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Army of Two Review

by Chad Crawford March 8th 2008 8:24 PM CST8 Comments

EA have been churning out great games by the week nowadays, and my faith in the company has been growing just as fast. Does anyone recall the times when EA was the antichrist of video games? I do, and I also recall just how consistantly awful EA games use to be. That's besides the point though, because now the mega-developer/publisher has finally gotten their act together, and because of that, a lot of buzz has been surrounding Army of Two, a co-op based adventure which EA has been publicizing a lot. Sadly though, Army of Two disappoints more than it elates, and only somebody begging for a game to play with a friend should show a peak in interest.

For those who can read, you can probably tell from the title that Army of Two is heavy on its co-op play. So if you're stuck playing this game with nobody, you may as well shoot yourself. This game is not meant to be played by alone at all, and it lets you know that from the moment you attempt to go solo. Since you rely on your partner so much, being able to communicate with your AI counterpart through button commands is a huge pain in the ass. Also, the actual intelligence of your computer partner is so unbelieveably low that it is nearly impossible to complete a single campaign mission. Not only that, but there are many aspects of the campaign that feel unfinished and rushed, especially as the story (not a good one, mind you) winds down towards the end.

For those who do have a friend to play with, things do get a lot better. The co-o play is pretty entertaining, and working with a partner to blast through missions does feel good and can be alot of fun during isolated periods. But the cover system of Army of Two definitely hurts the game's flow and keeps all sense of entertainment isolated. You'll find yourself sticking to walls you're trying to detach yourself from very often; the game is chalk full of glitches.

Multiplayer wise you're restricted to a rather standard 2v2 affair. It should be familiar to those who have played the Splinter Cell series' online entries. However, the multiplayer is extremely boring, and most of the time you'll be yearning to go play something more enjoyable like Call of Duty 4 or Halo 3. Add in the facts that the maps are overly bland and the same stickiness of the walls is still present and you end up with an average time on multiplayer, at best.

The graphics and framerate of the game are quite steady, and there are some solid models and textures throughout. However, the different look to the game definitely grows on you in a wrong way, and you begin to wish you were playing a more standard looking game. Also, the game's soundtrack is pretty bland, and while it's not necessarily bad, it's not any good either.

But that phrase can be used to describe basically all of Army of Two's elements. For a game that many looked out to be a very deep co-op gaming experience proved to be a uncompleted mess, resembling a pre-2006 EA game more than the games the company has been recently putting out. A well earned two stars for Army of Two; a game that we all should hope EA doesn't model future games around.