reviews

 In today’s gaming market there have been many attempts to create the ultimate shooting experience. Like Sean said before, this year we’ve seen all sorts of games like Bioshock, Halo 3, and Call of Duty 4 burst onto the scene. These games wowed me, especially COD 4, and conveyed a different experience and brought a new level of gameplay to the genre that in the past had delivered its fair share of mediocre titles. The innovations behind these games kept me highly focused on following the genre and made me yearn for more. After experiencing much of what this year’s shooters had to offer I felt like the genre was gaining momentum and this was going to be one of the best years for gamers who love to shoot things. But just like in everything else you’re going to step in some shit on your way to finding the perfect game. I will admit that being the hardcore gamer that I am I can scrutinize a game just as bad as the next guy, but I do realize that every game isn’t perfect and they will have their flaws, and that’s forgivable. But, there is no excuse for handing over a sub par title to the public and ask they pay full price for it.

 Army of Two was a title that I’d been waiting for since I first heard of its conception. Every week my stomach hurt when I heard news of ongoing delays to the title. But when the delays were due to some much needed polishing of the game, I understood. Who wants a half done messed up copy of a game? Most of those titles end up as drink coasters or in some landfill somewhere polluting up the planet. So I waited as patiently as I could for the Wednesday that my local Gamestop would let me pick it up. Well the day arrived and I couldn’t wait to place the game in the tray and hear it slip away into my Xbox 360. It was like music to my ears. The cinematic scenes rolled in and my jaw dropped and eyes opened wider to take in all the graphic quality I was being shown. I sat back and prepared myself for the bullet-ridden rollercoaster ride I waited so long in line for.

 Army of Two takes us in for an up-close look into the lives of two mercenaries who work for the dark and somewhat mysterious world of America’s privatized military. Playing as either Salem or Rios you embark on different missions where you’ll battle terrorist around the globe. Your goal, as is the goal of every mercenary, is to accumulate money. You accomplish this in two ways: discovering different secondary objectives like collecting intelligence for your handler, and completing the various missions set in front of you. But either way you look at it you’re not fighting for the love of your country, or anything remotely noble, you fight for greed, and the almighty dollar. Some might find this aspect of the game appalling, but it is the harsh reality of the private fighting forces that do exist.

 All right so you’ve assumed the role of either one of these jacked-up badass-motherfuckers and you’re setting out on your first mission. The first thing that you’re most likely to notice is the killer cinematics that you’ll see. Everything is so crisp and well defined you almost feel like your choking on the dust that’s getting kicked up into the air. But after you’ve gotten to your first big handful of popcorn, you’ve realized there’s no butter. And that’s pretty much the feeling I got throughout my experience of the game. It was like peanut butter and no jelly, a hamburger and no fries. This game stood out all right, stood out like a fifth generation inbreed with a dog-named Cletus.

 There are many flaws still present in the game. First off EA if you want to make a game in the shooter genre make sure the aiming/bullet penetration elements of the game actually work. I’ve played FPS and TPS games for most of my life and I was thoroughly disappointed with the gunplay of this title almost as much as Kane and Lynch. EA made a shoddy attempt at creating something that could have been amazing. Here is where the delay comes into the picture: why does the game still present so many flaws? In certain instances I had the lovely opportunity to be shot by various enemy through barriers, and when I returned fire to that exact same location they were nailing me from I didn’t even land one measly round (but the enemy was still there). The same goes for the eagle-eyed enemies that can seem to nail you from two football fields away when I can barely see them, and with an AK47 to boot: the most inaccurate weapon ever made. At times when I was riddled with bullets crying for my so-called AI friend to come and heal me he was to busy caught on a wall somewhere. And even if I issued a regroup order he just kept standing there in his own world, not mine. When the mental genius finally reached me after I died in the same scenario three times before, he would drag me to where everyone was shooting me from. What an idiot!

 The co-op multiplayer mode wasn’t any better, other than the fact that I could play with one of my friends. It was still riddled with problems and left my friend and I wondering if they had any game testers working with them on this project. If they did they should be drug out in front of the studio and shot in the head. Well let’s not take it to that extreme but you all know what I’m talking about. It’s just frustrating to battle through a title on a harder setting just to have the bugs work against your advancement in the game. Once you get by the bugs, and the part where one of you has to sit there with a big sign over your head that reads “HERE I AM PLEASE SHOOT AT ME” while the other player runs around mowing guys down like it was nothing, the game is OK.

 The weaponry was one of the more impressive things in the game. A vast arsenal of weapons sat at your disposal that is once you accumulated enough dough to purchase some heavy firepower. Anything from submachine guns, pistols, and RPGs could be purchased and upgraded. Elongating the barrel of your rifle, modifying the stock, even adding a grenade launcher to the bottom of your favorite assault rifle was all at your fingertips. And even if upgrading the “POW” factor of your weapon didn’t impress you pimping it out was always a possibility (make it gaudy as hell by adding gold plating).  

 The only true way I got a shred of enjoyment out of the game was to play by myself. Taking the campaign on solo was the route with least amount of problems, that is until you went down and to call numb-nuts to come drag you to the enemy’s front door. Even the action sequence button pressing was plagued with issues and made you repeatedly have to find that sweet spot where the interaction could take place. Wait I’m mistaken, they worked fine for the air guitar and hand slapping sequences but not when you needed to step jump.

 The term “next-gen” is used to describe something that is cutting edge or state-of-the-art. Army of Two promised us this through the use of AGGRO and two man fighting tactics that you would use throughout the game. The back-to-back fighting sequences were exciting, but I became disappointed after I found I couldn’t randomly use this technique. The AGGRO feature of the game even worked like it should: you shoot and draw attention towards yourself and away from your partner allowing them to flank your attackers. AGGRO worked well It was just disappointing that you were once again forced into using it, and your teammate was about as useful as a three-legged hooker when it came to clearing out enemies. If the AI was a better shot I might have been more inclined to sit behind cover while he did all the necessary killing. To bad that never happened and I was stuck babysitting a big guy in a hockey mask that kept yelling at me that we needed to flank a guy.

 In the end Army of Two left me feeling a little disappointed. I was so impressed by the level of gameplay that I had experienced in the training portion of the game. It just left me wondering what happened to the rest of the game? Army of Two was an excellent concept for a game, but in the end it fell short of my high expectations. The countless programming issue that surrounded both the enemy and friendly AI made the game more of an annoyance than a pleasurable experience. The replay value of the game is extremely low; that is unless you feel the need to get all the achievements in a game. If you are an achievement junkie like myself you’ll be required to play through the campaign one or two more times to rack up the rest. This was just one of the numerous instances where I felt forced into doing something in the game. I found this bothersome to say the least, and gave me the feeling EA had a gun to the back of my head most of the game. So if you’re a huge fan of amazing cut scenes that are followed by sub par gameplay, than Army of Two is for you. But if you’re like me, and demand a certain level of quality from the shooter based genre games you play, this game falls into the rental category.  

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