Developer: EA Montreal
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Rating Guide: How I Review Games

Review:

Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem work for the Security & Strategy Corporation (SSC).  They’re a team of Private Military Contractors with a money comes first golden rule.  But as the saying goes, the more money you have…then the more problems you have and that’s just where the fun begins in Army of Two. 

I had the opportunity to play Army of Two a little early courtesy of my friends at EA Montreal.  It’s no secret that I’ve been eagerly anticipating Army of Two since seeing it at EA’s Studio Showcase.  It was fun being at the top of the AOT Leaderboard for a small time I must say.  But what kind of gamer would I be if I kept to myself and not shared my opinions?  So on that note, let me hit you with how Army of Two stacks up.

Gameplay, Graphics and Sound

You control either Tyson Rios or Elliot Salem in the game and that means teaming up with a friend for some split-screen fun or letting the AI control the other character during campaign.  Don’t worry because the AI proved to be sufficiently competent to handle the task.  You can even set your preferred player to play with in the options.  AOT was built around co-operative play and it’s built pretty good so prepare to play as a team.

I had hoped there would be more interaction between the two since this was all about co-op but you were limited to three D-pad control commands to give either Rios or Salem.  Regroup, move forward or hold your position.  Right Trigger fires your weapons and holding the Left Bumper allows you to cycle through each weapon available.  You can even perform a few special melee moves if you’re up close enough by also pressing the Right Trigger.  You can also exchange weapons with your partner or go into a cool co-op snipe mode together with the Right Bumper.  They even threw in a special little partner mini-cam for you to access at any time to see your partner kickin’ ass.  Press the D-Pad down to bring up the mini-cam.  Also, try pressing the Right Trigger or A button when the two of you are just chillin’ to listen to some humorous jabber between Rios and Salem.

You have a variety of weapons to use and some upgrades to dish out that makes them more powerful.  In fact, you have a weapons menu that lets you deal with different dealers across the world for Primary, Secondary, Special Weapons and even Gear.  Gear was pretty weak to be honest with only limited options for color changes to your Mask and nothing but Medium or Hard armor to upgrade to. 

There wasn’t much in terms of customizing weapons (something I would imagine is key to guys like this) but there’s enough.  You have muzzle options, stock options among others that increase/decrease a weapon’s performance.  You can even bling out your weapon.  The price on these upgrades is pretty expensive so be sure to stack your cheese if you want that ultimate sniper rifle or that nice new mask for Rios/Salem.  And they’re all powerful enough at some point to properly dispose of every enemy you face.

Some of the bad guys force you to incorporate a new feature called Aggro because shooting them in the back is the only way to defeat them. Aggro is a system in the game that brings all the heat down on the player presenting the biggest threat to the enemy.  If you’re sitting behind cover firing off sniper rounds then all the heat turns your way while your partner can move and kill with less attention.  You burn a fiery red when your Aggro is high.  If you master how to properly use it to draw fire from yourself or your friend, then it becomes a very useful tool.  You can also use the A button to interact with and grab certain objects during the game to use as shields while your partner is behind you taking out enemies.

Back To Back was one of the coolest things in the game.  Whenever a moment triggered a Back To Back sequence, I went straight into my “I’m a super soldier” mode.  The slow motion and the firing in different positions was great.  I wish you could manually control those moments.  Overkill was another interesting addition to the game.  When you maintain Aggro for a certain amount of time, you’re given the option to go into Overkill.  This increases the damage of your attacks as well as puts you into super slow-mo death dealin’ mode.

I don’t want to lead you to believe the AI isn’t up to par with all these super cool tools for our heroes because they are.  They’ll duck, cover, change positions and try to flank you rather effectively.  There were rare moments when you could predict from which way they’d come and that was impressive.  I played on Contractor so I imagine on the hardest difficulty it’s even more of a challenge.  Again, be sure to get very familiar with the Aggro system because when done properly, it’s your most effective tool.  You also need to watch your partner’s back.  If he dies or if you die, then it’s game over.  You’ll find yourself dragging him out of battle to heal him more often than not.  I thought this was a nice addition although it left you open to some heavy damage because you could only go so fast while dragging your guy to safety.

Your environment also plays a pretty big part.  Learn to use cover (press Y button to slide into position and Right trigger to blind fire) and learn at which points you can flank the bad guys or send your partner to hold position taking Aggro while you infiltrate.  The levels aren’t that big but they provide a lot of intense, quick action.  The dialogue between the two is pretty cheesy with a bit of dry humor mixed with profanity throughout.  I didn’t like the hyper voice of Salem all that much compared to the heavier voice of Rios.  It felt like a strange mix considering the line of work these guys are in.  Still, the voicework and dialogue worked.  You can tell that EA Montreal did a lot of lines for the game because I didn’t come across the same line once during play.

The sound in the game also managed to work.  You had just enough from your weapons, explosions and enemy chatter to make you feel like you were on some intense missions.  The cutscenes were also noteworthy if only because they included the game’s tattoed tough girl and mission coordinator, Alice Murray.  She’s the new face of leading ladies that I hope finds her way into being playable with a sequel.  (for mission essential purposes ofcourse)  The bottom line is AOT was a nice mix of storytelling between amazing cutscenes and in-game action.

One thing I can’t forget to mention was how detailed the game was.  One particular scene on an aircraft carrier was near perfect.  The lighting, textures and the design of AOT was pinpoint.  Both Rios and Salem were very detailed from their mask right down to their butt packs.  I must say I was impressed with the level of detail not only on the characters but also in each environment.  Army of Two definitely looked the part of a next-generation title.

Xbox Live Extras 

Army of Two is all about co-operative play and that extends right into the meat of what EA Montreal has done with multiplayer across Xbox Live.  Versus Mode is where you’ll do battle against 3 other friends in Ranked or Unranked matches.  You can even have a Guest sign on for some split screen fun against another team.

There are 3 game types; Warzone, Bounties, and Extraction.  I played Warzone.  You’ll compete to obtain a variety of objectives across different maps (countries).  Your team against another team.  Objectives get you some loot and whichever team ends up with the most cash at the end of the match wins.  You’re playing as bad ass PMC’s so completing the job means only half as much as the payout when the job is done.

You’ll not only be up against the other team to complete the objectives but you’ll also be faced with the enemy AI trying to stop both teams.  It doubles the challenge and at least makes the rounds more competitive.  One other thing that adds a bit of intrigue to the match is how respawning affects your cash.  When you’re gunned down and you opt to respawn, you lose a bit of your earned money.  It’s important to team up with someone you trust because your partner has to revive you so that your team doesn’t lose money.  Money rules everything.  That’s the name of the game.

The objectives are marked with an icon so that you know which to go to next.  It’s a race to each one and you can’t choose which to do first.  Each team has to do them in the same order.  I didn’t play the other game types but Warzone was a lot of fun.  There were some server issues but they should be sorted out before the game releases.  In fact, as I’m writing this review they appear to be non-existent.  Gamers should find smooth online play while playing.

If you don’t want to play against anyone, there’s always playing some campaign co-op on Xbox Live with a friend instead.  One thing to note about its Xbox Live Extras is how puzzling it is that US, UK and other regions won’t be able to battle against or with each other online due to the region lock on multiplayer.

Conclusion

I think Army of Two is the next great franchise from EA giving us two characters who are both likeable and equally versed in Kick Ass 101.  The Aggro system turned out to be much better than I expected. 

The campaign ended up being the most enjoyable co-op experience I’ve had on Xbox 360 to date.  Although it wasn’t a long campaign, it was solid.  The multiplayer left a bit to be desired with its lack of modes, maps and variants but it’s a positive start in the right direction.

It’s Combat, Camaraderie and a whole lotta Cash wrapped in the year’s first bonafied entry in the 3rd person shooter genre.