Army of Two: The 40th day is the sequel to Army of Two released in 2008 and is a co-op-focused third person shooter. The sequel follows the two returning characters from the first game, Rios and Salem. They are now running their own private military corporation, TransWorld Operations. After finishing a routine job, all hell brakes loose in Shanghai with buildings collapsing and all matter of mass destruction. All they have to do now is escape and find out who did all this.
Most of the story is told in audio logs found in the world; going through 90% of the game not knowing who the bad guy was until listening to the tapes, was a slight annoyance. On the normal difficulty the game is too easy for an experienced player and will only take 4-5 hours to complete. Graphics-wise, The 40th day competes with most of the top titles, however the cut scenes suffer from frame rate issues and texture pop-in, and in one case the camera angle cut my view to a wall and all I could do was hear what they said.
The basic gameplay has not changed since the first game, but has instead been upgraded to take note of some of the first game's criticisms including one of the sequel's best parts, the upgrade system. Upgrading the weapons does not only change the look but will have game play effects too, the range of upgrades you can earn are enormous. Some of these include soda can silencers, bayonets, gold plated guns and gold/diamond encrusted grenades. Another returning gameplay mechanic is the 'agro' system. Aggro is used in combat and is triggered when one player fires at enemies, distracting them from the other player who can sneak around unnoticed and take out the enemy by flanking them. Customizing the weapons over time can also increase the aggro level for your character.
Rios and Salem have a GPS which can tag enemies and help you find your way. Once an enemy is tagged you can see where they are, even if they hide behind walls. This expands your tactical options as you and your partner seek and eliminate nearby enemies. The GPS runs on batteries so you can't use it all the time, but it's a nice touch none-the-less.
You can play the game in either split-screen, online or with an AI character. While playing with a human via split-screen or online is still the best way to play, your AI partner is mostly very good, making the game much stronger as a result. Enemies use the same moves and tactics that you do. If you wound but don't kill an enemy solider, his buddies may sneak up and try to heal him, but here lies one of the biggest problems in the game; the enemy AI. Enemy soldiers don’t press-on the attack very well until you are very close and also don’t take many bullets to take down. The improved AI partner also includes the “Co-Op Moments” that are greatly improved, if you switch to your sniper rifle the AI is smart enough to do the same and shoot at the same time to engage in co-op sniping, if you pretend to surrender to the enemy you partner will play along until you shoot.
Army of Two: The 40th Day also has morality choices including saving or killing hostages, if you do the latter you won’t get any money or new attachments for your guns. There are also more larger moral choices including either killing or not killing an endangered tiger and depending on your choice, the game will present a graphic novel style slideshow depicting what happened because of your actions, while most of them are good there is not a real 'good choice' in the end, as some of the outcomes end with the person being killed by the bad guys or them helping out the bad guys. There are no lasting effect from the choices you make, as the only way it is remembered is if you are playing with a friend. It would have been nice if the AI partner brought up the actions you made previously.
The sound design is one of the game's strongest points with the voice actors delivering lines with flawless comedic timing. The game could have used a little more chat between Salem and Rios, but people complained they talked too much in the first game and it feels like they don’t talk enough now. Your customized weapons make different sounds as you change parts which was a nice added touch.
Army of Two comes with four multiplayer modes for up to twelve players but only ships with 6 maps. In Co-op Death match you and your partner face-off against other teams of two. In Control you fight to capture and hold a point in the environment until you're awarded points. Warzone is an objective-based mode which constantly changes as the game goes on, whenever one side completes the objective a new objective appears. Extraction is the fourth mode, which was a pre-order bonus, a month after release everyone else will get it with no extra charge. Extraction is a lot like Gears of War's Horde mode or Halo 3:ODST's Fire Fight; it is limited to four players who are placed in an environment and have to survive against increasingly difficult waves of enemies. No matter what mode you're in, you're always tied to a partner, if you get shot, your partner is the only one that can help you. If he doesn't, you'll have to re-spawn. While all the online game modes are fun, they did not have a lasting appeal to me and are not as good enough to topple games like Modern Warfare 2 or Halo.
Army of Two: The 40th Day capitalizes on its co-op play to deliver an awesome action experience that's incredibly fun to play. The improved aggro system and expanded weapons customization strengthens the gameplay. While the morality moments could have posed larger dilemmas and the AI still stumbles at times, The 40th Day is a great game.
