Game: Army of Two: The 40th Day

Platform: Xbox 360, PS3

Game length: About 6 hours

Completed? Shawn completed on normal twice, and half on contractor (hard). Charis completed on casual with a mixture of Shawn and the AI.

Lead Reviewer: Shawn

Army of Two: The 40th Day is a game plagued by many issues that were found in the original Army of Two. A bunch of new technological issues were introduced in the process, and it does an excellent job of trying to frustrate you while you’re having a good time. With that being said, those good times are in abundance and as much as the game deserves to be slammed for shipping as an unfinished product … We couldn’t help but keep playing it.

Shawn: The best way to describe Army of Two: The 40th Day would be if Gears of War and the Club had a baby. Many of the main features in the gameplay are from Gears of War; it focuses heavily on a cover mechanic, blindfiring over it and using it as your main way of gaining an advantage over enemies. The Club reference has more to do with the overall feel of the game. It’s faster paced and the moving, turning, and shooting all feel very similar. The feel of the controls has actually carried over directly from the first Army of Two, and it’s the first of many issues that weren’t touched upon at all. The main issue with them is that they feel heavy. Precise aiming sometimes feels impossible, because your cursor will move too far in any direction when you press it. They should have fixed this from the first game.

Charis: I agree, the controls felt very heavy and strange compared to the many fast paced shooters that are produced these days. On top of this, there are other things that they really should have fixed as well. To put it simply, the graphics are terrible. Jagged edges can be found everywhere and cutscenes that should be cool are ruined by what looks like amateur visuals. Nothing feels refined whatsoever, and it totally detracts from the entire game. I shouldn’t be focused on how poorly rendered an enemy is! As if the graphics weren’t bad enough, EA topped that off with poor audio. In most parts of the campaign, it is almost impossible to hear the dialogue between Rios and Salem. However, sometimes they are so loud that it makes having a television remote next to you a necessity. This is the same for sound effects as well. Both the audio and visuals detracted from the game as a whole, and I’m not sure how much effort it would have taken to fix it, but it would have been worth their time.

Shawn: I’m not quite sure it would have been worth their time, because the story in Army of Two: The 40th Day is… well, actually, there isn’t one. Not until the end of the game, anyways. At that point it doesn’t matter anymore, because there was no build up to any climax. The whole point of the game is that you are in Shangai, things start blowing up, and you need to get out of there. Roll credits! I actually kind of admire it in a way. It’s like they realized no one actually cared and just wanted to shoot stuff with their friends. Mission accomplished. The biggest disappointment, though, is the other technical issues (I know, ridiculous that there’s more, huh?). First, there are, seriously, unskippable cutscenes. It made me forget what year it was and that advancements have been made to video games. The game also has constant framerate and freezing issues, as well as connection drops and laggy online. By the end of the game, we had recorded over 10 freezes between us. Throw in multiplayer and that number far surpasses 20, which just proves lazy development and lack of quality testing. The connection drops are just as annoying. Mid-mission your partner will just vanish with no hint of lag, or warning that it’s going to happen. A game of this magnitude needs to be of higher quality. It’s not acceptable to just release a patch later (which still hasn’t arrived as of this review).

Charis: Ironically, as annoying as all of these glitches are, the co-op campaign is actually… fun. I played through a portion of it with Shawn, and completed the rest of it solo, which means, yes, it is possible to get through the game without getting frustrated at the lack of refinements. It is handled very well, and regardless of skill level both teammates can work together without a problem. Even if you can’t find a friend, the game is more than accessible with the AI, which has been significantly upgraded from the first Army of Two. Sometimes it may feel as if the AI character is leaving you with nothing to do/kill, but once again it adds to the accessibility to anyone wishing to play through the campaign. But I definitely recommend finding someone to complete the game with, because who doesn’t love playing rock-paper-scissors or covering your guns in hearts and stars with your best friend?

Shawn: EA did go all out with the “bromance” mechanic this time around, and whether it’s giving bear hugs or playing rock-paper-scissors while the world is exploding, it’s always funny. The biggest enhancement has to be the weapon customization. You can essentially take any gun and combine a bunch of pieces from other guns to create your own. The skins were my personal favorite part. Like Charis said, I did love my bubble pistol and heart sniper. The campaign is actually excellent, even if it’s short. Regardless of technical flaws, the game is almost perfectly paced, enough so that I enjoyed it for more than one playthrough. A moral choice system comes up at certain parts of the game, but it falls short of any goal that was put forth for it… although, the animated cutscenes that follow them are great and give the game a more complete feel. Sometimes you need to learn to love something for its imperfections, and that’s exactly how I feel about Army of Two: The 40th Day.

Conclusion?
Not every game needs to be perfect to be fun, but technical flaws should never take away from an experience enough to frustrate the player. Unfortunately for Army of Two: the 40th Day, the technical flaws are more noticeable than any other feature. With what seems like pages full of issues, it’s hard to completely recommend a purchase for the game, but it does make a strong comeback in a few areas. It’s an absolute blast with a friend, with no story to interrupt the owning of enemies. Teamwork continues to be enjoyable, and the level designs are excellent enough to never seem repetitive or stale. The multiplayer is forgettable, but quite fun when there isn’t any lag. All in all, Army of Two: the 40th Day could have used 40 more days of quality testing.

Score

7.5

(7’s and 8’s are good to great games that excel in certain areas, but fall short in others. It needs to have some great ideas and be consistently fun. It may have technical flaws that hold it back from being a better game, as well. It’s worth a purchase to fans of the specific series or genre, but comes with hesitations for anyone else)

Second Opinion by Zack!

Army of Two: The 40th Day did a good job of leaving me in a daze. It started out with a hot bromance, then all hell breaks loose, and before I knew it the game was over. I feel like they didn’t do a good job of balancing levels out; some were too short and others too long. The worst part about this game was the checkpoints. So, I spend 5 minutes pimping out my gun with soda cans and flowers to join a hippie rally, just to lose it when I get one shotted from a shotgun guy that spawns in a random location? Lame. I agree with Shawn and Charis that the controls where strange at times and I’m still not sure if I like the auto-cover system.

The multiplayer had its issues as well, including constant freezing and the infamous host problems. When you weren’t being forced to restart your system from a freeze, the multiplayer was a huge improvement over the first Army of Two, due to the Co-op Deathmatch mode (basicly Wingman from Gears of War 2). The maps worked well, the kit selections seemed pretty fair, and the battles were usually intense. Overall, I was not really pleased or displeased with Army of Two: The 40th Day. EA really did nothing to step up the game from the first one, but the game was still enjoyable and it got me saying “Got my back bro?” one more time.

Score

7