army of two |

Publisher: EA

Developer: EA Montreal

Release Date: 1/12/2010

Available On

There was a good reason why I avoided the original Army of Two, and this was because of the terrible single-player AI. The game was only fun with another person, but even then, it was flawed. The 40th Day tries to improve this, but it fails. You would normally expect the console experience on the PSP, but all we get is a top-down, clear-the-room-type game.

The story is even retarded in the sense that it doesn’t make any sense. You are in China on a mission, and something goes wrong, and you have to escape. Why not just call for air support? I don’t know; the game never explains. At first, the game is pretty fun with its fast-paced gameplay. You can switch between a primary and secondary weapon (assault rifle and shotgun), which you have to use in different situations. You have a melee attack, and you can command Rios to hold or go into Aggro mode. This is supposed to make him more aggressive, but all it does is piss you off. You can duck behind cover (but you can still get shot most of the time) and upgrade your weapons, as well as buy new ones. If Rios ever goes down, you can revive him, but if you die before you get to him, it’s game over, and vice versa.

So what makes the game not fun? Too much, in fact. First off, the AI is absolutely dumb. Once the screen moves to a new area, you can’t go back, but sometimes Rios will still be back there, and he’s stuck for good. If you die and need him to revive you, you’re screwed. A lot of the time, Rios will just charge out at enemies and get his health depleted quickly. This is especially annoying during boss fights. There are also a few glitches where you will get stuck in objects, which can be very frustrating. Upgrading weapons takes forever since you can’t accumulate cash fast enough. By the time I got 2/3 through the game (and I stopped there, by the way, because the game just became unbearable), I had only bought two guns and upgraded my first two. The only other things you can do are press buttons and hack turrets to use against the enemy. The game just isn’t exciting anymore after the first level.

Does the game at least look good? Kind of is your answer. Some of the environments look OK, but everything just looks too cartoony. The game sounds OK, and it has good voice acting, but it can’t save this piece of garbage. Does co-op save it? More so, yes. If you have a buddy, the game can be quite enjoyable, but the redundant gameplay makes it a borefest very quickly. The awesome bro-li-ness of the console games doesn’t come across here, and this makes the game a flop.