Army of Two

"Army of Two shines the most when you're playing through the various missions on co-op multiplayer."

If you've ever wanted to fight terrorists in Afghanistan or use a hovercraft in a flooded Miami, then Army of Two shouldn't disappoint you. However, Army of Two's six missions it has to offer can well and truly be completed in under ten hours. Now, of course, to get as many achievements as possible, you'll need to replay these missions. If you're not one for replaying something on your own, then you can jump into its mediocre co-op mode.

You can go through the whole game with the AI or with a friend (local and online). Now, the only main problem with the co-op mode is that you can only join at the start of a mission. Unlike some titles, you simply can not just hop into the mission in the middle of it. Whilst this in a way seems realistic, it just seems inconvenient for the players. Also, another problem is if you are not hosting the co-op, then it will only save your progress at the end of the level. However, if you are host, it saves at every checkpoint. So, if you accidentally get disconnected near the end, you would need to restart the whole level whilst the host can simply load the last checkpoint. Then, the host is unable to invite you back in because they are not at the start of the level. Inconvenient - certainly.

If you feel like playing with the AI, then you can indeed do so (there are achievements for doing this with the AI only). Now, I use "AI" lightly because it feels more artificial UN-intelligent at times. Now, you do have control over what your partner does. You can command him to move ahead and fight (to allow you to recover), tell him to stay back (which seems to probably be the best option most of the time) and tell him to stay close.

Now, for the first half of the game, you would probably want to keep your partner staying back and having him come into fight occasionally to get the focus directed towards him from the enemies. If he stays ahead and fights for too long, his health will decrease and can be downed. So, thankfully it is not game over but will be if you do not recover him quickly. This is done by walking up to your downed partner, holding A and that will heal him. However, sometimes you may need to move him to a more safer place behind cover if the enemies are shooting at you or him. The good thing is, he can still shoot whilst he is down to make the enemies back off.

Now, if you get downed, this is where it starts to get annoying. The AI will recover you luckily but if there's too much going on, he will even sometimes just drag you right into the gunfire and attempt to heal you. Now, this is why the AI seems to not be very well programmed at times. It really does get annoying when you can see a perfectly good spot for him to drag you to but he decides to go in the most dangerous of places. Now, since you don't have any control of the movement, you are pretty much hoping you'll get through this.

The gameplay of Army of Two wants you to focus on using this "aggro" system. Basically, if you are firing at enemies, then your meter will increase. This causes enemies to keep their focus on you. However, if you be tactical and tell your partner to get his aggro up, then you can quickly sneak behind enemies on turrets and take them out (you go invisible). This works well also on taking out the much stronger enemies. Enemies have blue, red or green icons above their heads. The blue seems to be the less armoured men, red seems to be slightly more armoured but the green are where it proves a bit tough. Usually, you'll need to get the partner to distract them, so you can sneak up behind them. You may also find it useful to use a grenade or rocket launcher against them to decrease their health. Good teamwork is essential for taking out these guys. The same applies for the bosses that are similar to the green icon men.

Enemies can be killed in a variety of ways. The most common (and obvious) way would be to shoot them using the game's various groups of weapons. There are assault rifles, machine guns, handguns, SMGs, shotguns and sniper rifles to be used. There's also some other weapons such as a stinger (this locks onto enemies) and rocket launcher (should usually take out an enemy instantly if aimed directly). Now, at times, you can be stealthy on some parts and take out enemies with sniper rifles. Doing this correctly can actually prevent more enemies from coming out - saving you a bit of time on the level. All weapons can be tweaked - they can have various upgrades to improve their performance. You can probably get through the entire game by only using a few weapons but it can be made easier if you choose the more powerful types.

The first mission is set in Somalia. Thing is, everytime you start from there, you have to replay the tutorial level. It is indeed a very helpful thing to have but there really is no need for them to make you play through it again everytime you want to play Somalia. You'll travel to other locations such as Afghanistan (where you get to shoot suicide terrorists), Iraq and eventually get to Miami. The environments look quite good - some better than others. The best would probably have to be in a dark, gloomy Miami. Since you can see the waves moving realistically (because of the hurricane) and the indoor environments look very polished. For character models, they look quite good. In a way, they kind-of remind me of those in Crackdown. The menus could have been improved. It just seems slow to navigate through them because of the annoying transitions.

The good thing is that when you complete all missions, you still keep whatever weapons you purchased. So, you can replay on a higher difficulty using those weapons you unlocked. Weapons can be unlocked by purchasing them (money is earned by completing objectives in the missions) or if you complete all missions on any difficulty, you unlock all of the primary ones automatically. All others can be unlocked by completing on the highest difficulty (Professional) but of course you can pay for them without needing to go through it. You can still earn money by replaying missions too. So, you're never stuck on making money. There are not just weapons to buy but there's also masks you can buy. These seem to be a more decorative aspect but certainly something good to have. You can also unlock armour upgrades which will certainly help you out at the later parts of the game.

Back to killing enemies in a variety of ways. Another way is you can use the grenade. This works in two ways. You can blind throw it or aim and then throw. The latter seems more effective but it takes more time. This works in a similar way to how grenades are thrown on Gears of War (with the line indicating where it will land). They have a great impact but don't always seem to be accurate when thrown at times. Enemies can also be knocked down if you are close to them. If you catch them at the right moment, the melee can be done successful. However, at times, I have noticed they can reverse this and indeed kick you down to the ground. So, be careful not to overuse this! If you find a turret nearby, you can indeed use that as it is quite powerful and has infinite bullets. The enemies always seem to like using these. Sometimes, if you take one out who is using the turret, another will go and get on it. Very cheeky enemies, indeed. One last way is by using the shields that you will find at various points in missions. One partner grabs the shield (the AI won't pick this up for some reason) and the other guy stays behind and does the shooting. It works good and if enemies get too close, the partner holding the shield can simply whack them (kills them instantly).

A feature that probably is going to be most fun to use with a partner on local or online is the praise / negative system. You can walk up to your partner anytime and press A - this praises him (shakes his hand). Alternatively, you can be negative (use RT near partner) and headbutt him. The actions are different at times so it's not always the same thing. It is indeed a useless but comedic thing to have in. Army of Two focuses on two main characters named Rio and Salem. Both seem to have that love-hate relationship between them and you'll soon pick up more about them through their dialogue as you progress. They go well together and don't necessarily have to act all serious. They communicate constantly, as required when you are directing where to go. The other characters in Army of Two seem to be more stereotyped. Many of the enemies you see in cutscenes (these are done nicely by the way) will probably remind you of other characters in other video games and movies.

You can take Rio or Salem online too. In fact, you can use more characters this time. It follows a similar rule to the single player. You work co-operatively and have to complete objectives to earn money. You earn a lot more on multiplayer but this money is separate from your single player bank account. There are a few types and maps to choose from too. However, currently the multiplayer has one main flaw to it. That is if anyone quits, then everyone else is disconnected. This is rather unfair and it will not notify you that someone disconnected. The error message seems to think you lost connection. This is the main factor that makes it very weak and unfair multiplayer indeed.

Army of Two is probably best played through its missions with a partner locally or on Xbox LIVE. The AI certainly needs improving a bit as explained earlier. The most fun will probably be when you are playing with a friend. It seems to be a great online co-op game once you're in the mission. I would have liked to see some backend improvements done in a future patch and maybe some more missions? Since this is a short title, it probably is worth renting but if you want to attempt to get as many achievements as possible, it is certainly worth purchasing. There are three main difficulties - the difference is noticeable between them but not too greatly. It's best to pick "Contractor" since you'll earn some of the secret achievements that way then. Army of Two could have done a lot better if they worked more on the multiplayer but still it is certainly a title worth checking out.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/13/08

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