Quick Look: Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel

This feels like a game designed by a marketing team, then thanklessly thrown to a studio full of people who would have loved to do anything else. I can tell the level of enthusiasm EA Montreal had for this project by how mediocre it came out.

Having these "serious" and "realistic" stories in tandem with giant arenas of endless, consequence-less human slaughter is becoming increasingly jarring. At a certain point you're going to have to give the player a better reason for why hundreds of dudes will throw their bodies at you with complete disregard for their own lives.

Either that or get a bit more creative or weird with your stories or settings. This really looks like a marketing-produced game.

I have to agree, the voice acting for Salem was surprisingly effective. I guess this game looks like it'd be fun buy for like a tenner, blast through it in coop, and then forget pretty much everything about it the day later.

Yeah, that'll show Jeff for liking a video game! Fuck that guy!

Making video games is a business. It sucks that the Montreal studio got shut down before the game was even released and I feel for the employees, but its pretty obvious this game is going to flop. EA is dumping it out at the end of the quarter and have thrown virtually no advertising money at it. Why keep a studio in business when its not profitable?

Why does this game exist? Like, seriously?

"TIIIO"... Amazing. They managed to nest a number inside another number. Now that's innovation.

Where were you, writers and producers of of the film Ocean's 13? Your movie could've been called "Ocean's E13ven", but YOU DROPPED THE BALL.

What a freaking bummer. I really enjoyed the satisfying gameplay and sound design of the last installment--all it needed was more enemy variety and length.

This had so much potential. The 40th Day was a pre-Spec Ops shooter that played around with a lot of morality choices, yet instead of fleshing out that system in an impressive manner, they've practically removed any real gravitas.

Heck, since they went with the bad ending where Salem & Rios live and kill the bad guy, but are responsible for the slaughter of thousands of innocents, we could've had a super-interesting on-the-run, PTSD fueled sequel.

Oh, and new protagonists w/gender neutral names? Why not allow more character customization and female PCs?

I liked the Army of Two 2.

But that was mostly because that mediocre game capitalized on it's co-op and I played it with my bro. It was just tactical enough that when you helped each other it felt rewarding and like "teamwork", yet not too tactical to remove the sense of fun. And after every good fight I would make sure to bro out with my bro in some ridiculous fashion.

The masks, the nonsense over the top gun customization, and broing out, it kinda worked together. Salem and Rios felt like two true bro's broing out on a grand bro-venture.

This doesn't seem to have any of that.

@alexisg Not sure if anyone else has an issue with this, but the way the video section with the article title stays glued to the upper portion of the browser window as you scroll down the page to read the comments is extremely annoying. I don't normally read comments and watch video at the same time. It's a neat feature, but if I'm done watching a video, I would like to be able to see comments (especially the longer ones) across the entire browser window, not just the lower half. It just feels very cramped the way it is now is all. Maybe add an X button to close the video section, or something to that effect. Thanks.

@memphisslim: In the ending where Salem and Rios shoot Jonah, the bomb is revealed to have been a hoax. He was just testing to see if he could get them to sacrifice the few (Killing your partner) for the many (Saving all of Shanghai)

You pressed the pin button by accident. Press it again.

@aegon: Oh, snap! Thanks, man.

@linkin10362: I must've misunderstood back then. The city DOES remain under siege in one while the UN secures Shanghai in the other, but I missed the bomb hoax part.

I had a good time with a buddy playing the first Army of Two, never played the second and this just looks kinda boring but I did appreciate the game recognizing the obvious plot turn. I kinda want to go play The 40th Day even though I'm pretty much guarranteed to not have a co-op buddy.

An awful lot of the Youtube uploads from you guys these days are cutting out 1/2 or 2/3 of the way though. This one is stopping at 29 minutes instead of 37.

The thing that confuses the shit out of me is that the ending to the second game you're given a choice and either Rios or Salem HAS to die. I don't quite understand how they're both alive in this third game and how Salem has managed to have a different voice actor in every single game. (Nolan North played him in 2)

@gunstarred said:

Not really. You can either kill the bad guy and he blows everything to smitherenes or you can kill your partner so he won't. The "kill your partner" one is a bad ending, since the bad guy is bluffing you.

why does this game exist?

This is almost as funny as the Rogue Warrior quicklook

Generic

(At 14:00) I didn't know Ryan's hummingbird feeder mask made it into the game.

Because they say they want mid-tier games but when one comes out they just trash on it like its complete garbage. So evertime they bitch about no mid-tier games they only have themselves to blame. Why would a company put out at game at $40 when the review companies just rip on it? They might as well just put it out at $60, make more money, and let people rip on it.

The game is fine. I bought it day one and don't regret it. Its probably a 7 or 8 out of 10 but I was expecting that. I like the customize options for weapons and the shooting is good and explosions are improved. I like to play for a while between other games such as Gears Of War Judgement, Bioshock Infinite, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Luigi's Mansion, and Fifa 13.

ARRR GEEE PEEE!!!!

Dammit. Need to keep practicing.

First of all, I don't remember them ever saying they WANT more mid tier games, merely that they are becoming less common as game development moves towards either huge budget AAA titles, or smaller indie experiences. Second of all, even if they did want more mid tier games, that doesn't mean they have to give high praise to a game that gets shit out to meet quarterly projections. To be fair, Jeff never even says the game is bad. The only statement of quality he makes is "its ok."

The first Army of Two was pretty funny and a solid coop shooter.

The second game still played mostly ok, but it had lost all of its charm and character.

This one.. ugh.

Huh, seems like a perfectly presentable 3rd person shooter.

After seeing this game I kinda want to play it now. It reminds me of those John Cena movies >_>

Am I going insane or does this game actually look kinda not bad. I wouldn't mind playing this.

That game looks completely average, and if you're a fan of that type of gameplay, the game's still probably only worth 15 to 20 dollars at most. I feel like this would be a bad game to go to after you just played Bioshock: Infinite.

I never said they had to give it high praise, but clearly they are being sarcastic all through this video ripping on the game. I'm sorry you cannot understand when he is clearly ripping on the game. Ok so he says the game is "ok" once then rips on it for the next 30 minutes, what do you think people are going to remember more? There is a difference between giving praise and giving a fair shake, which they clearly don't do unless a game is awesome.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one getting a heartless 50 Cent Blood on the Sand vibe from this. Speaking of which, why the fuck hasn't Swordfish done a game since BotS?! That game was stupid, stupid, STUPID fun!

This game looks both stupid and boring. Good combination.

The tone of the characters themselves was so much more different though. Salem and Rios were bros, through hell or high water. And don't forget, that was the game where you co-op parachute through a fucking canyon with one dude strapped to the other. Shanghai blowing up was, in my opinion, really damn lame. It didn't look good at all, the plot was fucking stupid and not in a fun way, and that's where it got darker. And there was that really dumb 'morality' mechanic, where basically every decision was a bad decision.

The voice actor for Salem is Joe Flanigan, Colonel Sheppard from Stargate Atlantis.

So stupid killing dudes with caps. This seems so 2002. Part 2 was good shooter.

As a big fan of the first Army of Two, seeing that this game looks pretty generic bums me out. The second game wasn't great either, but it kind of seems like they sucked the remaining character out of this series.

This game looks like it could be fun blasting through it with a friend.

Lol I wonder how many people will be really upset about these spoilers.

Yup. I feel the same. I really liked the first game because of the characters and the light-hearted vibe. It's sad to see that they went straight-up into the wrong direction with this series.

RPG's on the rooftops!

I liked the army of two's, they played fine. I'm guess this one plays fine as well. Shit story and characters who cares, its not what I'm playing it for. The gun creation stuff is right up my alley, as long as thats still there. I'm in.

Ive played through the game and its pretty fun maybe like a 7.5 or something but not too great.

Does anyone remember this old trailer for the original Army of Two?

Holy hell what a massive shift in tone. I was actually looking forward to the release of that first game, when things like that video and others (this one also comes to mind) were highlighting a real focus on coop play and some very interesting looking, unusual mechanics to facilitate that.

I never ended up playing it when the reviews came out and clearly revealed that promise wasn't fulfilled. It's kind of sad that they had the good fortune to get what a lot of games who don't quite pull it off on their first outing don't, a second (and then third!) chance, and pretty much completely squandered it by going in totally the wrong directions. I don't think anything illustrates that as well as "Overkill" being their big new mechanic; why would you decide the awesome thing to go in your new coop-based shooter sequel was a thing that makes you a one-man army? And that's without considering the total dissonance of combining this "serious shit" tone with an ability that temporarily turns you invincible and lets you fire with an endless mag until it runs out.

I've beaten Army of Two and 40th Day with a friend. I don't remember a damn thing about either. Other then my friend and I sent a child to his death in 40th Day.

I liked 40th Day but that was all I really wanted from that sort of thing and I had a friend to go through it with which was 90% of the fun. This just looks fucking boring though.

This game exists because people see Army of Two games, think Army of Two sounds like an interesting name, and then buy it. I can't prove it but I think that's actually true.

@movac: Ha! I see what you did there. Now that's funny

Giant Bomb was being sarcastic?! How uncalled for! I didn't come to this Jeff and Ryan Quick Look for sarcasm and tomfoolery! I came here for a pure, unbiased preview of this interactive piece of entertainment!