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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: 8/10Read full review
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!Read full review
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 (nice touch is tapping Y button to baseball slide into cover). 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 tight as Gears or 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 Xbox live 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 XBL with another PAL disc owner...I guess that means you can't play with you Yankee buddies. Shame. Overall, it's kick-ass fun, and certainly the best shooter since CoD4. Hoo-ahh!Read full review
Army of Two is the best example of two-player co-op perfection I have ever seen on a gaming system. The unique combat system of Aggro, combined with special co-op tactics make the game a jewel in the cooperative operation games genre. GRAPHICS: 9/10 Just because the game is played split-screen doesn't mean that it should lack graphic capability. Army of Two displays fresh, crisp, high-quality cinematics and in-game graphics. This makes for a great play, where half the fun is seeing how well the next level is designed. Textures are near-perfect with some choppiness, but thats a small price to pay for a game like AoT. CONTROLS: 10/10 Controls are natural and easy-to-use. The CP is easy to command if you are going it alone, using the RB for an alt function key. Any person who has experience with the shooter genre will easily be able to pick up the controls, as they are basically the same as in many other games. SINGLE-PLAYER MODE: 8/10 Because the CP can be retarded at times, the single-player function lacks a lot of what the game has to offer. Although it is basically the same as the Co-op mode, it lacks some of the defining characteristics of the game: namely that it is meant for two. CO-OP MODE: 10/10 Astonishing in all of its brilliance, Army of Two played in two-player co-op is nothing less than amazing. With a live person that is (hopefully) not as moronic as the CP, the game is much more fun. The only drawback is that the screenspace available is greatly reduced. However, no quality is really lost in this. The co-op mode gives each player the sense of being on a task force, allowing each to fullfill goals separately to achieve a successfull mission. ONLINE: 9/10 I do not have extensive experience with the online co-op for this game, but from what I have played, it resembles very much the co-op mode of the main campaign. The missions change dramatically, but the gameplay holds true to the game, giving the same play value as does the main game, with limited restriction. OVERALL: 9.2/10 Although the game is VERY short, it is a great play. The lack of drivable vehicles is also disappointing, but the one mission with one almost makes up for it. Overall, this game is amazing, with a few things that might have made it a tiny bit better. A great buy for anyone.Read full review
Haven't tried it single player - I only got it to play couch co-op with a friend. Happy with it so far, though memorizing all of the special moves in the tutorial that you need to employ later in the game was a little problematic. All in all, I recommend it, especially when you can get it used at a decent price.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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