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It's been quite a while since I first saw the teaser trailer for Army of Two. When I did all those months ago, I figured it was some kind of high tech, science fiction sort of game... you know, an unstoppable duo wielding the latest in death dealing weapons and the best armour that science could create.I figured that it was going to be dealing with blowing away aliens or the like.
Well, I was wrong.
Well, partially at any rate.
The game does touch on some of this, a pair of former Rangers named Elliot Salem and Tyson Rios, who end up quitting the military to go for a Mercenary Company known as SSC, the Security and Strategy Corporation.
The beautiful part of the game is that it is very heavily story driven. You're mercenaries, and you get paid by the mission, and you can get bonuses of cash throughout by completing secondary objectives.
This cash can be used to buy better weapons you have your primary typically an assault rifle, but you can purchase different types, all the way up to a mini-gun. The secondary weapons are handguns but you can also purchase sub-machine guns, such as the P90. Finally you also have your special weapon which is typically a sniper rifle, but you can even buy anti-tank weapons to use.
Now, if you don't have enough money after a mission to purchase a new weapon, you can always upgrade your existing weapon to increase its damage, accuracy, ammunition capacity and aggro.
So, you can really customize your weapons. Hell, you can even `pimp' out your weapon, getting it covered in gold plating, if you so desire.
As for the game, it's divided up into six missions, played over a thirteen year period, starting in 1993.
You start in Somalia, then head to Afghanistan and fight your way though an old soviet military complex. From there you fight in Iraq, and then mission four takes place in the Philippines, on the Aircraft Carrier the USS Constellation. Mission five takes place in China and finally the last mission of the game is in a flooded downtown Miami.
Throughout the game there are numerous cut scenes, all that adds to the depth of the game world and the story behind it.
If I had a complaint about these cut scenes is that several times the walking animation of the various characters involved was really jerky, not smooth or natural in any way. But I only noticed this I think twice through the entire game.
While I'm on it, the animation was beautifully rendered. It didn't quite have the rag-doll effect that I've been growing accustomed to seeing in many of these first person shooter games, and the blood and gore was really toned down.
Frankly, I wouldn't expect any less from an Xbox 360 game.
The sound effects were well done as well. Each weapon had its own unique sound. It's a good thing I don't usually play these games with the sound cranked, because if I did, I'd probably have damaged my ears every time a rocket was launched and it exploded!
Despite the fact that there is little in the line of gore, this game isn't for children. The F-bomb is dropped with frighteningly regularity, and it does deal with mature subject matter, although there isn't any nudity in the game.
Game play is your typical Xbox 360 first person shooter. You don't have a health score, but you can tell how badly you are injured as your screen will start to turn red, and you're breathing will become hard and laboured. If this happens, make damned sure you find cover and give yourself a short period of time to recover!
If you take too much damage, you'll get knocked flat on your armoured rear, so make sure that your partner is close at hand, or you are dead. See below for more on this...
You have plenty of places to hide in the game environment, so make good use of them. Duck behind desks, or small walls or even glass doors to evade enemy fire. That did kind of annoy me, as I would have much preferred to see you be able to shoot through objects like this, but that too is minor.
Unlike many other Xbox games I've played, this one has very little in the way of environmental kills. There are occasionally barrels or propane containers that you can shoot and cause them to explode, but I found that they were few and far between.
One thing that you can't ignore is the use of your partner. You have three commands that you can use on him. Stick close, head out and draw fire, or stay put and cover. These can be used to varying degrees, such as if you want your partner to go ahead and draw fire so you can get into a better position to cause some serious damage.
This is especially useful when you run into heavily armoured opponents who can only be hurt if you get behind them and shoot them in the back, or machine gunners who are hidden behind full shields.
Of these three commands, you have two levels of aggressiveness... blue which means defensive, or red which means offensive.
Now, as I stated above, if you or your partner get badly injured, you can call them up to help you. You will get dragged away, and while you're being dragged, you can still fire your weapon at the enemy. Once you're behind cover, your partner will heal you and you're ready to fight once again.
You'll know if your partner is in trouble as he will call out for help. If this happens, get to him quickly... if you don't he'll die and you'll have to start from the last checkpoint.
One thing that really took me by surprise was the scope of the game. Several levels, starting with the USS Constellation, were amazingly huge! You really felt like you were fighting on the deck of an American carrier!
Even in Miami, several of the maps you fought on were incredibly large, like the airport. Plenty of places to hide, but also if you were unlucky enough to get caught out in the open, well as Hudson would put it, Game over man, Game over!
Combat was, once again, typical of an Xbox 360 game. You could see the damage meter above your targets and this helped you to know if you were actually hitting the target or not during combat. You could zoom in a little closer by hitting the left trigger, or if you were using your sniper rifle, you'd be able to zoom directly in for a nice head shot. You know, one shot, one kill.
Hitting the head was also a good way of taking down your enemy with a minimal expenditure of ammunition.
There are also two ways of replenishing your ammo supply. You could pick up ammo off the bodies of certain enemies after you dispatched them, or you'd get re-supplied between missions. The ammo dropped by the enemy always looks like golden packs, so make sure you grab when you can.
Be warned, the enemy isn't stupid. They don't like getting caught in the open, and they will use cover to its full advantage. Watch out too, while you're at it, as they like to drop more than F-bombs on you. Stay too long behind cover in one place, and they'll toss a nice little grenade your way.
There are a couple of times throughout the game you'll get to drive vehicles, or control a parachute as you drop in on your mission. Make sure you have your sniper rifle at the ready as you drop in during the parachute phase, as it'll reduce the number of enemies you have to face once you hit the ground.
The driving sequences were pretty standard fare, with you controlling the vehicle while your partner provided cover-fire. I guess if you're playing two player mode, you could quite easily take control of the gun instead of driving.
Oh, as you fight, you'll gain aggro. This means that the enemy is targeting you and you alone, unless your partner presents himself as an easy target. This can be a bad thing, if you don't have anywhere to hide. But, while the aggro is on you, you can send your partner out to take out the opponents while they concentrate their fire on you.
The reverse works as well, you can send your partner out to attract the fire while you get into a better position to take out your enemy.
And, if you find a riot shield to use, don't hesitate!
Finally, as with the aggro overkill meter, several times during the game you'll have to fight back to back. When this happens, time will slow down and your weapon will do a great deal more damage. You'll have to keep turning in a circle in order to take your targets out, so don't just aim for one location only, or you'll get yourself and your partner killed!
Ok, Pros of the game...
Smart AI for both enemy and your AI controlled partner.
A wide variety of locations world wide to fight in.
Map size for some of the missions.
Upgradeable weapons.
Some very entertaining mini cut scenes. Watch em carefully!
Co-op sniping!
Cons of the game...
Some of the larger maps don't have too many save points, and it can get frustrating.
Only about six hours of play time.
Some of the movement in the cut scenes were very jerky and un-natural.
Would have liked a larger variety of weapons, more ways to upgrade, upgradeable armour, and the ability to pick up your opponents weapons.
I haven't tried out the multiplayer part of the game, so I can't comment on it.
Overall, it was a solid, enjoyable game with lots of potential that was put to excellent use.
4 out of 5
Best Deals for Army of Two: Platinum Hits - Xbox 360
If you're like me, you love video games. You love shooters, and more than that, you love to share the fun with a friend. Sure, it's a blast to have multi-player where you can kill each other, but what the industry has been lacking til now is a game meant to be played with a friend. Army of Two delivers.First off, there's various modes where you combine forces with your characters, including a dual-sniper mode that allows you and a friend to coordinate sniper shots to take down two foes at the same time. You'll still depend on your friend taking the voice-cue from the game, but if they don't know how to fire when the game tells them to, it's the least of your worries. There's also back-to-back mode, which looked a LOT like the final shoot-out scene in Mr. & Mrs. Smith very cool how the characters twist and turn around each other to shoot the badies.
There's a lot fo the game that depends on two people helping each other, but there's also a lot of subtle things added in that make it fun enough to want to talk about. Not only can you congratulate your co-op buddy with a high-five or smart remark (via game controls), you can also insult them or give them a well-deserved headbutt for overwhelming idiocy in the line of duty.
The great part for me is that as you advance, you make money. You can then use this money to outfit yourself with new and more powerful weapons, armor, and even facemasks. (The facemasks are the best part, as you can get ones that with a desert motiff, a "street" motiff, or my favorite, a clown face!!!) you can also save your money to focus in areas you're good at. I'm a sniper, so I spent most of my money getting the latest and greatest sniper rifle.
The story line is solid, the game controls take bit of getting used to, especially with all the bumper use, but all in all I have to say this is the best 360 game yet this year.
Honest reviews on Army of Two: Platinum Hits - Xbox 360
Finished this on "professional" (the highest level) with my 14 yr old son in about 5 hours. After about a week of messing around with it and trying it on-line (the connection often drops or lags in the middle of the game) we are back to playing Call of Duty 4 on-line. If you don't have COD4 definitely get that first.As the name implies it is meant to be played by two people. If you get dropped, your partner can revive you as with Gears of War. But, if you get dropped in a bad spot, your teammate can drag you to cover and revive you there.
You get paid for completing objectives and taking out bad guys. You get to use the money to buy weapons or upgrade the ones you have with new barrels, stocks, grenade launchers, silencers, etc. You can even get your guns "pimped out" with gold plating. My son really likes customizing his weapon set.
The games is built around teamwork. One of you gets the bad guy's attention blind firing a big loud gun (pimped guns get more aggro too) and your partner sneaks up on their flanks and takes them out. You even get a meter which measures how much attention you are getting (the game calls this "aggro"). The more aggro you aquire makes your character actually glow read and your partner gets a little transparent. Get the aggro meter way up and you get something called "overkill" which puts everything in slow motion and gives you unlimited ammo and 2x damage. There's a couple of other teamwork things like coop sniping (sniping two simultaneous targets) and "back-to-back" which is alot like the overkill thing except you and your partner take out bad guys while standing back-to-back.
Story and movies (that you can't skip) are above average. The graphics don't come close to COD4 or Gears.
The language is very graphic and not just an occasional S**T or D**N as in COD4. This game makes frequent use of F*** and M*****F***ER. Violence level is actually kind of tame compared to something like Gears or COD4. For example, there is no limb or head removal (as with Gears) or blood splats on the walls (as in COD4).
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Army of Two: Platinum Hits - Xbox 360
A great game to play with a buddy (or wife:-) for co-op play. Playing solo with the AI is okay, but not nearly as enjoyable as with a *real* partner. The AI does a good job, but the dialog variety is a little weak and doesn't provide you with any game feedback, i.e., "Watch out on your left." Also, avoid using your GPS; it's too much hand-holding. It's more fun to explore and figure out your route and objectives on your own. The game is fairly linear, so what's the need for the yellow-blinking brick road?Things that would've given it a higher rating in my book:
1. more AI instructions, i.e., go left, right, forward, etc.
2. more levels! Too short going solo. Good length for co-op though.
3. customizable armor, i.e., speed versus protecting, custom paint to match the masks, etc.
4. more innovative co-op moments
We're looking forward to Army of Two... er... uh... 2!
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