Army of Two

"Hope you have friends."

Army of Two is a testosterone-filled third-person shootout that can be intensely entertaining, especially if you're playing alongside a close compadre, but ultimately falls just short of greatness. If you and a friend are jonesing for a solid weekend rental, look no further than Army of Two.

Army of Two's plotline is a mishmash of military fantasy and reality. You play as either Salem or Rios, two wisecracking, cash-hungry mercenaries working for the U.S. Government. As you leave a trail of destruction in your wake across locales ranging from Iraq to China, it becomes increasingly apparent that all is not well in the land of the hired soldier. Someone in your organization is pulling strings a little too greedily in Washington and it's beginning to unravel the entire U.S. military structure. Yet the intriguing, albeit dumb, plotline never becomes an integral part of gameplay. Sharp cutscenes fail to adequately convey information and Rios' musings on the strange occurrances within top brass feel forced and silly. But at its core, Army of Two is a game about blowing the living hell out of everything around you, and when there's just so much room for destruction, plot will inevitably fall to the back of line on the priorities list.

Core gameplay of Army of Two focuses on a third-person semi-tactical approach to combat, akin to Gears of War (in fact, you'll get a slight-taste of Gears deja vu when playing Army of Two -- they have many similar elements). You'll need to hug walls and dive behind cover as you and your buddy slowly wade through wave after wave of generic terrorist-looking enemies. Rios and Salem can blindfire over barriers and around corners, and you'll be doing that a lot, because your quarry is deadly accurate, while you, unfortunately, are not. Popping out of cover for just a moment will result in a hail of bullets in your direction. Fortunately, your warrior is covered in a few inches of some beastly-looking armor, which includes the game's signature masks. As you stalk around the globe looking like Jason Voorhees (sans machete, plus rocket launcher), you'll mow down baddies while completing side-objectives, which nets you pocketfuls of cash. At certain points during missions, you'll be able to use your hard-earned loot to upgrade your weapons. Now, this isn't just any old weapon-upgrade system. Nay, in Army of Two, you have carte blanche to completely deck-out your guns with new stocks, cartridges, silencers, grips, shields, and even front-mounted grenade launchers. But the real sweetness comes from the aptly-named "Pimp" category, which turns each gun into a shining, bejeweled boomstick.

Playing with a partner is an essential element in this game. While you can fight alongside a computer-controller warrior, Army of Two loses much of its draw without another human being at your side. You'll need to work in-tandem to survive, and failing to do so will result in a quick and painful death. The most important part of the coop gameplay is the introduction of the "Aggro" system, a mechanic that has been taken from the MMORPG genre. In short, Aggro means that enemies will focus on whoever is making the most ruckus. Unload a full clip from your AK-47 into a crowd and everyone will turn their attention to you, allowing your partner to flank or execute precise shots without fear of being spotted. Hold Aggro for long enough and you'll be able to perform one of those slow-motion modes that are so omnipresent in the shooter genre nowadays. Beyond Aggro, you'll use teamwork to lift one another up and over high barriers, fire synchronous sniper shots on big targets, and even enter hollywood-esque back-to-back segments where you and your compatriot rotate in a circle while enemy targets swarm from all angles. And if you take too much fire, you'll drop to your ass and continue blasting away until your partner drags you to cover and injects you with adrenaline.

There's a lot of exciting stuff going on in Army of Two, and the graphics do a stand-up job of keeping you engaged, but the length and scope of each of the game's six levels just feels as if the devs took one too many shortcuts. Environments are lackluster and generic and after a while the constant cover-fire-move gameplay begins to approach banality. Without the teamwork mechanics, Army of Two doesn't have much to stand upon. There are some slight variances in enemy types, as beyond the standard grunts (which comprise about 95% of the baddies you'll encounter), you'll also trade bullets with massively-armored soliders that can only be taken down with heavy artillery or smart teamwork. There are a handful of boss fights and vehicle sections tossed in, but none are very memorable besides the parachuting sections where Rios and Salem, hitched together, slowly descend into a warzone: one person controls the parachute, the other fires round after round of sniper fire into the eager maw of soldiers below.

But good luck hitting anything except when in heavy cover. Firing your weapons while moving is impossibly frustrating, and if faced with two enemies in an open area, you had best duck for cover lest you be smashed like a bird hitting a metal window. You'll curse as your guns graze nothing but air as you unload bullet after clip after bandoleer at scurrying terrorists. That is not to say your quarry is particularly brilliant, because although enemies will smartly roll into and hang behind cover, they also do some absurdly stupid things, like spinning in circles and running fullon into the open for no particular reason at all.

As for audio, Army of Two sounds like you'd expect a high-octane shoot-em-up to sound. Bone-jarring explosions and rattling gunfire will fill your ears nearly 24/7 as a somewhat subdued hard rock soundtrack rolls along in the background. Voice acting is serviceable, and some of Salem's quips are hilarious, but it's all nothing to write home about. You'll trade one-liners and smack each other around in a Battletoads-esque slapstick manner, which adds a subtle and welcome comic-air to Army of Two, which every-so-often begins to take itself too seriously and needs to be knocked down to the level of absurdist military fantasy that it dwells at.

Beyond the standard Coop mode, you can also take the battle online against opponents. When playing over Live, you'll engage in 1v1 and 2v2 matches where you square off in different locales and race against opponents to make the most cash. Gathering dinero is a matter of taking-out enemies and completing simple objectives across the map. It's an interesting diversion but doesn't feel as engaging or long-lasting as some multiplayer modes in other games. For a game featuring such a short single-player mode, it's unfortunate that more depth cannot be found online, but hopefully the inevitable sequel will add new facets to all corners of gameplay.

You're probably going to have a good time playing Army of Two. Its solid gameplay and fresh teamwork elements make for a unique experience that deserves at least one runthrough. But a simple lack of depth and content along with some general silliness in plot and enemy AI means your attention wont be held for long. And if you don't have a partner to play alongside, it would be suggested you either find one or avoid this title altogether. In the meantime, though, feel free to grab your guns and charge headlong into the battlefield. An Army of Two is waiting.


Gameplay: 7/10
Fun but sometimes frustrating. Worthless without a buddy.

Graphics: 7/10
Looks slick but many of the environments are blander than bland.

Control: 5/10
You're either murdering everyone or hitting nothing but air.

Sound: 6/10
Gets the job done with solid voice acting. Score could be a little better.

Fun Factor: 6/10
Fun as hell if you have a friend alongside.

Overall: 6/10
It's a solid game with very few negatives. A unique approach to combat is bookended by decent graphics and over-the-top presentation. Once again, though, without a compadre, there's little point to this.

Submitted: 5/11/2008

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 05/12/08

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