Mon 06 Jun 2011
Playstation
Army of Two Review
What really sets this game a part is that this game is designed to be a buddy, buddy experience, thus the title army of two, if you don`t have a friend to play with you`ll be playing with an AI subsitute.
Obviously any time a game decides to name itself AND design itself and market itself around that co-operative concept, you want to make your best effort to call up a friend and invite him/her over for a good time in order to get the most out of your playing experience, or maybe try getting your sister to play with you if you really have to, you never know, maybe you’ll bond over it.
The story of Army of Two will really hit you if you’re aware of the current situation in Iraq, because many gamers almost literally do live under a rock, I won’t go into how disturbing it is that you somehow missed the political happenings of the last ten years. Anyways, essentially you are a soldier, to be more specific, a private soldier who works for a contractor basically getting all the jobs no one else was stupid enough to do.
While some will find the military culture depicted in this game as obnoxious and annoying, I found the relationships and characters to be very realistic, the game is merely reflecting the stories we've heard of the real soldiers of fortune in Blackwater. Army of Two has fun with this game and provides an adequate amount of comic relief.
So why should you even glance at a non perfect version of a game that already exists, *cough. *cough....Gears of War 2. Army of Two has a solid combat system, an extensive equipment selection and above all else a really creative, realistic and believable co-op system, I found myself thoroughly engaged in this game and sincerely felt my success was connected to my allies. Our progress was dependant on each other. Unlike most co-op games with AI, if your AI ally dies, he`ll eventually respawn or you can beat the mission without him.
In this game not only is the AI very well integrated but you need your ally in order to beat the game. Army of Two takes place in our contemporary society and very effectively weaves current events into the quasi fictional plot-line. However this game is not without its cons either. I found the AI to be somewhat inconsistent, the level design was very linear and yet the objectives were difficult to find.
To give you an idea of how difficult some of these objective are to figure out, me and my friend actually got stuck in the training mode sequence, only the second demand of this game....it took us a good fifteen minutes to figure out how to get to the next training area....this is the type of frustration that could immediately cause a player to give up... or just look on you tube for a walkthrough.
One of the impressive original concepts that I found really helped to distinguish this game from its contemporaries was the ability to divert enemies attention(known in mmo games as aggro) to myself while my ally strafes unnoticed. This is an ingenious concept that every other team-based shooter should make a note of. Aside from some minor flaws and inconsistencies, Army of Two is a fun game with a lot of innovative concepts which by themselves make this game worth taking a look at.
If you like Military Shooters and maybe are getting a bit bored of Call of Duty 4 or Battlefield, this game can be a refreshing alternative for a bit.
Rating: 84% - well worth a look
Pros:
Perhaps one of the best Multi Player Co-op campaign out there
Contributes a number of new ingenious innovations to the genre not previously seen before.
Cons:
Very linear level design
The AI can be inconsistent
Very ambiguous objectives, my friend and I actually got stuck in training mode.
Obviously any time a game decides to name itself AND design itself and market itself around that co-operative concept, you want to make your best effort to call up a friend and invite him/her over for a good time in order to get the most out of your playing experience, or maybe try getting your sister to play with you if you really have to, you never know, maybe you’ll bond over it.
The story of Army of Two will really hit you if you’re aware of the current situation in Iraq, because many gamers almost literally do live under a rock, I won’t go into how disturbing it is that you somehow missed the political happenings of the last ten years. Anyways, essentially you are a soldier, to be more specific, a private soldier who works for a contractor basically getting all the jobs no one else was stupid enough to do.
While some will find the military culture depicted in this game as obnoxious and annoying, I found the relationships and characters to be very realistic, the game is merely reflecting the stories we've heard of the real soldiers of fortune in Blackwater. Army of Two has fun with this game and provides an adequate amount of comic relief.
So why should you even glance at a non perfect version of a game that already exists, *cough. *cough....Gears of War 2. Army of Two has a solid combat system, an extensive equipment selection and above all else a really creative, realistic and believable co-op system, I found myself thoroughly engaged in this game and sincerely felt my success was connected to my allies. Our progress was dependant on each other. Unlike most co-op games with AI, if your AI ally dies, he`ll eventually respawn or you can beat the mission without him.
In this game not only is the AI very well integrated but you need your ally in order to beat the game. Army of Two takes place in our contemporary society and very effectively weaves current events into the quasi fictional plot-line. However this game is not without its cons either. I found the AI to be somewhat inconsistent, the level design was very linear and yet the objectives were difficult to find.
To give you an idea of how difficult some of these objective are to figure out, me and my friend actually got stuck in the training mode sequence, only the second demand of this game....it took us a good fifteen minutes to figure out how to get to the next training area....this is the type of frustration that could immediately cause a player to give up... or just look on you tube for a walkthrough.
One of the impressive original concepts that I found really helped to distinguish this game from its contemporaries was the ability to divert enemies attention(known in mmo games as aggro) to myself while my ally strafes unnoticed. This is an ingenious concept that every other team-based shooter should make a note of. Aside from some minor flaws and inconsistencies, Army of Two is a fun game with a lot of innovative concepts which by themselves make this game worth taking a look at.
If you like Military Shooters and maybe are getting a bit bored of Call of Duty 4 or Battlefield, this game can be a refreshing alternative for a bit.
Rating: 84% - well worth a look
Pros:
Perhaps one of the best Multi Player Co-op campaign out there
Contributes a number of new ingenious innovations to the genre not previously seen before.
Cons:
Very linear level design
The AI can be inconsistent
Very ambiguous objectives, my friend and I actually got stuck in training mode.
