Army of Two: The 40th Day (Xbox 360) Review
Army of Two: The 40th Day (Xbox 360) Review
It’s been just under 2 years since EA Montreal released the original Army of Two title for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 systems, we all knew a sequel was going to be released due to the immense popularity of the first title. Army of Two was one of the first titles this generation to be played completely in co-op with a buddy, the game would constantly put you in situations where being with an AI-partner would be near-suicidal due to how chaotic the scenarios were.
Don’t worry Army of Two fans, things haven’t changed in that area – I can promise you, if anything, the game is even more hectic than before and I fucking love it. The game is set in Shanghai, China where Rios and Salem are having a loving honeymoon finishing up on a routine mission when all hell breaks loose. A group of PMC’s attack the city, turning everything into shit and the games atmosphere rapidly changes from a happy, thriving city to dark, depressing and simply, a warzone. With the PMC’s mowing down the civilians; left, right and centre, and occasionally taking a few hostage which you’ll receive bonus money for saving.
In its simplest form, Army of Two: The 40th Day plays more as a survival game, instead of the previous run and gun, aiming for a certain person objective. Of course, those elements are still present but no way near to the same extent, as throughout the whole of Army of Two: The 40th Day you find yourself trying to survive the constant onslaught of enemies to escape Shanghai. The new morality moments help mix the story up a bit too, deciding whether or not to do a certain of action (trying not to spoil things), think of it as you could kill a certain guy to receive a bribe or you could let him survive, unfortunately these moments play no major role in the games story line, other than the brief comic strip showing the after effects of your choice.
One of my favourite features about the original Army of Two was the vast amount of customization that was available on the guns (and the masks). The 40th day has literally taking the customization to a whole new levels, with nearly every gun having 6-8 adjustable sections to be changed, each section having 10+ different parts – feel like changing the barrel? Go for it, how about the grips? Yeah, that too. You can spend so much time in this menu, it’s beyond addictive. Every gun has 4 stats; aggro, handling, precision and damage, each piece you upgrade/change will affect the gun in a different way, changing the end results. As well as that, you can still give your gun an awful visual overhaul, with different paint schemes being available – tactical to pimp.
As mentioned previously, the game is pretty much created to be played in full co-op between you and a buddy, you’ll seriously miss out on some of the epic moments and SWAT-like plans which almost every time go tits up. If you decide to go at it alone, the AI will take over the 2nd player and thankfully, it is actually useful, unlike its predecessor who found running at a wall for 20 minutes the best way to solve any situation. Each time you enter any combat, you can quickly (and easily) change how the AI-partner will approach a combat situation – by quickly pressing a direction on the D-Pad, the teammate will either go full aggro approach (shooting like crazy) or bide his time and go for the whole… one shot, one kill, approach.
To survive the onslaught of enemies, you will need to work with your team mate, whether it be human or artificial – plotting how you’ll take on the heavy enemies wear they can only be killed by hitting certain weak spots – the weak spots usually being a grenade pouch hanging of the enemies ass. If things do happen to not go your way, and you manage to get brought down to your knee’s by the mass gunfire, your teammate is able to drag you to safety and bring you back up to full strength.
If you do happen to miss out on games co-op story, there is also a multiplayer option with 4 different game modes available. And yes, EA have done the intelligent thing and removed the fucking ridiculous online region-locking which thousands complained about. The competitive component of the game features the standard deathmatch variants as well as objectives based modes like capture and defend areas, each are played as a partnership of 2, against (up to) 4 other teams at once.
Final Thoughts
Yeah… the game may look like ass compared to other multiplatform games around today, however that still doesn’t change the fact that the game is simply, fun. Both with friends or playing it on your own, you’ll still have a blast playing through the games decent length campaign, as well as a multiplayer, it’s got enough to keep you going for some time.
User Score:
1 vote
1 vote
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