. Each of these mechanics has a passive and an
aggressive version of them. For example, you can order your partner to
hold position in the passive version, leaving the aggro neatly
distributed between the both of you. The aggressive version, as you
would expect, focuses the aggro on your AI partner, leaving a perfect
opportunity for you to take your opponents out. It actually works
pretty well – when your partner's AI works properly, that is. This is
the thing that makes Army of Two's campaign feel lacking. Because Army
of Two is so focused on co-op, you really need to have a working AI to
actually make the game work. Fortunately, Army of Two's AI is
functional most of the time. But there are bound to be a few instances
where you will hear yourself cursing loudly at the TV, because it's
just so dumb. For instance, when you get shot too many times you end up
in a Gears of War-like stance with you face-down on the concrete,
waiting for your partner to drag you to a safe place so he can heal
you. The problem is that he will sometimes drag you all the way across
the map, even though there is a safe spot right behind you, leaving you
and your partner filled with bullet holes, forcing you to restart.
Army of Two also has a couple of hovercraft sections in it, although
they aren't that great, thanks to awkward controls. At any given point
during these hovercraft sections, you will find yourself bumping in to
walls and just not feeling in control of the vehicle. Thankfully, you
will only be faced with these vehicle sections 2-3 times over the six
or so hours it will take you to finish the game.
One part where Army of Two definitely does not disappoint is in the
visual department. Characters have a great amount of detail put in to
them, the lighting is wonderfully atmospheric and it just gives the
game this visual "pop." Occasionally, muddy textures and some popup
will rear their ugly head, but it's nothing that will detract from the
visual delight that the graphics are.
As for the aural side of things, some will love it, some will hate it.
The dialogue is dumb, but it's the good kind of dumb. It manages to
grab a hold of the idiot in you by having Rios say "bro" at the end of
almost every sentence he says, leaving you with an occasional chuckle
here and there. Once Rios and Salem start talking about their favorite
member of the Wu-Tang Clan during an intense firefight with bullets
flying everywhere, you have to laugh. That is, if you have an
appreciation for dumb humor. If you're a Harvard graduate, you'll
probably just sit there with a rather confused look on your face. Other
than the dialogue, it's pretty much business as usual: Guns go "bang,"
explosions go "boom" – pretty basic stuff.
Once you're done with the campaign, you have an online mode to have a
go at. Army of Two's online multiplayer is also made with co-operative
play in mind, since all the matches are 2 vs. 2, meaning that most of
the fun is going to be playing with a friend. If you don't have any
friends to play it with, it's just not going to be the same, because
the online is rather tactical. If you're just playing with some random
idiot who doesn't know what the Hell he is doing, most of the matches
you will be playing will be more frustrating than fun.
Army of Two is a rather mediocre game if you're playing by yourself. If
you don't mind paying $60 ($100 if you're in Europe) for a 6-hour game
with little to no replay value and a rather mediocre multiplayer mode,
Army of Two is worth a rental. But if you have some friends that are
willing to play with you, you should definitely give Army of Two a
look. It's not all it was cracked up to be, but if you don't get your
hopes up, Army of Two can be quite a lot of fun.
