Army of Two (Sony Playstation 3, 2008)

Halo 3 nailed it, Gears of War executed it, and heck even Crackdown did it. Did exactly what you say? Feature the ability to plough through the campaign with a friend over Xbox Live and even on the same Xbox 360. EA’s Army of Two was built from the ground up to ensure the player gets the most thrilling, intense action packed co-op experience and while it might have sounded good on paper, it has not been implemented all that well.

You begin with a nice little training mission to accustom yourself with the controls of the game and also the features that make up a large part of the campaign. After you successfully complete this mission, you are tasked to go to Somalia to assist a mercenary by the name of ‘Phillip Clyde’ who is assigned to eliminate Mo’Alim.

On completion you are carried away in the evacuation helicopter, Clyde offers Lieutenant Colonel Richard Dalton to join Security and Strategy Corporation (SSC) for a desk job where he agrees and also brings Salem and Rios as contractor mercenaries. There is a nice video which shows the pair in action over the course of 8 years, which then brings us to present day 2001, where you officially start your first mission as a mercenary of SSC in a post 9/11 world.

Campaign mode will see you in numerous locations including China, Iraq and even an aircraft carrier just to name a few. During missions, objectives are given to you by Alice Murray who is your contract coordinator. Successful completion of these objectives earns you cash which enables you to upgrade/buy new weapons and purchase different mask variants. This is a nice way to reward the player and also breaks the norm that other games have giving, you a set amount of weapons that cannot be modified.

The amount of customization able to be done to the weapons is great with a ton of add-ons that will see you spending your money and making your gun look more menacing, but the pimped feature? Walking around with a golden mini-gun and silver diamond encrusted Desert Eagle is nice, but is it necessary? Not really, as you don’t concentrate on the gun but more on trying to stay alive.

If you’re looking to go through campaign mode by yourself you have been warned. EA have tried to make your AI partner as smart as he can be, although there are many times where this isn’t completely obvious. When you need to be healed your partner will drag you, sometimes to the ends of the earth, before discovering when it’s the right time to heal you. Thankfully there are enough checkpoints to ensure that you don’t begin the whole level again or way before the area you’re up to.

The best way to enjoy this game is by Xbox live hands down. Not only does communication between you and your teammate add to the experience, but the teamwork required is very satisfying. A good thing about co-op via Xbox Live is that it covers up the clunky controls and repetitiveness the game has which sees you enjoying the game for what it is and not noticing these bad things.

Army of Two’s campaign takes roughly 8 hours max with an AI partner and around 6-7 with someone over Xbox Live. Single player has little to no replay value with levels being very frustrating and linear. There aren’t multiple ways to complete an objective and there are no open levels that are large enough to explore and add full scale warfare.
Overall Rating: 8/10

Set in a future where private armies are undermining government military, blah, blah...hell, it's a shooter. And it's for two people. And they swear and high-five each other when whacking the enemy. What's not to like? Fire at the enemy melts, get your aggro meter glowing and all guns will be trained on you. Leaving your buddy free to sneak up and shoot them in the back of the head like the dogs they are. Controls easy. Being a co-op, playing the campaign alone means trusting the AI, which in the main is pretty good. Simple shoulder and d-pad clicks send out orrders, and if you're taking too much heat, you can tell your guy to get all medieval on the enemy ass, and he'll draw fire while you recover. Follow set objectives to gain cash (which you can also bump up completing side missions and searching for level bonuses) which you can they spend, spend, spend on new weapons and upgrades (excellent touch) as well as blinging the sh*t out of your guns. Enemies can't help but pay attention to a diamond-studded missile launcher or solid gold AK47. You can also purchase body armour upgrades and menacing steel face masks. Nice.

Gameplay is intuitive, menus really smart and clear. First level tutors you through the various player controls, and hints pop up in the early stages. Characters are meaty, dialogue suitably rough, tough, rude and funny, enemies aggressive and locations well drawn (apart from the odd texture rip). Sound, including score, dialogue and weapons, score a big fat 10. Problems? Not many. Given the release date fell back by several months, the gameplay doesn't feel quite as polished as it should. Cover system not as good as R6 Vegas and automatic weapons seem a little weedy in the early stages (I emptied an entire clip into one dumbass melt without him dropping). But you're not going to buy this for the campaign...you're gonna buy it to hit online and go hellfire crazy with a buddy. And that's where Ao2 as at its best. Multiplayer hook-up is easy, but I did notice a warning saying you could only co-op on ps3 with another PAL disc owner...I guess that means you can't play with your Yankee buddies. Shame.

Overall, it's kick-ass fun, and certainly the best shooter since CoD4. Hoo-ahh!

I bought this game mostly because of all the advertisement I saw on TV, the game as a whole is great, realistic weapons and death scenes, adrenaline pumped action and even the dialogs between the main characters are better that what you usually find out there, feels like real people talking to each other instead of the old generic script of a bad amateur flick, that’s usually inserted in these kind of games.
But it has it’s downsides too, for example, the storyline is really short, it is absolutely no secret as to who the villain is and the lack of realistic stealth in game is also very annoying, you can try as much as you want, but you can never sneak up behind anyone without attracting the attention of every single enemy in the area, I mean, think about this, you are dropped in the middle of nowhere with no one in sight, you should at least be able to slain a few baddies before anyone notices you, instead, the mechanics of the game acts as tough you had a parade marching in front of you announcing to anyone who's paying attention that somebody is about to bring hell upon them but with that aside, you can really have some fun and with the online playing it really makes up for it’s flaws. All in all, I’d give it 7.5 out of 10.

THIS GAME IS A BLAST WITH VERY FEW SHORT COMING'S, LOT'S OF ACTION AND REALISTIC WEAPON'S AN CONTROL'S..MORE BULLET INTERACTION WITH WALL'S
AND OTHER ITEM'S WOULD BE REALLY NICE,BUT OVER ALL A GREAT GAME 5*****
I'M HAVING A HARD TIME SHUTTING IT OFF.....

Worth a purchase, but don't go in expecting twenty hours to complete the missions. There are six to eight missions tops, though each one proves heavily engaging. I also highly suggest playing co-op with a buddy to take full advantage of the tactics/abilities you can do. If you have no friends, then at least head online and hook up with another loner to try out the awesome multiplayer.

There are a few AI glitches, namely with enemies running in circles at times, or running right past you without firing. The control scheme is buggy at times, though overall both gripes are really negligent.

Check it out. I'd at least rent it, though a purchase is certainly not out of the question - the online play warrants a buy in my opinion, and certainly adds depth to the shallow campaign.