Army of Two: The 40th Day Review

Army of Two: The 40th Day, the sequel to the first Army of Two, still playing as Salem and Rios, in their journey through Shanghai. While taking what they thought was an easy job, they are soon thrown into chaos and Shanghai is brought to its knees with a series of attacks. Can you survive long enough to find the culprits? Or a better question is can you play it long enough to want to find the culprits?

Now, I for one am all for shoot ‘em up/co-op games, but this game is just made me question how stupid EA Montreal thinks the enemies should be. Throwing a grenade at most AI in any game will cause any baddy to run away and get away from the blast, but in this game the AI stand around. Shooting through objects was out of the question, try shooting a 9mm through an inch of aluminum and it will magically protect the other mercs trying to kill you. For the most part the game play, is overall simple and easy to play through; even on the hardest difficulty it only takes a couple of hours to beat the entire game. While the game’s story revolves around the two main characters, finding the controls to be a bit too loose making tight shots become quick sprays to hopefully hit the enemy. I find the AI to be a bit of a turn off for the game, even your partner with bad grenade throws and spraying the same enemy while another is shooting him in the side.

You come with a GPS system, not only does it point you in the right direction, but you can target enemies and make your ally go and capture the head guy. This seems like a lot of work, but it only takes a button or two for the first player. From there you can choose whether to execute or tie down those you’ve captured. The GPS also seems to take you in circles as you try to find your way through buildings. Even though I’m not even color blind and I had difficulties finding the line to follow in game. The GPS system also has a short time of when it can be up and when it crashes to recharge. But overall it is a handy piece of equipment, if you can get over its short comings.

Graphics, while there are many faults that I find with this game the graphics have to be one of the lesser qualities of this game. There are some good moments, seeing the town fall falling apart, guards and mercenaries falling to their deaths; but the distant picture of the screen seems to fall short when it comes to detail. It seems like the game developers focused more on what was in front of you rather than the whole picture. I did enjoy the feeling of wondering how messed up this city can get, from the garbage on the street, to the building collapsing right in front of my face. On the same note, the soundtrack will make your mood swing in an instant. One minute it will be soft and then all of a sudden a hard drum line and brass join in and all of a sudden you are swarmed with 30 bad guys. Rios and Salem’s comments to each other, although sparse through the chapters comes with a big laugh. From Salem’s fear of getting in an elevator in a collapsing building to Rios’ “Worse. Zoo. Ever.” line.

With the price tag of 59.99 this game is not even worth half the price of the game. With the AI flaws and over all graphic short comings this game will probably drop in price quickly. Not the worse game I ever played, but man it’s up there. Overall I’d give the game a 6/10.