Day 72: A Two Headed Killing Machine: An Army of Two Review
Army of Two is a great example of how important a little TLC is to things like movies and games. Halo shines so damn bright because what the hell was Bungie before it? The game put them on the map, and made it one of the most important developers in North America. You can argue quality, but you can’t deny that after Goldeneye lost its luster, Halo made FPS shooters viable on console, and showed everyone that online could be done and how to do it right on consoles.
Cliffy B was fucking everywhere when the promotions were coming out for Gears of War. Was it a bit much? Perhaps, but having his name, his reputation as a creator and artist, synonymous with the final product meant it was a personal labor to make sure that game was as good as it was.
On top of that, Bungie is known for Halo and Epic is known for Unreal Tournament and Gears of War but the publisher of Army of Two, EA, what are they known for? Christ, how long have you got? EA is the Super Wal-Mart of videogames companies, everything you could want under one roof. Racing, shooting, sports, adventure, there’s probably some strategy titles, but they do a little bit of everything. With their size, money, and clout in the industry, everything they put out is competent. Nothing is really overtly bad. It’s a bit of studio think/process like the movies used to do. There’s a formula in place that never fails to do its job and all you do is change little things like make one racing game about drifting and another about F-1.
But that’s the problem.
EA makes enough titles that are slightly above average enough that they make all their money back no matter what. They don’t need everyone with a console to buy their game because they’ll make it up elsewhere. Bungie and Epic were hungry, and it showed because of the care that went into their games. Double Fine, developer of the criminally underrated, underplayed, and underappreciated Psychonauts is in that place right now, and that’s why you’ll continue to see quality titles come out from them. Their games have to be great because they won’t be putting out four titles every month.
If Army of Two had come from a smaller studio, it would have been the next Gears of War. Co-op is even more important in this game, you use cover, the main characters look cool as hell, the graphics are really good, and the storyline is better (the dialogue, however, is tragically on par with Marcus Fenix and the rest of Delta Squad). On top of that, you earn cash to put toward different guns, and then tricking out those guns with different stocks, barrels, magazine size, and they all actually affect how the weapon fires and how enemy AI behave.
The game has been touting its aggro system for some time now, and it is the thing that separates the game from other shooters. Depending on who you talk to the system is either brilliant or blunt. The more you fire at the enemy the more bad guys notice you and the less they notice your partner. This is conveyed visually by turning your character bright red, and the other one invisible. It helps you realize how the flow of the gun battle is going and is affected by where you are on the battlefield, how much you’re firing, and your gun itself. Normally in games where you purchase weapons you just build toward the biggest gun, but in this one, depending on how you want to fight depends on the weapon you want. Want to be stealthy? Get an Aug with a suppressor. Do not, repeat, DO NOT use my tricked out SAW with 120 round drum, and a fucking riot shield on the barrel. I fire one round from that thing, and my partner could be a crowd of naked porn stars holding “free BJ’s for terrorists” signs and they’d still train every gun and grenade on me. This is a really neat idea, and I feel that it’s been implemented extremely well.
The AI is actually pretty good. The terrorists flank you constantly, and it took some time to adjust from other games. In Halo, Gears, or Call of Duty, once you clear an area you’re good. In this game, if you leave a flank open they will get behind you, and it gets to be pretty terrifying when you’re dragging your wounded partner to some crates where you can patch him up, and you’re suddenly caught in the crossfire between the guys keeping you busy on the front, and the second group coming up behind you.
As for your partner, I haven’t been able to play it with a human partner watching my back, but the AI is actually some of the best I’ve seen. It’s not perfect, the aggressive advance command usually means your wingman will run up ahead until he finds an enemy, and once he does, he refuses to use cover, but unlike Gears he never wanders into my field of fire. He never stops in the middle of the street without reason (cover my retreat by firing back, drawing fire so I can snipe a gunner, etc). When you get hit, he doesn’t drag you someplace that doesn’t make sense to patch you up. I thought he was the worst wounded…dragger…man…guy at first, but I realized we were being out smarted and out flanked.
However, there are some little bits and pieces that could have benefited from some more time, or more direct attention. Tragically the tutorial is slipshod and seems rushed. The partner AI is almost too competent here, and actually finishes some of the tutorials for you, which is a problem when you have no idea how synchronized sniping works, and it is vital to some missions. Other times, the voices talk over each other, and you miss objectives, or, say, where the proximity mines are.
The interface is unwieldy. Your D-pad is for tactical commands unless you hold down the left bumper, then it becomes your weapon inventory. If you hold down the right bumper is becomes team activities like synchronized sniping or switching guns, which makes no sense without a human partner. It’s hard to keep track of at first, and under fire, well there’s few things worse than needing to call for cover fire and instead pulling out your pistol.
Many of the missions feel the same the only difference being the locale. Although tandem parachuting (one man controls the chute, the other fires the sniper rifle), hovercraft gunfights, and a really spectacular escape from a sinking aircraft carrier break things up nicely. The level designs are really well done, with lots of places to attack from, all of which change how the firefight will play out. The layout can be used to help you, but if you don’t play it smart and don’t use your partner well, it can be turned against you, cutting you off and wiping out your team.
Oddly, many times, doing anything as a team, particularly involving the opening and closing of doors causes the game to go into a short movie of the characters pulling a door off its hinges, or prying something open, and then right back to the game. It honestly makes no sense.
In the end there’s a lot to love here. Weapon purchasing and upgrading that makes sense, challenging AI on both sides of the rifle, nice graphics, a somewhat interesting story, but it keeps tripping over the little things, which is a shame. This is one of those games I was really looking forward to, and it’s so frustrating to see it so close to great, but instead settles for merely good.
Rent it and enjoy it, but I can’t say I’d recommend purchasing it.
Matt