Army of Two (Xbox 360, 2008)

Halo 3 nailed it, Gears of War executed it, and heck even Crackdown did it. Did exactly what you say? Feature the ability to plough through the campaign with a friend over Xbox Live and even on the same Xbox 360. EA’s Army of Two was built from the ground up to ensure the player gets the most thrilling, intense action packed co-op experience and while it might have sounded good on paper, it has not been implemented all that well.

You begin with a nice little training mission to accustom yourself with the controls of the game and also the features that make up a large part of the campaign. After you successfully complete this mission, you are tasked to go to Somalia to assist a mercenary by the name of ‘Phillip Clyde’ who is assigned to eliminate Mo’Alim.

On completion you are carried away in the evacuation helicopter, Clyde offers Lieutenant Colonel Richard Dalton to join Security and Strategy Corporation (SSC) for a desk job where he agrees and also brings Salem and Rios as contractor mercenaries. There is a nice video which shows the pair in action over the course of 8 years, which then brings us to present day 2001, where you officially start your first mission as a mercenary of SSC in a post 9/11 world.

Campaign mode will see you in numerous locations including China, Iraq and even an aircraft carrier just to name a few. During missions, objectives are given to you by Alice Murray who is your contract coordinator. Successful completion of these objectives earns you cash which enables you to upgrade/buy new weapons and purchase different mask variants. This is a nice way to reward the player and also breaks the norm that other games have giving, you a set amount of weapons that cannot be modified.

The amount of customization able to be done to the weapons is great with a ton of add-ons that will see you spending your money and making your gun look more menacing, but the pimped feature? Walking around with a golden mini-gun and silver diamond encrusted Desert Eagle is nice, but is it necessary? Not really, as you don’t concentrate on the gun but more on trying to stay alive.

If you’re looking to go through campaign mode by yourself you have been warned. EA have tried to make your AI partner as smart as he can be, although there are many times where this isn’t completely obvious. When you need to be healed your partner will drag you, sometimes to the ends of the earth, before discovering when it’s the right time to heal you. Thankfully there are enough checkpoints to ensure that you don’t begin the whole level again or way before the area you’re up to.

The best way to enjoy this game is by Xbox live hands down. Not only does communication between you and your teammate add to the experience, but the teamwork required is very satisfying. A good thing about co-op via Xbox Live is that it covers up the clunky controls and repetitiveness the game has which sees you enjoying the game for what it is and not noticing these bad things.

Army of Two’s campaign takes roughly 8 hours max with an AI partner and around 6-7 with someone over Xbox Live. Single player has little to no replay value with levels being very frustrating and linear. There aren’t multiple ways to complete an objective and there are no open levels that are large enough to explore and add full scale warfare.
Overall Rating: 8/10