Army of Two

"Not quite a GoW killer, but still..."

This game received quite a lot of hype, just what you'd expect from EA. However, it died away fast after the game came out. I don't think this is what people expected, nor did anything in the game match people's predictions.
After reading articles about this game, I thought it'd be a pretty fun tactical game to play, focusing on your ally and thinking of strategies to overcome the situations brought to you, but I expected something different. Maybe I just expected this game to take itself a bit more seriously.

Gameplay
This is pretty much what'd I thought it'd be and more. It does require you to think up of solutions to problems, and the problems appear frequently and rather spontaneously. It is fun to either take the lead in assaulting while your partner covers for half the game, then switch sides and let him advance forward while you take the aggro, which was implanted pretty well into the game. That said, even though the A.I. of your ally is amazing, you'll find you do a better job, faster.

As mentioned above, one of the more innovative features used in the game is the aggro meter, which basically lets you know which of either you or your partner has the enemies' full attention. It works pretty well, but it also adds a more of an unrealistic side to the game itself, as if you utilize this feature you have the ability to go pretty much invisible, and while taking full aggro have the chance to become invulnerable via a special skill for 10 seconds. I don't think many people expected anything like this.

Which brings me to another point. This is that this game is not trying in the least to be a tragedy, and the cheesy scenes such as the back-to-back shooting or the fistpunch in the middle of a warzone really worked well, and created a feel of you playing a movie. The graphics also helped this, but they will be discussed later.

One thing I didn't quite like with the game was the guns and their role in the game. Basically, you have 3 types of guns which you can shoot and grenades to throw. This would have been totally fine if you weren't restricted to one type of gun for each gun slot. Most of the time you won't need a sniper rifle at all, and you'll rarely use a pistol/secondary fire-arm as there is plenty of ammo. It would have been better if you could customise your inventory more freely, since you are mercenaries working for a private company.

The actual shooting itself is pretty accurate to real life (most of the time -_-). If you're under cover and you're blind shooting someone while your partner sneaks around you won't have a chance of hitting the enemy, as they rarely pop out anyway. If you stand up to shoot you'll most likely be bombarded with bullets from all sides, so cover is a must. Moving around to find it is pretty good, and things like sliding to take cover close to you is smooth and it feels right.

Boss battles. They're not in your standard TPS which doesn't involve monsters of hideous disproportion. Well, they're in AoT. You'll find quite a few half-bosses along the paths, and they're pretty easy to take out providing you don't show yourself to him at all, as his bullets hurt. You don't encounter too many real bosses, but normally they're not much harder than the super-soldiers, with maybe even more firepower at their disposal. These sections are entirely unrealistic, but are challenging and fun, so who cares?

Graphics
I'd say the graphics in this game are above-par to normal next-gen console games, as they stay very detailed even in hellish situations, and will more than likely have you opening your jaw. One part in particular was truly astounding. You have to run up a path while avoiding debris falling from explosions all around you are seeing in front of you. This is truly epic and it really feels intense at that moment.

Backgrounds are as good as any other games', and provide atmosphere which you'll find plenty of. They did a good job with the textures, and it doesn't feel too generic at any point in the game. It's pretty standard stuff from there on out though, as you'll see what you normally do in any shooter games, enemies and more enemies. There are enough variants to them to satisfy, as you'll be in different countries the whole time, but enough of them to make you want to get out of there.

Story
There is a very good story to this, and it really evolves. This is quite rare for a game of this sort, and I didn't expect anything like it. You start out doing your first mission which you could call the extended tutorial as a recruit of the U.S. army. Soon enough you'll find yourself in the hands of a private mercinery business, and you find out more about the events unfolding around you while you blow the heads of anything that moves.

It gets a bit surreal towards the end, and is always overly-dramatic I thought, but overall it gave a pretty fun and entertaining performance. Shame about the cheesy jokes and dialogue.

Sounds
The voice-acting is pretty decent as far as they go, and I have no complaints, apart from the lines said themselves. The shouting and screaming done by the enemy is nothing new, but does it really need to be? I found the dialogue done by the enemies quite bad though.

I think the music was good at all times, and, as more and more games are finally doing this, it fits the mood of the game well, with such things as fast-paced music then a timer comes on your screen, or the background music which just gives it an extra push towards the whole movie/game thing I talked about.

Others
The replayability is there for you if you enjoyed the game a lot, and you can keep the things you got from your last playthrough as well as unlock new things with harder difficulties. This is enough to satisfy, and with the option of co-op with a friend/strangers online there is a lot more to do after your first time through the game. However, I will point out the dead online though, EA made it hard to find a game almost on purpose, and the only way I think you'd be able to co-op was to set up a game with a friend. Silly.

The game took me around 8-10 hours to complete, making my way through the game at a regular pace, picking up the occasional extra secret for more money, but it can last as little or as long as you want it to. On easy you're looking for no more than 6 hours if you're just going through all the missions efficiently.

Overall
This game provides all that you'll want for in a TPS, as well as it's own flavour of glamour in a serious strategy-based shooter. I liked that, but there are as always flaws in having this. You will get tired of dialogue, and you will get tired of the cinematic gameplay the game sometimes throws at you by force. Other than that, if you buy the game, have fun.

8/10

-Rent or buy? Buy, you might find yourself wanting to come back to do a mission or two when you're bored, or if a friend comes over/has a copy co-op is pretty neat.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/02/08

Game Release: Army of Two (EU, 03/07/08)