Army of Two will satisfy anyone desperate for co-op
Steven Beynon
EpicSteve
President Eisenhower warned the world about the uprising of Private Military protecting the United States in his farewell state of the union address. Company's such as Black Water, Titan Corporation, and Triple Canopy were gaining too much power in warfare, and has the potential to undermine the safety of both the U.S. and their allies. This is neither a history lesson, nor a current events lecture, but the plot to EA Montreal's latest action packed co-op shooter, Army of Two.
The game follows a sixteen year path of the two protagonists, Elliot Salem, the younger cockier guy, who throws out the word "bro" every time he gets the chance, and Tyson Rios, the conspiracy theorists.
You first get introduced to this duo in Army Rangers training. After a brief following mission in Somalia, Salem and Rios decide to follow their commanding officer into the world of the private military, joining a corporation known as SSC. As mercenaries these two guys will find themselves traveling the world fighting battles for fat checks, not truly knowing what exactly they are fighting, and why. Thats where the plots trails to, which is predictable once you get to the halfway point in the game, bro.
The game itself is a fairly tactical third person shooter with an arcade feel, built with a co-op focused game design. While the partner AI is adequate, you'll want to exclusively play through the campaign with a friend. Not that the AI will disservice you, but the game both functions better, and is more enjoyable. To keep both yourself, and your partner alive, you'll be utilizing the ever-so popularized aggro system, something any WOW player should be a pro at, but if you aren't familiar with it, aggro is gaining the attention of enemies by attacking them and maintaining the role as a moving target. Whoever is not holding aggro will be practically invisible to the enemy, encouraging flanking tactics. I felt the aggro system was the only thing keeping the combat from feeling generic, however you can get away with ignoring aggro unless you're playing on a harder difficulty.
Quite possibly the coolest aspect of this game is the weapons upgrade system. After completing various objectives within a mission for cash, you are open to spend it as you like in the games varying stores. While you can spend a lot of time buying fearsome masks, you'll spend most your cash purchasing longer barrels, heaver stocks, and secondary attachments to your owned weapons, and of course there are over three dozen other weapons to buy. In addition to making your weapons stronger, the completely radical upgrade that the Resident Evil 4 (as well as every other game) merchant needs to borrow, is the "pimped" upgrade. Spending a mere 10 G's while make your weapons of choice golden, silver, and/or covered in diamonds. I can no longer fight with non golden weaponry, bro.
Aside from the campaign, Army of Two posses a relatively decent multiplayer, no Deathmatch, or CTF here. Like the campaign, the Multiplayer is interlaced with cooperative gameplay. You, and one other person will be called to complete a multitude of objectives against enemy AI. If you enjoyed the campaign, you'll most likely find some fun in the MP.
Army of Two is an explosive package, that action fans should enjoy, and bring a friend along. The game primarily suffers from the fact the game's only about eight hours. Some people will be turned off by the cheap one liners, others like me find the games non serious tone entertaining, and fun. These one liners aren't horrendous, and corny in a bad way at all, so please don't get me wrong there. The dialog between Salem and Rios during gameplay has its moments as well, theirs a funny bit where Salem randomly asks Rios who is the best rapper in the Wu-Tang Clan, just to give an example on their personalities.
Army of Two is a game that I believe co-op fans will enjoy. While theirs not much to say, but it's a kick ass game, with baditude (in a good way), a decent plot, mixed with third person combat, all these formulas together create a Michael Bay esque game, that should not be missed this spring. So all you bros should totally give this game a look.
Pros
+Another great co-op game, fans of Gears will probably like
+Good graphics
+Cinematics are entertaining, and well produced
+Upgrading weapons, and "pimping" your equipment is the most enjoyable factor in the game
+Online is surprisingly fun
+Aggro is a welcome addition to the shooter genre
+Does a good job at keeping a light tone, and a somewhat humorous approach
Cons
-Minor graphical hiccups, and texture popping
-Short campaign
-Minor character development
-Predictable plot
-Makes me realize this is the only game I may use a golden arsenal
