"In this modern day of gaming online cooperative play seems to be increasingly important among gamers. Army of Two delivers on the premise, and does a pretty good job as well. While you won’t find anything too innovative about the co-op play, you come to learn that teamwork in this game is definitely a priority."
Overall: Overall, It is a good game. I really enjoyed it. It has good graphics, good coop, and a different but good verses mode. I think I ran through the campaign a good 4 or 5 times. The achievements were not easy but not hard. They were a nice balance. I personally have not gotten all of them but I have gotten a lot of them. They are cool achievements that makes you like the game even more. It makes you use different guns, it'll make you choose different tactics and it was very fun trying to get the achievements for it. And the way the controls are laid out just make it a breeze to control your partner and to get a different weapon. What I found really cool is that you can buy different weapons and actually upgrade ii with almost everything from a bigger clip to a better stock all the way to pimping it out(basically just turns it gold). Now every gun cannot be upgraded with different barrels and such but every gun can be pimped out. I also like how the used 'aggro'. Which is, if your partner has a bigger gun or is killing more people, the enemies will shoot at them so you can sneak around. That is what really stepped it up for me. I just thought the aggro was amazing, and it added that extra little pinch of tactics. So overall it was a very good game, mixing a very good story with a different take on shooters. I suggest a buy with this one. Although its not as good playing with yourself rather than online or system link, but it is still very good. Gameplay: The gameplay was very good. The thing that made it is something called aggro. You learn about it in the first mission, the tutorial level. Aggro is when either you or your partner is shooting and/or killing more people which means the enemies will focus on who is attracting the most attention, whether its killing the enemy, or having a bigger gun, or just straight shooting. I think that made the game much more interesting. It gave it a little bit of a tactical shooter at times. And I also love the integration of the coop. This whole game is literally about coop play. There is not one time during the game where you and your partner split up. Your partner is always with you and helping you in someway. Whether its step-jumping onto a ledge or taking all the aggro and having your partner sneak around the enemies. Now yes it is better with a real person but it still has a good campaign even if you are by yourself. I would say this is a must buy.
Overall: Army of Two has so much potential that it was a foregone conclussion that I would buy the game. It has beautiful graphics the likes of which most games today can't touch. While I think maybe the terrain graphics could have been better, they were still very good. The characters, though, are outrageously detailed and probably my favorite to date in an FPS game.
With that beings said, however, the game definitely has it's downfalls. I find it hard to rate this game higher than average due to what I feel are a lot of unpolished issues. If you want to know more, read on and I'll explain my ratings and the reasons behind them. Gameplay: Gameplay is where you would expect this game to shine. It's mulitplayer co-op is the core mechanic in the game. When you look at other games, though, this is really more or less something that didn't help the overall gameplay. Aspects of the game, such as the co-op snipe are really interesting as are the back to back sessions.
The problem with those are there are too few uses for the co-op snipe and the back to back is would be a lot more fun if you could initiate when you needed to as opposed to it being a scripted event that you can't break out of. The other issue that I and my compatriot had as we tried to work through the co-op game was the movement.
Alot of times, I thought I was sliding into cover when I guess I was too close and I lept the barricade and got my @!%#*! shot off. This leads to turning to try and get back into cover. Turning is way to slow and there is no way to adjust the look speed. There were times when I was being circle-strafed by enemies and I couldn't keep up with them as I turned around to shoot them. In most games I would just up the sensitivity on the stick/mouse but it's not an option and therefore it is a problem for me.
My last gameplay complaint is the cover system. Had I never owned or played Gears of War, I probably wouldn't know that there were issues at all. However, having played in and out of cover online and offline with Gear of War, Army of Two's cover system felt completely inadequate. In GoW, you knew when you were at the edge of cover. In Ao2, you're never really sure until you see your weapon shift to the outside of the bunker. This can often lead to you sliding left, sliding left, sliding left until you have completely exposed yourself and you are getting peppered by enemy fire.
The one thing that I do think is absolutely brilliant about this game is the Aggro-based gameplay. Being able to work cooperatively and distract enemies was a great addition to FPS gaming. Had Ao2 omitted the cover system completely, which felt like it was thrown in at the last minute, the game may have had a more arcadey feel to it, but I think based on the style of gameplay, it would have been more appropriate.
All in all, while I wanted to love this game, it's gameplay simply wouldn't let me. Graphics: Wow... that's about all I can say. Rios and Salem are two hyper-detailed soldiers who are customizable. That's everything I want in a game avatar. The weapons are detailed and look great in-game..
There levels aren't bad looking either. There is a lot of detail and variety in them. It's not uber, but it's not bad either. If graphics could carry a game, this game would go pretty far on that alone. Sound: The audio is really what you would expect from a game like this with a few exceptions. Rios and Salem chattering back and forth was nice. It never really got boring listening to them bicker at each other. The only thing that did get old was the comments after being healed. But hey I had to get healed alot so maybe that was my fault.
All in all, I thought the sound was great. The voice acting wasn't bad, either. It's not going to win an Oscar or anything, but it has been done much, much worse before.
Good stuff. Suggestions: Wow... where do we start...
If you want to model a game after a blockbuster, you'd better be sure to at least attain the same level of gameplay as those you're emulating. If you want a full cover system, look at how it's been done and, if you can't improve on it, copy it. I know it sounds cheesy or cheating, but @!%#*!...
Also allow for more user options. I don't want my character to turn like he's standing in mud. Allow me to adjust that sensitivity to my liking.
While I like what you're trying to do here and I know this game had a troubled development cycle, don't release the game before it's ready. This one isn't ready.
Overall: Awesome graphics, this game has some of the best graphics that i have seen recently.. The game play is smooth there are a few times during specific coop actions when the cameras become stiff but other then that smooth game play. Have not played the online matches yet but the campaign mode is short and too the point i like it, has a great replay value as well, it makes you want to play the game again on the highest difficulty...achievements are also attainable
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