Xboxist

Army of Two Review

Welcome aboard cadets to the SSC. You and your partner will be the only ones going into combat with little to no support. You will only rely on each other and intel specifications from a third party. She will provide you with the best strategy and enemy positions through out your missions. While on these missions, just remember one thing that you all do not exist. If you get too deep, well my friends you are on your own. You are mercenaries now; you will get paid when the job is done! On behalf of Gameflavor welcome to this review on Army of Two.

Lets get things clear you are Salom and Rios who are merc's fighting in a war that hidden from the public. Starting in 1993 all the way to the present time working behind the scenes from the public eye. You begin in the early stages of training where you learn all that you need to know about your weapons and controlling your A.I partner just in case you go in alone. The story line is simple, you go in kill the bad guys, save some comrades and stop a conspiracy which you of course will have to figure out.

Time to get down and dirty with the game play aspect. Game mechanics are easy to get into since the you use the controller fully. The R Trigger is your fire button, Hold down L Trigger for precision shots, RB is held for Co-Op Wheel for co-op sniping or weapon switch, LB is for inventory wheel, The D-pad gives out commands for the A.I partner, the face buttons deal with actions/reloading/rolling/ exit mode and of course your analog sticks control the movements and camera. I have to say the best feature of this game is the interaction and "back to back" mode. To best explain back to back check out the video below courtesy of nextgenwalkthroughs.com. I feel that is the best thing for any co-op game to have.

Now here is a question for yea, what is the major thing about army games especially ones dealing with explosions and violence? Guns, Guns, missiles, and of course guns! Nothing beats a good assortment of guns and the best part about them is that they are all customizable. You can start off with my personal favorite the M16 and have it tricked out with a custom barrel, shotgun attachment or grenade launcher, change the stock for more accuracy, shield for added aggro and of course massive cartridge for more bullet time before reloading. Once that is all done you have one bad ass weapon. I noticed that I said aggro in the feature of the weapon, well that is important with strategy when dealing with many enemies. You will need to use aggro to either get attention or make sure your partner gets attention for added stealth. Basically the bait and switch method, while the enemies are looking one way you are sneaking up behind them either melee attack or killing them cold with your weapon.

Oh yes you will be earning money during your missions and in each mission is a sub objective that will earn you a bonus. You can put your money towards new weapons and gear, so please save up so you can survive this mess.

The idea of adding the aggro pretty good, only of course your partner can hold out long enough for you to perform some needed moves or objectives. In terms of talking about partnership you will need to use a lot of team work to get through the game. Practically all the areas in the game deal with relying on one another, from using the step boost to higher ledges, opening doors and back to back or aggro tactics. This is a team based game which we have been lacking a lot lately, but with this straight up shooting two player barrage of goodness you will be satisfied. Here is the kicker about co-op play as I mentioned earlier. Helping out your comrade to survive! If he is down you are obligated to grab his useless behind and being him to safety so you can heal him and get back into combat. During that time of being dragged it is your job to be useful and give cover fire while your hero is taking your damsel in distress carcus to safety!

Which brings me to another area, replay value. You think you won the good fight? You think you saved the free world from all that is bad? Well think again because soldiers you have to face each other! Thats right multi-player is added to give you the true combat feel against another challenging opponent. This is only two vs. two of course and yes you can earn money during the online battles in which to purchase more mask or better weapons.

The special abilities of the game deal with the aggrometer that slows time town and gives your partner the chance to sneak up fast against another enemy for special melee attacks. Your aggrometer is very important so place close attention to see which side is more aggressive in the red, because it would be wise to use it for your advantage.

Now you think that I will give you just the good without the bad within missions? The thing is that some of the enemy A.I is pretty dumb at times when especially you run up too them while they are reloading and they are stuck on stupid standing there trying to fix up their gun, but sometimes you get eh occasional smart enemy that stops in mid reload to give you a smack down. To be honest the game is pretty short which would of put it in the rental area if it didn't have the multi-player of course. I played with a family member of mine and we demolished it in under six hours, but with skills like my cousin Dex it will be beat till the credits roll baby! Some of the commands given to your A.I partner are simple but a bit too simple which keeps him trapped under heavy fire when the aggrometer is full on his side. After a while you will get the hang of it and you will be using him like a pro.

I know what some of you are pondering, how does this compare to the PS3 version? Well it is quite simple my friends. There is achievements and voice support, I also find the game play more smooth on the 360. However that is just my opinion of course.

My final dossier on this mission. You have fantastic weapons and action dealing with an interesting events loosely based on true events. One of the top notch co-op games out there with customizable characters and weapons. It is a true showcase of being a merc in a black ops operation, besides getting paid big bucks is a huge plus in my book. The game is pretty short lasting about six to seven hours and there are some little glitch and dumb A.I problems that can make you very frustrated at times, especially dealing with the fully armored guy in which you have to sneak from behind to kill. I mean come on I have a sniper rifle and the guys hip is exposed. Can't I just clip him a couple of times until he cries uncle? Good job soldiers and great job on sticking with the training, I will give Army of Two 3.5 out of 5. Stay frosty and keep fighting the good fight!