Review: Army of Two for Xbox 360
Co-op gameplay is unquestionably in, especially in this generation of gaming. There’s an appeal to working together with a buddy and being able to live on to fight another day. Kind of like Gears of War, Army of Two’s main gameplay is a third-person shooter built around this premise. So, is this game more like “Lethal Weapon” or “Loaded Weapon”? Read on to find out.
The paper-thin storyline sees a couple mercenaries paid handsomely to take out the world’s trash. Most action movies don’t have much of a plot either, so this can be forgiven. Suffice it to say, it’s just a mechanism and gives some rationale as to why you are knee-deep in enemy bodies without your country flag anywhere in sight. As you complete missions, you earn money. And you are greatly encouraged to use that money to buy advanced weapons and upgrade your current gear. There’s an extraordinary number of customizations, including pimping out your gun in gold ala “Lord of War” and sporting any number of menacing face masks.
Most of the gameplay–as you’d expect–focuses on teamwork and the interplay of you and your fellow soldier. Although it would seem necessary to play with a friend, your partner’s A.I. is actually not too bad. There are a number of places where you will be compelled to work together. The most visible one is in Aggro. The basic idea is that if you are firing many shots or have a more punishing weapon than your buddy then the enemy is totally focused on you. On-screen, your character will glow red. You can order your buddy to distract the enemy from you by pressing right on the d-Pad. Once the baddies are locked on him, it’s much easier to move around unspotted and cap them.
The idea of Aggro is kind of silly given that the rest of the game is so heavily focused on bringing you realistic looking people, guns, explosions, etc. I mean–GLOWING red! It also doesn’t say too much about the enemy intelligence that they would forget how many people were firing on them. Still, it is an interesting dynamic; and it’s virtually impossible to play the game without it.
Some of the other co-op events include healing your friend, weapon swap, and step-jump–hopping up into your buddies arms to get to a high place and then having you reach down and grab that person. The coolest one has to be back-to-back, where you get a sort of slow-motion sequence where a slew of enemies comes and you just mow them down. Additionally, co-op snipe allows you to fire two identical shots at the same time. You can even high-five your teammate or slap him upside the head if you want to. And there’s even more.
The game plays sort of like a modern-day version of Gears of War if only based on how much teamwork it takes and sort of how good the game looks. It’s a little unnerving having suicide bombers rushing at you with explosives belts, but then again, it was no picnic having some of those Gears monsters come after you either.
Although it’s a good game, Army of Two has a couple major flaws that keep it from becoming truly excellent. One of my biggest beefs is that there are some extremely cool sequences in the game that only take place in cut-scenes. As a gamer, I want to be the one pulling off the “whoa!” sort of moves. And even if it’s kind of cool watching it unfold in beautifully animated, silky smooth textured cut-scenes, it’s better actually doing it.
The hardest part to stomach is the dialog; it’s impressively bad. Given all the work that went into building a unique co-op experience, I would have liked to see EA spend a couple thousand more dollars to get the mercenaries talking like the tough guys they really are. I’m not expecting much more than what “Rambo” would say. But when your giggling like school girls as enemies pour over you, it is distracting to say the least.
All told, Army of Two is a quality experience on the Xbox 360 whether you have a gaming friend or if you want to play it solo. The graphics are solid, controls intuitive, sound crisp; it’s a very well made title. It’s definitely worth renting for just about any adult shooter fan–as long as you can get over some minor annoyances.