Army of Two: The 40th Day Review
Over time multiplayer, then online multiplayer, became a staple, nay, a near requirement of any first or third-person shooter video game release. To this day that added component flops in many titles, yet a new shooter game fixture is quickly entering 'staple' territory, co-operative play. Yet again, like multiplayer, co-op modes are hit and miss between shooter releases, and rarely one of the largest focuses of any shooter. Nearly two years have passed since EA Montreal's original foray into the realm of co-op focused shooters, Army of Two, a third-person perspective title that was fun, but no where near a defining release in the genre. Lead characters, Rios and Salem, are back with Army of Two: The 40th Day, to try again to grasp the crown of premium co-op shooter, but once again they fall just short.
Rios and Salem, you could say, are small business owners. The two, along with communications assistant, Alice, make up Trans World Operations (TWO), a private military contractor. Rios and Salem don't hang up their coats in an office however, instead the two bare arms and are the soldiers of the operation. While the duo are on mission in Shanghai, China, an enormous terrorist assault befalls the city, taking down dozens of skyscrapers, including a few Rios and Salem end up traversing. With no idea what's going on, working together Rios and Salem set out to escape the disaster, despite hundreds upon hundreds of hired soldiers trying to kill them in the process.
The beginning of Army of Two: The 40th Day has a lot of punch and wow to it. Cinematics really convey the scale and magnitude of the catastrophic events taking place, and with so much action going on, it's understandable that depth of story and well written dialogue would elude that situation, which they certainly do in this game. However, once the dust settles, there's little story to carry the game along, and furthermore dialogue can generously be described as hammed and predictable. As Rios and Salem fight their way across, through, and down destroyed buildings, they mostly compliment how great of shots each other are, seemingly as frequently as enemies are disposed. What there is of a story in this game is little more than a vehicle for its scenery, level design, and gameplay.
Being co-op focused, the premise to gameplay is that it's designed to emphasize the importance of teamwork. The game can be played single player with an AI partner as well as offline co-op with a local friend, and online co-op with anyone. There's lots of options available to get players to play alongside another human player, but the game makes great strives to make playing the game alone just as effective. Playing solo, players can choose to control either Rios or Salem, but once chosen there's no in-game switching. The player's AI partner is fairly smart, and a good shot, but above all follows players commands as they're doled out. Commands are fairly simple and effective, being Regroup, Advance, and Hold Position. On top of those, partners can also be told to either not draw too much attention while exchanging fire with enemies, or instructed to really get enemies' attention and fight more aggressively. This system is called the 'Aggro' system, pulling from the word 'aggravate'.
