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Army of Two
Home : Games : Reviews : Xbox 360 : Army of Two

No, you are playing this game because it is a Co-op game. Because you have a friend or family member, or sometimes a complete stranger, who you want to play with. It is certainly an average game for co-op, but some of the flaws will attach to your brain and forever beckon you to return to something else. That isn't to say you should. If there is someone to play with, AO2 has some great qualities.

Qualities like Aggro, the meter that decides which player gets the most attention based on their bullet count. The philosophy behind Aggro is wonderful: fire little and enemies won’t notice you much; fire plenty and they’ll notice you plenty. Take out a few enemies and suddenly your partner is invisible. In both theory and practice, it works excellently, and is even better when done with a non-computer intelligence.

Swapping weapons isn't only mostly useless, it's fun too!

AO2 does do a few other things right, or mostly right. The cover system doesn't require any button presses, so you never get stuck on a wall like in Gears of War. You do hang onto it, but the moment you pull away, it’s no longer a concern. It doesn't always work perfectly, but it was never frustrating in comparison to what's been done in the past. There is also a good assortment of weapons, all upgradeable (and pimpable, meaning you can spend 10k to make it a gold gun), you can switch guns with your partner (but no selecting his weapons), there's a button to slide into cover and you can either high-five or backhand your buddy whenever you please. Not that there's any point to it, but it's the little things that count.

Army of two isn't bad. It's sitting on the edge of bad and teetering back and forth, daring us to come with it for a small ride. On the one hand, playing it alone is a lame experience, where most of the time spent is relaying orders that aren't followed and making sure your partner doesn't die so when you do, he can drag you in circles until he finds cover that's of course right next to you. It also makes the little problems seem that much worse. Playing it with a friend is completely different, where while the gameplay is still mediocre, the Aggro allows for quite a bit of entertainment and teamwork.

Special partner moves like using a shield, holding them over a ledge and co-op sniping are usually fun for one person, but if you don't share you can just smack them.

The multiplayer is interesting and certainly satisfying. Two teams of two enter a huge map and fulfill objectives earning money, which ultimately is used for buying bigger and better guns in-game. Your rivals can do the same, and they'll be on the field too, gunning you down whenever they have the chance. Throw in some civilians who need saving and some unfriendly AI and suddenly there's an insanely complicated multiplayer game going on that everyone should try.

If it wasn’t for Aggro, the entire single player experience, and possibly the entire game, wouldn’t be worth a day’s rent, let alone buying. The AI isn’t stupid, it just hasn’t passed the fourth grade. Friendly AI disregards orders and basically makes difficult sequences impossibly frustrating while enemy AI, as mentioned before, is tear-inducing. Thankfully, the game is meant to be Co-op, but that doesn't spare it from the wreak of bugs and unfortunate design choices. If anything, it looks good, but that isn't enough. It simply relies on Aggro and a few other traits like automatic cover to pull it out of its self-induced hole, but only meets us halfway.

Highs
Aggro system, buddy camera, good cover system, excellent graphics, and unique multiplayer.

Lows
Poor story, sketchy gameplay, undesirable combat system, and bug-ridden.

Final Verdict
It can be fun with two players, but it's a real stretch. With Aggro, there is a sentiment to try it at least once, but we can't recommend more than that.

60%

Mar 22, 2008

Review by James Pikover.