A worthy sequel to the first game in the series, Army of Two: The 40th Day is a gung ho shooter with a smattering of Gears of War about it. Trapped in a besieged city of Shanghai, you will spend the first half of the game just trying to figure out why everyone is shooting at you, and even when you do find out why, it still isn’t very clear. Ropey plot aside, what we have here is an action driven shoot-‘em-up which keeps the adrenaline pumping non-stop from start to finish.
Ideally played with a friend, the game puts you in the boots of one half of a mercenary duo who shoot first and ask questions later. For solo players, if you can’t find a mate to play with, then the computer AI takes over and plays along with you instead. For the most part you both have to just concentrate on killing the bad guys with the numerous weapons at your disposal, but the co-operative element comes into its own when you need a hand to overcome obstacles and survive certain situations. These can range from helping your comrade over a wall to rescuing prisoners who have been taken hostage.
Morality plays its part in this game too, as at certain points you will be given choices to make that have wide-ranging implications. Depending upon your choice, a comic book glimpse into the future is given showing you how your decision has affected things. Sometime a seemingly good choice has terrible repercussions, and vice versa. On the most part the results of your actions inevitably lead to some bizarre consequence or other.
If you get lost during a level, you can simply flick a button and an on-screen GPS display will appear, showing you the best route to take. This is a handy feature to have, as you can get carried away in some scenes and lost your bearings, however it is also quite distracting to have on-screen so you will only want to use it sporadically. The GPS also helps identify enemy soldiers by rank, which is a must if you are looking to rescue hostages as you can only free them if you take out the enemy’s leader.
Every single weapon you come across or purchase is fully customisable, so if you are the train-spotter type, you can spend hours adjusting the settings and appearance of your machine gun. Likewise, the uniform and mask that you wear are also customisable, so when playing against others online, you can really make yourself stand out from the crowd. As you play through the game, new weapons will become available to buy along with new parts to upgrade. This all adds to the replayability factor, as you’ll want to keep coming back and trying out different customisations.
Although the action can get rather repetitive after a few hours play – after all, there are only so many ways you can shoot someone – Army of Two: The 40th Day is so well presented and fun that you can forgive its shortcoming and just accept it for what it is: A fun third person shooter which is good when playing solo, and great when you have a mate with you. A worthy investment of both your time and money, which is not only entertaining to play but also looks and sounds great to boot.
