Army of Two - 2007 Take the concept of Metal Gear Solid 4 regarding privatized military companies, make a cliff notes version of it, package it and you get Army of Two. Army of Two has the generic third person shooter formula, the Agro co-op function (which is pretty much one acts like bait and the other shoots in a very simple degree), and some co-op engines such as "I'll help you up the ledge", slo-mo back to back (which is pretty awesome the 1st time), one shoots-one steers, and the human shield with a car door. They are fun mechanics, but the game over-uses them to a degree that they all become old, especially the back to back mechanic since you realize you have unlimited ammo and you are almost invincible during this eliminating the tension. The story is like MGS4, but in the simplest of forms. The bad guy here wants to control the PMCs, in this case people like Rios and Salem who are just basic mercs to rule the world and the crazy double agent is going to help him. Rios and Salem, although their dialogue is hilarious (there's a point where Salem asks Rios who his favorite Wu-Tang member is out of nowhere and Rios gets mad), are in themselves the buddy cop movie stereotypes. Salem is the wise and funny guy while Rios is the noble giant who'd always do the right thing, think the Timon and Pumba of video games. The game is stupidly fun though with mindless shooting, hilarious bantering between the 2 leads, and one of the coolest sub-villains. Phillip Clyde, the double agent, is very fun to watch since he is an incredible douche and even gets a Glasgow Dark Knight Joker Smile out of nowhere near the end just because he is crazy! The game is worth borrowing or renting, not buying.
4 Reviews
The equivalent of a fun dumb action movie- Fun but no Substance
filmfreak-ochoa2327 July 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Classic tag-team shooter that deserved more potential.
Ultradeth26 September 2020
Warning: Spoilers
There's something cathartic about causing chaos in a virtual world, Army of Two provides that very feeling with action-movie style bravado. Big shootouts, plenty of villains to cut down, adding more parts to firearms to turn them into over-designed superweapons, made from gold no less!
But, as with most things, there have been trims. Case in point, the story makes numerous jumps forward through time. The first level takes place in 1993, the second, 2001. After the first level there's a montage of the following years told in brief of the protagonists exploits. Why couldn't there be a level for every year from '93 to the end in 2009?
Army of Two should have had more to it, and I was left wanting more.
But, as with most things, there have been trims. Case in point, the story makes numerous jumps forward through time. The first level takes place in 1993, the second, 2001. After the first level there's a montage of the following years told in brief of the protagonists exploits. Why couldn't there be a level for every year from '93 to the end in 2009?
Army of Two should have had more to it, and I was left wanting more.
A decent shooter with some BIG flaws....
Gunmaster4522 April 2008
Warning: Spoilers
*contains some small spoilers*
When I read the first article in EGM(Electronic Gaming Monthly)about when this game would come out and what cool new factors it would bring, I was excited. Advanced partner AI that plays like a co-op partner, realistic weapons and upgrades, in-the-heat-of-battle medical healing, a two way revival in which one guy runs from the light while the other performs CPR. Hell, they said your characters would even stop and take a whiz in-game. But sadly, the developers words turns to empty promises. The game starts(after the tutorial) off with two soldiers, Tyson Rios and Salem Elliot, fighting in Somalia for the Army. When a PMC company sees how they are like an Army of Two, they are hired to become mercenaries and get payed to fight. At the start of the game, you can choose between Tyson and Elliot and then you may choose from a vast arsenal of weapons. This got me very excited but generally fell flat after you realize some things. 1. The guns don't feel right. They fire slower than any normal rate of fire and even the mini gun has a cyclic rate of maybe 700RPM at the most. 2. The upgrades aren't always realistic and most of the time, make a cool looking gun look very lame. 3. After you buy 1 gun, you generally stick to that one and upgrade as you go, meaning there is little variety in the single player the first time through. 4. Grenades are useless and if you ever use one once in-game, give yourself a pat on the back because you've done a rare thing.
Now off the guns, the game itself has some problems. When I spend $60 on a game, I expect to get my moneys worth out of it. When a game lasts 4 measly hours and is beaten in a day, you feel relatively cheated(and the fact that I don't have LIVE really hurts it.) Anyone who has ever replayed a game knows you always go back to your favorite levels and not the ones that drove you crazy. With only 5 levels to pick from, they may be long levels but if they were split into chunks, maybe the game wouldn't have such little replay value(I guarantee every level has its frustrating moments.)
Now, those promises. The game was delayed from a holiday release and many of these features were wiped from the game. What do we get left. Horribly long load times cut down to horribly annoying load times(not long loads, but very many load times) Your AI partner is far from ground breaking Artificial Intelligence. He may gain Aggro when asked(I'll discuss Aggro in a minute) but he dies often and can't be healed in time and when he must heal you, he drags you into the middle of a firefight and kills you(He has to restart healing every time he is hit so do the math) Many two man actions(climbing, co-sniping, hang-gliding) are brief and not used enough to make a lasting effect.
Aggro. Probably the most interesting thing in this game. Aggro is gaining enemy attention by firing at them. If you reach max Aggro, you are a(very slow walking) and generally useless tank. If your partner maxes it, you are completely invisible to the enemy and faster(which is much more useful) But put your team mate in it too long, and he'll die. You stay in it too long, you die.
The game play and story are two big parts of the game(obviously). The controls are very solid and never really muck up your progress. The story is a typical corruption story with no real surprises. Through out the game, the characters will say some funny lines but repetitive one liners and hammed up dialog sometimes kill the mood. The voice acting is good, but some rather gratuitous swearing gets annoying when used too often.
In the end, Army of Two is a solid but flawed shooter that got people so hyped, the actual result was somewhat disappointing. The game is indeed fun and warrants a rent or even a buy, but I feel let down in some areas which is why this review hangs more to the negative side. I give this game a 7/10 because of good graphics, okay voice acting, decent gun play and action, and generally a fun game. Give it a try but don't expect a huge 40 hour game world here.
Summary points:
Good: Sound, graphics, action, story
Bad: Short, little replay value, guns don't feel right
Annoying: Clyde, the high and mighty assassin, who spews dumb curses faster than he jumps around. His lines like "Fucko" or how many times he says "You...are f***in' dead" gets annoying. His boss battle should be more satisfying. Such as severing limbs and torturing to death.
When I read the first article in EGM(Electronic Gaming Monthly)about when this game would come out and what cool new factors it would bring, I was excited. Advanced partner AI that plays like a co-op partner, realistic weapons and upgrades, in-the-heat-of-battle medical healing, a two way revival in which one guy runs from the light while the other performs CPR. Hell, they said your characters would even stop and take a whiz in-game. But sadly, the developers words turns to empty promises. The game starts(after the tutorial) off with two soldiers, Tyson Rios and Salem Elliot, fighting in Somalia for the Army. When a PMC company sees how they are like an Army of Two, they are hired to become mercenaries and get payed to fight. At the start of the game, you can choose between Tyson and Elliot and then you may choose from a vast arsenal of weapons. This got me very excited but generally fell flat after you realize some things. 1. The guns don't feel right. They fire slower than any normal rate of fire and even the mini gun has a cyclic rate of maybe 700RPM at the most. 2. The upgrades aren't always realistic and most of the time, make a cool looking gun look very lame. 3. After you buy 1 gun, you generally stick to that one and upgrade as you go, meaning there is little variety in the single player the first time through. 4. Grenades are useless and if you ever use one once in-game, give yourself a pat on the back because you've done a rare thing.
Now off the guns, the game itself has some problems. When I spend $60 on a game, I expect to get my moneys worth out of it. When a game lasts 4 measly hours and is beaten in a day, you feel relatively cheated(and the fact that I don't have LIVE really hurts it.) Anyone who has ever replayed a game knows you always go back to your favorite levels and not the ones that drove you crazy. With only 5 levels to pick from, they may be long levels but if they were split into chunks, maybe the game wouldn't have such little replay value(I guarantee every level has its frustrating moments.)
Now, those promises. The game was delayed from a holiday release and many of these features were wiped from the game. What do we get left. Horribly long load times cut down to horribly annoying load times(not long loads, but very many load times) Your AI partner is far from ground breaking Artificial Intelligence. He may gain Aggro when asked(I'll discuss Aggro in a minute) but he dies often and can't be healed in time and when he must heal you, he drags you into the middle of a firefight and kills you(He has to restart healing every time he is hit so do the math) Many two man actions(climbing, co-sniping, hang-gliding) are brief and not used enough to make a lasting effect.
Aggro. Probably the most interesting thing in this game. Aggro is gaining enemy attention by firing at them. If you reach max Aggro, you are a(very slow walking) and generally useless tank. If your partner maxes it, you are completely invisible to the enemy and faster(which is much more useful) But put your team mate in it too long, and he'll die. You stay in it too long, you die.
The game play and story are two big parts of the game(obviously). The controls are very solid and never really muck up your progress. The story is a typical corruption story with no real surprises. Through out the game, the characters will say some funny lines but repetitive one liners and hammed up dialog sometimes kill the mood. The voice acting is good, but some rather gratuitous swearing gets annoying when used too often.
In the end, Army of Two is a solid but flawed shooter that got people so hyped, the actual result was somewhat disappointing. The game is indeed fun and warrants a rent or even a buy, but I feel let down in some areas which is why this review hangs more to the negative side. I give this game a 7/10 because of good graphics, okay voice acting, decent gun play and action, and generally a fun game. Give it a try but don't expect a huge 40 hour game world here.
Summary points:
Good: Sound, graphics, action, story
Bad: Short, little replay value, guns don't feel right
Annoying: Clyde, the high and mighty assassin, who spews dumb curses faster than he jumps around. His lines like "Fucko" or how many times he says "You...are f***in' dead" gets annoying. His boss battle should be more satisfying. Such as severing limbs and torturing to death.
Best played with Two.
Spounge28 February 2009
Warning: Spoilers
I didn't have as high of expectation as some people when it came to Army of Two. I seen it online a few times read about how cool the weapon customization was. That was pretty much it. Then after I got my PS3 in January of this year my cousin wanted me to get it. So after watching a few videos of it and talking it over I caved and picked it up along with a controller. The game for me cost $20. And the way I see it, that's a bargain.
So as we were playing it I really started liking it. It was really fun playing with a friend. The enemy A.I. isn't too spectacular. They'll do a few smart thing here and there but overall the lot of them are incredibly stupid. No matter what difficulty you are playing. Most enemies would do foolish things like run out in no mans land only to get gunned down.
I did like the team aspect though. Me and my cousin had to constantly rely on each other to get through an area and that was great. That's name of the game (quite literally). It was a lot of fun doing that and it seldom got old. Army of Two is best played with a friend. Playing with the A.I. is frustrating. You have to issue him orders and keep an eye on him. With two people playing it's easier to keep tabs on each other and a lot of the time have faith in the others abilities. With the AI, it's babysitting.
The story is nothing to get excited about. It has some interesting bits but for the most part is not really that important. The two heroes names are Rios and Salem. Their Army CO and PMC CO is Dalton. These two go on missions and while doing so there is a lot of story going on elsewhere. Like troop positions being compromised and a bill that would privatize the military. A couple of twists but nothing you won't see coming. The missions while long there are few. You can probably beat this thing in about 6 hours or less.
There is even a feature called mid-mission shopping. No lie. The game asks you if you want to shop right in the middle of mission. Even sometimes while your being shot at. Just a complete head scratcher there.
The guns were a letdown for me. They were making this out to be a feature that had tons of customizations. Which is somewhat false. Like say for some guns they had 3 different barrels to choose from, some had just 2, or 1. Army of Two even had firearms with no customizations at all. OK, maybe they had the "pimped" one which fell short too. You couldn't choose to pimp your gun the way you wanted to. Some guns were silver, others platinum or gold. It would have been nice if you could have picked the one you wanted. Another problem was that if you wanted barrel number 3 for your main machine gun you are going to have to buy number 1 and 2 just to unlock the third.
Army of Two is a solid game. Nothing uber spectacular about it and nothing too god awful. If you paid twenty for it bring in a friend and have a blast. It's mindless fun.
So as we were playing it I really started liking it. It was really fun playing with a friend. The enemy A.I. isn't too spectacular. They'll do a few smart thing here and there but overall the lot of them are incredibly stupid. No matter what difficulty you are playing. Most enemies would do foolish things like run out in no mans land only to get gunned down.
I did like the team aspect though. Me and my cousin had to constantly rely on each other to get through an area and that was great. That's name of the game (quite literally). It was a lot of fun doing that and it seldom got old. Army of Two is best played with a friend. Playing with the A.I. is frustrating. You have to issue him orders and keep an eye on him. With two people playing it's easier to keep tabs on each other and a lot of the time have faith in the others abilities. With the AI, it's babysitting.
The story is nothing to get excited about. It has some interesting bits but for the most part is not really that important. The two heroes names are Rios and Salem. Their Army CO and PMC CO is Dalton. These two go on missions and while doing so there is a lot of story going on elsewhere. Like troop positions being compromised and a bill that would privatize the military. A couple of twists but nothing you won't see coming. The missions while long there are few. You can probably beat this thing in about 6 hours or less.
There is even a feature called mid-mission shopping. No lie. The game asks you if you want to shop right in the middle of mission. Even sometimes while your being shot at. Just a complete head scratcher there.
The guns were a letdown for me. They were making this out to be a feature that had tons of customizations. Which is somewhat false. Like say for some guns they had 3 different barrels to choose from, some had just 2, or 1. Army of Two even had firearms with no customizations at all. OK, maybe they had the "pimped" one which fell short too. You couldn't choose to pimp your gun the way you wanted to. Some guns were silver, others platinum or gold. It would have been nice if you could have picked the one you wanted. Another problem was that if you wanted barrel number 3 for your main machine gun you are going to have to buy number 1 and 2 just to unlock the third.
Army of Two is a solid game. Nothing uber spectacular about it and nothing too god awful. If you paid twenty for it bring in a friend and have a blast. It's mindless fun.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
