Army of Two (Xbox 360, 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

Army of Two was a solid game. I enjoyed playing it. The graphics and gameplay were good. AoT plays similar to Gears of War but with human enemies instead of the locust. The gameplay was different than Gears because of the way you work together with your teammate by trading aggro to get the enemy soldiers attention off you so you can advance without being noticed. It also adds some features like hiding behind your teammate while he holds a shield and there are also a few levels where you drive a vehicle. It also has a weapon custimization feature that is pretty basic but adds some depth by having you earn cash to add these upgrades. The story is vanilla but the CG cutscenes are very well done. I only played this as a single player game and the campain lasted about 8 hrs. I've herad that it is much better with a friend and offer some online gameplay modes, which would add some additional gameplay time. The computer controlled AI did the job well enough though. I still own the game and plan on playing it again with the weapons I earned the first time through. Although this game wasn't the best game I ever played, overall it is well made and worth getting.

I have been wanting to get Army of Two since I saw the first trailers over a year ago. It was a game my friend and I wanted to play because the premise looked like something we'd be in to.

The graphics are great, with well rendered textures and effects, and detail in places you wouldn't normally see in other games. Animation of the characters and enemies are top notch and react well to physics (ie. explosions, falling over).

Sound is well done with ambiance in the background and being able to hear your teammate during all the shooting and explosions. Nothing really stands out in this department as the audio sounds like most other shooters out there.

Controls aren't too shabby. It took a little time to get used to how to change my weapons, so now I'm down with that learning curve. Response is accurate in moving and shooting, so there are no problems there.

The game is pretty entertaining for the most part, but there are some frustrating spots here and there. The AI does a fairly decent job most of the time, but sometimes does what it wants despite you giving it orders. This is where you need a real-life person to take control. That is probably the best part of the game. You and a friend going through the game just kicking butt and being able to talk to each other while doing it. This is the core of the game and I believe its spot-on with its execution.

If you want a shooter game and would rather have someone else help you fight through it, this is your game. Get the game, grab a friend, and go take out some bad guys!

This is a great alternative to other tactical shooters out there right now for the Xbox 360 console. EA could have a great franchise on their hands if they just clean up both your virtual ally and enemy AI. The controls are easy to learn and the story is decent for the type of game that this is.

It IS a game and you can tell because shooting enemies requires multiple shots from almost any weapon that you use. Not a very realistic game but fun nonetheless. The best thing is that you can customize your weapons with extra ammo or a sound suppressor or even "pimp" out your gun in gold and silver. Playing with a friend is better than playing alone.

Please EA, if you can, make it easier to control vehicles the next time around, driving around a hovercraft in this game is horrendously difficult.

A better experience would be Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 or the upcoming Gears of War 2 coming out in November 2008. But for a diversion from other games, Army of 2 fits the bill.

And I bought the game because I got it at a great price, brand new sealed in plastic.

Thanks Ebay for making this possible!

The Game is great, packed with shooting action, and some pretty interesting missions too. it can be rather short, but then for the achievement chasers there's nothing to worry about, not to mention the fact that by having a save file of it in your console you release the 2 best weapons of the second version of the game to be bought in the market (for a pretty high price), only so allowing to get one of the achievements in that game as well.
Anyways, you won't regret getting it. Also, play with a friend. Much more fun than having the partner AI all through the missions with you.