Army of Two Xbox 360 review

Army of Two for Xbox 360Army of Two wants you to never go into battle alone. EA’s Montreal development studio has made a strategic third person co-op shooter that focuses on gameplay centered around two-man missions, two-man strategies, two-man tactics and a two-man advantage.

Time to see if this co-op experience delivers.

System: Xbox 360, PS3
Genre: Third-Person Shooter, Action
Release dates: March 4th 2008 (USA), March 7th 2008 (EUR), March 13th 2008 (AUS)
Players: single player, 2-player (online) co-op, and 2-4 (online) multiplayer
Developer: EA Montreal
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Origin: Canada

Army of Two screenshot

In Army of Two you fight along side your team-mate to become the deadliest two-man military outfit a government can buy. The story is about fictionalized Private Military Contractor partners, characterized as mercenaries. Army of Two is a third person shooter game based around the story of two private military contractors from 1993 to 2009. The game aims to captivate gamers with a politically charged storyline, with its hot spots ripped from current day headlines, centering on the impact and ethical issues of Private Military Corporations. Gamers will fight their way through war, turmoil and a conspiracy so vast it threatens the entire world.

When one man is not enough, it’s going to take an army of two to save the day. The breakthrough gameplay in Army of Two, with (seamlessly transitioning between) a live player or adaptive Partner A.I., enables you to take advantage of two-man strategies like customizable weapons, vehicles, and tactical shooting. From two-man sniping to parachuting, players will experience action-packed scenarios where they will have to use their wit, strength and a deadly arsenal of shared customizable weapons to successfully defeat their enemies and complete the mission at hand.

Watch the Army of Two launch trailer.

The main features of Army of Two are:

* “Two Man” Gameplay – Co-op is no longer a mode, it’s the game. Team up with a live or AI partner on two-man missions using two-man tactics to ultimately create an advantage that no enemy can withstand.

* Partner AI – Army of Two delivers intelligent partner AI (PAI) that interacts, adapts, collaborates and learns from their human partner. The PAI will also react and adjust to the gamer’s ability and how they play the game by taking the lead or following, driving strategy or taking orders. It is the dream of the human machine.

* Customizable Weapons – Customize and upgrade dozens of deadly weapons and share them with your partner off or online.

* Dynamic Environments – EA’s Montreal studio pulled out all the stops to deliver realistic character and environmental effects including fluid dynamics that showcase open-ocean water-wave simulation as well as High Dynamic Range (HDR) lighting.

* Contemporary Storyline Ripped from the Headlines – Army of Two will captivate gamers with a politically charged storyline, centering on the impact and ethical issues of Private Military Corporations.

* Online Gameplay – Army of Two redefines two-man online gameplay with players seamlessly moving from PAI to live players as they make their way through the game.

The 11 implemented co-op maneuvers include:

* Step Jump: One person stands up against a wall and holds his hands out while the other person gets lifted up. The second person can then reach down and pull first person up.

* Back to Back: Both players go back to back to cover each other’s non-armored backsides.

* Driving: The hovercraft needs one player to drive and the other to man the turret.

* Kudos: Both players can do a range of emotes from slapping each other to playing air guitar. Also characters will communicate a lot and talk trash to one another. For example, one of the random emotes that Rios will occasionally say after being healed is “Where did you learn first aid, butcher school?” Players can also show anger to their partner by smacking them or head-butting them, Salem will occasionally say “You’re fuckin’ dead bro”.

* Healing: When one player is injured, the other player must run over to him and either drag him to a safe area or heal him in that spot. The injured player also has a “bleed-out” bar, which limits how much time they have left before they die from their injuries. This bar decreases from 1. The difficulty played and 2. If enemies continue to shoot them.

* Aggro Meter: Whichever player is firing the most will attract all enemies towards them. This allows the other player to become virtually invisible, and thus sneak up to enemy positions. If the aggrometer is full to one player they can initiate an “Overkill” mode, which the player with the most aggro goes into a fury doing X2,X3,X4 etc. shooting damage to the enemies, in this mode bullet time is initiated and the player cannot crouch, but doesn’t have to reload either. The other player without aggro becomes transparent and moves faster, they are reccomended to use hand to hand combat while in this mode. Both players have 15 seconds before all aggro is drained and both players are equal.

* Feign Death: If player one is about to die, he can fake his death. All the aggro will go to the second player. Then player one can get up and attack them from behind, if walked past.

* Co-op Snipe: Both players get into a sniping maneuver to double their power or take out two targets at the same time.

* Weapon Swap: Players switch weapons with each other to diversify their arsenal.

* Riot Shield: One of the players picks up a shield or a car door and both players hide behind it. While one player holds the shield, the other player has the ability to open fire at incoming enemies. The player that carries the shield also has the ability to hit enemies with the shield using melee attack.

* Parachuting: In some missions Salem and Rios will be dropped from the skies via parachute. Then one soldier controls the parachute, while the other snipes targets on the ground.

Watch Army of Two’s split-screen co-op gameplay footage.

Army of Two’s online multiplayer allows up to four players, two on each team similar to the co-op structure of the main campaign. For some unknown reason it’s region-locked though. Both teams will compete over objectives on the map such as assassinating a VIP or destroying an objective in order to earn the most money for their side. At the same time, they will also be forced to deal with the opposing team in order to secure their objectives. In the interview, the developer has stated, “The biggest challenge was to convey the co-op experience in a multiplayer match. We didn’t want to go with the typical deathmatch mode. We have a variety of modes that really capture the essence of co-op gameplay. You’ll have to watch each other’s backs and work together to defeat the opposing team. ”

Character customization is not possible in the multiplayer portion of the game but you can buy preset sets of weapons, upgrade your body armour and amount of ammo you can carry. Players need to be careful while shopping though, because it might affect the outcome of the match, since the team with the most cash in the end wins.

There are 3 multiplayer gametypes: Warzone, Bounties and Extraction. In warzone the objectives are randomly generated and they may vary greatly. For example team might need to get to certain place and defend it, while other team tries to destroy it, shoot down the chopper, blowing up a jeep with gunner, transporting wounded soldiers to extraction point, assassinating V.I.P’s etc… Extraction is basically Warzone but with rescuing V.I.P.’s to a safe location only. There are currently four maps total, and each are filled with hostiles native to the location. Also every map contains so called “intelligence”, which if picked up will get you extra cash and the more intelligence picked up the more it is worth.

Watch a Two VS. Two multiplayer video.

In conclusion let’s see how much fun Army of Two is on a scale from 1 to 10?

FUN FACTOR – 8.0
In 2006 co-op fans had Gears of War’s Marcus & Dom, in 2007 most notable were Halo 3’s Master Chief & The Arbiter. Ignoring the upcoming release of Gears of War 2, will 2008’s favorite pair be Army of Two’s Salem & Rios? One thing is for sure, the game focuses solely on the multiplayer co-op experience and shouldn’t be played on your own despite the decently helpful Partner A.I. The fun factor is based on the entertainment talking to a buddy gives as you both work through the game and rely on each others skills.

Let’s point out the good and the bad. While not all co-op play is useful like the clumsy timed co-op sniping, most of it works very well like the strategic Aggro system (even if it makes the game a bit easy), as well as other innovative features like dragging/healing your partner while the other shoots to cover your exit (or the other way around) in the middle of a warzone, creating a riot shield to cover your shooting partner in enemy territory, and using each other as step ups onto higher ground. All this to take out the bad guys and rake in the cash. Using this cash to upgrade and expand your weapons arsenal or pimp out your gun is pretty fun. The story is a mix between realistic past & current events and unrealistic unlimited health packs, out-of-place buddy compliments, disappearing bullet holes, and slow-motion effects during back-to-back sequences that make the both of you invincible. For a game and story focusing on realism there could’ve been more details added there, but don’t get me wrong, it’s still a lot of fun. So yes, for co-op fanatics this shooter is a must-have.

Graphics – 8.5
The graphics in Army of Two are very detailed, both the large wasteland environments and character models that are well animated. I didn’t encounter any framerate nor camera problems either. The High Dynamic Range lighting is given a well-deserved flaunting through beautiful direct sunlight effects to shadows. Special effects like the realistic weaponsfire and huge explosions everywhere really help make the game feel alive.

Audio – 8.5
The soundtrack composed by Trevor Morris (of Black Hawk Down, Bad Boys II, The Last Samurai and Pirates of the Caribbean 1 and 2 fame) brings all aspects of the storyline and epic two-man gameplay to life through a powerful soundtrack. You’ll be drawn in by the atmospheric music, good voice acting (if you don’t mind cursing and don’t take the script too seriously), and fitting sound effects. Although the sound of explosions could’ve been louder.

Ingenuity – 8.0
Once you get used to the third-person view, aggro meter, and the duck and cover system, you’ll find the under-an-hour learning curve to be worth the diverse gameplay as you travel the world’s action-packed warzones. While the controls fit the gameplay well, they are explained to you through a training camp at the start of the game, the one exception is the way you change weapons. Weapons change forces you to hold the left shoulder button and then choose via the directional pad, this should’ve been more direct and reversed with the directional pad’s team commands that are instant. Since you’ll be changing weapons more often, but you can get used to this.

Replay Value – 7.5
Depending on the difficulty mode you choose, you can expect to spend about 6 to 8 hours playing through the six campaigns alone or with two players. This game shines with co-op mode though, try and avoid playing it alone. Multiplayer mode also adds some fun team-based online play (Warzone, Bounties, and Extraction) across four maps, but at the moment it’s hampered by lag (which strangely isn’t the case in online co-op). Still, after you’re done with the main campaign the replay value will be coming from online multiplayer.