When Ridley Scott revisited Alien to produce a director's cut, many fans were surprised that, rather than chuck a load of extra footage in, he actually cut a lot out. The resulting re-edit was tighter and scarier, turning a good movie into a great one. And so it is with Army Of Two. When we wrote our world exclusive review back in November, we found ourselves looking at a mostly fun game that had some serious flaws. It seems that EA shared our opinion, announcing (just hours after we went to press) that the game was to be delayed a few more months to allow the team to tweak it.
As with the Alien remix, these improvements mainly involved ripping unfixable content out. So the Dance Dance Revolution-style tampon stuffing mini-games? Gone. Vehicular combat? Mostly gone (more on that later). Boring single-player gameplay? Definitely a thing of the past. Welcome to Army Of Two -The 'Director's Cut'.
Two's company Despite the tinkering, the core storyline has remained the same, as Salem (Skinny, money obsessed thrill-seeker) and Rios (Burly quarterback, conspiracy theory nut), rip their way through 18-years worth of political hotspots, high-fiving their way to the plot's incredibly obvious (and slightly abrupt) conclusion like a pair of wrestling fixated teenagers. Designed as a co-op experience from the outset, you'll always have a partner, with the second character controlled by a friend or AI. Much of the work done on the game since November has gone into improving the partner AI, and its made a huge difference to the single-player campaign. Although you still issue the same orders as before (aggressive and passive flavours of Go, Stop and Re-group) your pantomime-tough pal responds much more effectively than before, and by combining commands it's now possible to place him anywhere you want. Now you don't have to worry about your partner, you can finally relax into the pair's juvenile camaraderie - to the point where you actually look forward to running up and high-fiving your heterosexual life-partner after particularly cool shoot-outs.
Bloody mayhem While you could accuse EA of pulling their punches by removing the now notorious 'pushing-feminine hygiene products into bullet wounds' minigame, it's actually a smart move. Coming into effect every time a downed player was rescued by his teammate, it was initially fun but soon turned into a grind, pulling you out of the action constantly. Reviving your partner is now just a case of standing over him and holding a button for a few seconds, although the bar will reset if you take a hit, meaning you have to pick your cover wisely. It's far more immediate, and the game's flow is significantly improved.
Likewise the vehicle sections. Brief to the point of redundancy, we really couldn't see the point of their inclusion, especially considering the lack of cool stuff to blow up while using them. Now they're mostly gone, with only the slightly dull hovercraft sections making it through to the finished game. Fortunately, they're few and far between.
War is hell-yeah! Everything that we loved about the game before is still great - including the essential co-op mode, the blinging weapon customisation and the brilliant slow-mo back-to-back bits. Equally, the removal of many of the game's irritations makes for a far smoother ride. Army Of Two has even managed to innovate on a small scale - the non-magnetic cover system (which allows you to fire over and around walls without gluing you to them) makes combat feel fast and fluid, while the Aggro combat system (which draws the enemies towards the most dangerous player, making the other player effectively invisible) turns an MMORPG staple into a pretty effective combat mechanic.
If Call Of Duty 4 is a Michael Bay movie, then Army Of Two is a straight-to-DVD Steven Seagal flick - it manages to be almost as entertaining in places, but there's still a nagging sense that they spunked most of their budget on just one helicopter explosion. If a sequel (Army Of Two 2?) manages to provide more destructible scenery than the odd stray oil barrel, and includes a smarter plot, EA might really have something here. For now though, they'll have to be content that they managed to turn a B-movie into a passable blockbuster.
Jon Hamblin
// Overview
Verdict
Overall Air guitars all round, as EA (finally) serve up one of the better third-person shooters.
sounds interesting, I've been looking for a new co-op titles since Kane & Lynch proved so bloody terrible. And you can only replay Gears of War and Halo 3 so many times.
One qualm with the review though: comparing Call of Duty 4 to a Michael Bay movie. I thought COD4 was meant to be good? ;-p
Probably just misses out on my list of games to get this year; already got 1 a month for my ps3 which is as much as I can afford. Maybe a kind releative will pick it up for me.
like all the best straight to dvd seagal films, you will pick it up, look at the back of the box before sighing "nah" and move on. the pre owned shelves will be bulging with copies of this a few days after its release.
Sounds like another stranglehold to me, looks good at first but soon becomes boring and with little to no replay value at all. I may give it a rent but wont pay money for it.
One thing i dont understand, if this game is compared to "a straight to dvd Steven Segal movie" (not even Van Damm lol!), then how on earth did it still recieve an overall of 8.7???????
You name me one straight to dvd, steven segal movie that is worthy of such a high score????????
If it wasnt for that comment, i woulda bought this one..prehaps as many people have said, second may be the way...
Putting up the army of two review nearly a whole week before the mag comes out!?? this is getting f'ng stupid what with the fact the internet is free and the mag isn't it feels like i'm being punished for buying the mag.
Iwill has a point. I keep reading articles on here and then getting deja vu when reading the magazine. Keep the magazine's articles exclusive to the magazine, please!
(And why the hell have I sold about 6 copies of Army of Two on 360, but NONE on the ps3 in my shop? At 42.99 as well. I've got 6 copies of the game sitting in the draw, and my ass is on the line if I don't sell the buggers! So if anyone is from leicester, and doesn't want to pay Ł50 at Gamestation for a copy, come down to GameWorld and relieve my suffering! Thanks!)
Iwill has a point. I keep reading articles on here and then getting deja vu when reading the magazine. Keep the magazine's articles exclusive to the magazine, please!
(And why the hell have I sold about 6 copies of Army of Two on 360, but NONE on the ps3 in my shop? At 42.99 as well. I've got 6 copies of the game sitting in the draw, and my ass is on the line if I don't sell the buggers! So if anyone is from leicester, and doesn't want to pay Ł50 at Gamestation for a copy, come down to GameWorld and relieve my suffering! Thanks!)
i can offer an answer for you. there will be those that agree, and those that disagree. but see what you think. every ps3 owner knows ( or seems to know ) that EA are cretins, incapable of making a glitch / fault free game. 360 owners dont seem to share that opinion.
Iwill has a point. I keep reading articles on here and then getting deja vu when reading the magazine. Keep the magazine's articles exclusive to the magazine, please!
(And why the hell have I sold about 6 copies of Army of Two on 360, but NONE on the ps3 in my shop? At 42.99 as well. I've got 6 copies of the game sitting in the draw, and my ass is on the line if I don't sell the buggers! So if anyone is from leicester, and doesn't want to pay Ł50 at Gamestation for a copy, come down to GameWorld and relieve my suffering! Thanks!)
i can offer an answer for you. there will be those that agree, and those that disagree. but see what you think. every ps3 owner knows ( or seems to know ) that EA are cretins, incapable of making a glitch / fault free game. 360 owners dont seem to share that opinion.
I beg to differ. I am a 360 (and Wii) owner, and I share that opinion. Though I did buy skate. And I don't regret it
This is a game i was looking forward to but its way too short and doesn't warrent the delay from november til march. The graphics are good until you see an explosion if thats what you can call them, no tactics work other than the agro system which becomes boring the story is lack luster the multiplayer is naff and the only two redeeming features are its humor and its end...and not because its a good ending but because you can finally throw the game way...Owned for 3 days then traded in...Wasted...EA bring another lack luster title with very few features to write home about...CVG and ALL reviewers need to be more aggressive in reviewing games as this did NOT deserve a high rating but a 5/10...why so low? because its AVERAGE NOTHING MORE....
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