Army of Two

"A flawed and incomplete game, but lots of fun to play."

Let me start by saying that I enjoyed this game but this review will be completely unbiased. Any opinion I give will have clear examples of WHY I feel that way. This review also may contain some spoilers, but I will do my best not to ruin anything completely.

Army of Two places you in the role of either Salem or Rios, 2 soldiers turned mercenaries, for the course of 6 missions spanning a variety of locales. Rios is the larger, more aggressive seeming character, while Salem is the smaller, wilder free spirit.

The exact reasoning for your duo turning from soldier to mercenary is due to the privitization of the military and other key plot points that this review will not get into.

GRAPHICS - 8/10

The graphics in the game are good. While, they are not anything miles ahead of what is being released on "next-gen" systems at the moment, there isn't anything that is going to look dated or out of place. Please don't read what I'm saying to mean that the graphics are bland or bad. I'm simply saying that they are on par with what is coming out now. The game also places you in enough locales to take advantage of some scenery differences.

I don't think that the graphics detract anything from the game. And after playing Army of Two through twice already, I can safely say that if you are going to enjoy this game it will be for other reasons. There is too much going on to pay EXTRA close attention to the graphics.

SOUND - 7/10

There are 3 major components to sound: sound effects, voice work and music.

The sound effects in the game are pretty disappointing. Gunfire and explosions don't sound that great. The guns lack the punch or pop of a good shooter and the explosions sound dated. With some of the best sound effects coming out of recent shooters, these areas are a disappointment for me because it leaves a little bit of a disconnect between the gamer and the guns. And in a shooter that's a problem.

The music is also a little disappointing; not as much as the sound effects, but still sub standard. There are no moments from the game where I can recall the music adding or subtracting from the game. The fact that the music is NOT a problem means that it doesn't influence gameplay in a negative way. But with such advancements in the union of games and music to the point where whole compositions are written just for certain scenes, the lack of any moving scores is somewhat of a disappointment.

The voice work completely saves the sound score from falling to a 5. Salem and Rios, while not doctoral candidates, offer a fun, funny and unique dialogue to the game. Their interactions with each other are superb and a real reason to play the game. The cutscenes aren't the most well acted, but the dialogue of the games 3 main character (Salem, Rios and Alice Murray) is excellent.

STORY - 6/10

Comparisons have been made between Army of Two and Gears of War since the screens of the game were released. Perhaps the most parallel similarity is that both had stories that had strong potential but were terribly under-developed.

There are some interesting elements in the story such as the privitization of the military and the conspiracy against Salem and Rios that comes to pass in the middle of the game. The game doesn't develop or follow up on any of these elements, however, and it leaves you wanting more information.

Sometimes games can over do the story and I don't think anyone picking up Army of Two is expecting Metal Gear Solid type cutscenes but there could have been much better development of the story. Not much is made of how Salem and Rios become such good friends or how they meet Alice Murray. In a game like this, where character interactions are evolving, it is not beneficial to the gamer to be at all disconnected from the main characters.

More information, both background and present, were needed to pull me into the game a little bit more. It's fun to just sit down and play a game, but games truly shine when you CARE about what you are doing. I enjoyed this game but I didn't care that much about what I was doing.

GAMEPLAY - 8/10

The gameplay is the strongest feature of Army of Two. With innovative co-op moves and interesting features, this games stand apart. There isn't a game out that I can recall that has the level of character interaction as Army of Two. Whether you are boosting your partner up to a previously unreachable ledge, swapping weapons to diversify your armament or just slapping hands after a sick battle, you need to work together to get through the game, especially on the harder difficulties.

Aggro is a strong point of emphasis in the game and needs explaining. When firing on the enemy your character gains aggro. As your aggro increase all the enemies focus their attention on you leaving your partner free to try and perform a flanking maneuver, blindside a turret of complete another objective. Swaying the aggro meter all the way enable Overkill for the 2 of you. The person with the aggro moves slowly and does 2x damage and the other person moves twice as fast and is not focused on.

There are also a variety of weapons in the game. There are enough types to keep the gameplay varied and you can upgrade some of the weapons to do more damage, improve accuracy or even pimp it out. It should be noted that pimping out a weapons simply makes it gold. The weapons don't sound great (covered above) and there is definitely something to be desired in the shots hit to shots missed department. You won't feel a difference when your shot hits someone or when you miss.

It should be pointed out that there are some definite flaws in the gameplay and they DO hinder the experience somewhat. First, is the melee system. RT fires your weapon but when you are close to an enemy you can press RT to melee them. This system is flawed because often you are close to an enemy and you press RT and you shoot instead of melee. There needed to be a separate button for this function. Another huge deterrent to melees are that you usually perform a scripted action to the enemy, which looks cool until you realize that there is no way to interrupt it and you can take damage as you do it.

The second major flaw is that there are several times other than the melee where you are performing a scripted action that allows you to take damage but won't allow you to stop. Most of them are NOT player initiated and they include falling down from damage to the point that you are "downed" and need to be healed by a teammate. There is a 2 second window before you can shoot again. Also, when you are knocked over, you ALWAYS perform a flip to get up and it takes a couple of seconds and you can't shoot during it.

While most of the deterrents in the gameplay are forgivable and don't ruin the experience, they hold the game back from being much better.

REPLAY - 7/10

With 2 difficulties available right off the bat and one more unlockable, playing through twice is realistic. After the second time though, it would be hard for me to see playing it again for quite a while. There is competitive multiplayer but the modes and maps are limited. The amount of replay in the campaign is a little higher than most shooters but definitely lower than most when it comes to competitive multiplayer.

OVERALL - 7/10

Army of Two is a blast to play. Find a friend, create a game and have fun blasting through waves of enemies in some pretty cool levels. Don't get this game expecting to be moved by the dialogue or to be drawn into a well conceived story.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/10/08

Game Release: Army of Two (US, 03/06/08)