Customer Reviews

Army of Two: Platinum Hits

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(47)
3 star:		(27)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Generally, this is a good shooter. At its heart, it's a co-op game where you team up with either an AI partner or a real life partner to take out numerous terrorist threats the world over. Is it groundbreaking? No. Is it entertaining? Yes. It's a good game that has good gameplay and graphics. However, it still doesn't compare to its cousins like Gears of War and Call of Duty 4. That being said, you will still most likely have a good time. The aiming and shooting mechanic mirrors that of Gears where you pull left trigger to aim and then shoot with right trigger. The game is unique in that it does require team work with your partner to get through some of the levels. The "aggro" system is a prime example of this. One partner essentially steals the spotlight and attracts the attention of most of the enemies, enabling the other partner to stealth around the battle field and get a better shot. I also like the ability to customize your weapons and gear (all for a price). Afterall, the point of the game is to get paid, and you do get paid handsomely for killing ruthless terrorists and protecting key targets. It's a fairly linear game, but you do have some options of completing secondary objectives that might take you off the beaten path. You would be hard pressed to get lost as there is a "GPS" system that basically shows you the path to take to complete the mission. I think most shooter fans will like this game. It just didn't grab me quite like Gears or COD4 did.

It's been quite a while since I first saw the teaser trailer for Army of Two. When I did all those months ago, I figured it was some kind of high tech, science fiction sort of game... you know, an unstoppable duo wielding the latest in death dealing weapons and the best armour that science could create.

I figured that it was going to be dealing with blowing away aliens or the like.

Well, I was wrong.

Well, partially at any rate.

The game does touch on some of this, a pair of former Rangers named Elliot Salem and Tyson Rios, who end up quitting the military to go for a Mercenary Company known as SSC, the Security and Strategy Corporation.

The beautiful part of the game is that it is very heavily story driven. You're mercenaries, and you get paid by the mission, and you can get bonuses of cash throughout by completing secondary objectives.

This cash can be used to buy better weapons - you have your primary - typically an assault rifle, but you can purchase different types, all the way up to a mini-gun. The secondary weapons are handguns but you can also purchase sub-machine guns, such as the P90. Finally you also have your special weapon which is typically a sniper rifle, but you can even buy anti-tank weapons to use.

Now, if you don't have enough money after a mission to purchase a new weapon, you can always upgrade your existing weapon to increase its damage, accuracy, ammunition capacity and aggro.

So, you can really customize your weapons. Hell, you can even `pimp' out your weapon, getting it covered in gold plating, if you so desire.

As for the game, it's divided up into six missions, played over a thirteen year period, starting in 1993.

You start in Somalia, then head to Afghanistan and fight your way though an old soviet military complex. From there you fight in Iraq, and then mission four takes place in the Philippines, on the Aircraft Carrier the USS Constellation. Mission five takes place in China and finally the last mission of the game is in a flooded downtown Miami.

Throughout the game there are numerous cut scenes, all that adds to the depth of the game world and the story behind it.

If I had a complaint about these cut scenes is that several times the walking animation of the various characters involved was really jerky, not smooth or natural in any way. But I only noticed this I think twice through the entire game.

While I'm on it, the animation was beautifully rendered. It didn't quite have the rag-doll effect that I've been growing accustomed to seeing in many of these first person shooter games, and the blood and gore was really toned down.

Frankly, I wouldn't expect any less from an Xbox 360 game.

The sound effects were well done as well. Each weapon had its own unique sound. It's a good thing I don't usually play these games with the sound cranked, because if I did, I'd probably have damaged my ears every time a rocket was launched and it exploded!

Despite the fact that there is little in the line of gore, this game isn't for children. The F-bomb is dropped with frighteningly regularity, and it does deal with mature subject matter, although there isn't any nudity in the game.

Game play is your typical Xbox 360 first person shooter. You don't have a health score, but you can tell how badly you are injured as your screen will start to turn red, and you're breathing will become hard and laboured. If this happens, make damned sure you find cover and give yourself a short period of time to recover!

If you take too much damage, you'll get knocked flat on your armoured rear, so make sure that your partner is close at hand, or you are dead. See below for more on this...

You have plenty of places to hide in the game environment, so make good use of them. Duck behind desks, or small walls or even glass doors to evade enemy fire. That did kind of annoy me, as I would have much preferred to see you be able to shoot through objects like this, but that too is minor.

Unlike many other Xbox games I've played, this one has very little in the way of environmental kills. There are occasionally barrels or propane containers that you can shoot and cause them to explode, but I found that they were few and far between.

One thing that you can't ignore is the use of your partner. You have three commands that you can use on him. Stick close, head out and draw fire, or stay put and cover. These can be used to varying degrees, such as if you want your partner to go ahead and draw fire so you can get into a better position to cause some serious damage.

This is especially useful when you run into heavily armoured opponents who can only be hurt if you get behind them and shoot them in the back, or machine gunners who are hidden behind full shields.

Of these three commands, you have two levels of aggressiveness... blue which means defensive, or red which means offensive.

Now, as I stated above, if you or your partner get badly injured, you can call them up to help you. You will get dragged away, and while you're being dragged, you can still fire your weapon at the enemy. Once you're behind cover, your partner will heal you and you're ready to fight once again.

You'll know if your partner is in trouble as he will call out for help. If this happens, get to him quickly... if you don't he'll die and you'll have to start from the last checkpoint.

One thing that really took me by surprise was the scope of the game. Several levels, starting with the USS Constellation, were amazingly huge! You really felt like you were fighting on the deck of an American carrier!

Even in Miami, several of the maps you fought on were incredibly large, like the airport. Plenty of places to hide, but also if you were unlucky enough to get caught out in the open, well as Hudson would put it, Game over man, Game over!

Combat was, once again, typical of an Xbox 360 game. You could see the damage meter above your targets and this helped you to know if you were actually hitting the target or not during combat. You could zoom in a little closer by hitting the left trigger, or if you were using your sniper rifle, you'd be able to zoom directly in for a nice head shot. You know, one shot, one kill.

Hitting the head was also a good way of taking down your enemy with a minimal expenditure of ammunition.

There are also two ways of replenishing your ammo supply. You could pick up ammo off the bodies of certain enemies after you dispatched them, or you'd get re-supplied between missions. The ammo dropped by the enemy always looks like golden packs, so make sure you grab when you can.

Be warned, the enemy isn't stupid. They don't like getting caught in the open, and they will use cover to its full advantage. Watch out too, while you're at it, as they like to drop more than F-bombs on you. Stay too long behind cover in one place, and they'll toss a nice little grenade your way.

There are a couple of times throughout the game you'll get to drive vehicles, or control a parachute as you drop in on your mission. Make sure you have your sniper rifle at the ready as you drop in during the parachute phase, as it'll reduce the number of enemies you have to face once you hit the ground.

The driving sequences were pretty standard fare, with you controlling the vehicle while your partner provided cover-fire. I guess if you're playing two player mode, you could quite easily take control of the gun instead of driving.

Oh, as you fight, you'll gain aggro. This means that the enemy is targeting you and you alone, unless your partner presents himself as an easy target. This can be a bad thing, if you don't have anywhere to hide. But, while the aggro is on you, you can send your partner out to take out the opponents while they concentrate their fire on you.

The reverse works as well, you can send your partner out to attract the fire while you get into a better position to take out your enemy.

And, if you find a riot shield to use, don't hesitate!

Finally, as with the aggro overkill meter, several times during the game you'll have to fight back to back. When this happens, time will slow down and your weapon will do a great deal more damage. You'll have to keep turning in a circle in order to take your targets out, so don't just aim for one location only, or you'll get yourself and your partner killed!

Ok, Pros of the game...
- Smart AI for both enemy and your AI controlled partner.
- A wide variety of locations world wide to fight in.
- Map size for some of the missions.
- Upgradeable weapons.
- Some very entertaining mini cut scenes. Watch em carefully!
- Co-op sniping!

Cons of the game...
- Some of the larger maps don't have too many save points, and it can get frustrating.
- Only about six hours of play time.
- Some of the movement in the cut scenes were very jerky and un-natural.
- Would have liked a larger variety of weapons, more ways to upgrade, upgradeable armour, and the ability to pick up your opponents weapons.

I haven't tried out the multiplayer part of the game, so I can't comment on it.

Overall, it was a solid, enjoyable game with lots of potential that was put to excellent use.

4 out of 5

If you're like me, you love video games. You love shooters, and more than that, you love to share the fun with a friend. Sure, it's a blast to have multi-player where you can kill each other, but what the industry has been lacking til now is a game meant to be played with a friend. Army of Two delivers.

First off, there's various modes where you combine forces with your characters, including a dual-sniper mode that allows you and a friend to coordinate sniper shots to take down two foes at the same time. You'll still depend on your friend taking the voice-cue from the game, but if they don't know how to fire when the game tells them to, it's the least of your worries. There's also back-to-back mode, which looked a LOT like the final shoot-out scene in Mr. & Mrs. Smith - very cool how the characters twist and turn around each other to shoot the badies.

There's a lot fo the game that depends on two people helping each other, but there's also a lot of subtle things added in that make it fun enough to want to talk about. Not only can you congratulate your co-op buddy with a high-five or smart remark (via game controls), you can also insult them or give them a well-deserved headbutt for overwhelming idiocy in the line of duty.

The great part for me is that as you advance, you make money. You can then use this money to outfit yourself with new and more powerful weapons, armor, and even facemasks. (The facemasks are the best part, as you can get ones that with a desert motiff, a "street" motiff, or my favorite, a clown face!!!) you can also save your money to focus in areas you're good at. I'm a sniper, so I spent most of my money getting the latest and greatest sniper rifle.

The story line is solid, the game controls take bit of getting used to, especially with all the bumper use, but all in all I have to say this is the best 360 game yet this year.

After watching the commercials on TV I thought this game looked great. However After playing it through I was very disappointed. The game didn't look to bad visually, but other than that there isn't a lot to be excited about. The thing that was very annoying was that the aiming seemed like it was unresponsive even when I put it on the highest setting. The campaign was short and I beat it in under 6 hours. The online multiplayer has an interesting concept in working co-operatively with a partner to complete various objectives, but it's hampered by the slow gameplay. If you really have your heart set on buying this game , I strongly, STRONGLY suggest renting it before hand.

A great game to play with a buddy (or wife:-) for co-op play. Playing solo with the AI is okay, but not nearly as enjoyable as with a *real* partner. The AI does a good job, but the dialog variety is a little weak and doesn't provide you with any game feedback, i.e., "Watch out on your left." Also, avoid using your GPS; it's too much hand-holding. It's more fun to explore and figure out your route and objectives on your own. The game is fairly linear, so what's the need for the yellow-blinking brick road?

Things that would've given it a higher rating in my book:
1. more AI instructions, i.e., go left, right, forward, etc.
2. more levels! Too short going solo. Good length for co-op though.
3. customizable armor, i.e., speed versus protecting, custom paint to match the masks, etc.
4. more innovative co-op moments

We're looking forward to Army of Two... er... uh... 2!

Finished this on "professional" (the highest level) with my 14 yr old son in about 5 hours. After about a week of messing around with it and trying it on-line (the connection often drops or lags in the middle of the game) we are back to playing Call of Duty 4 on-line. If you don't have COD4 definitely get that first.

As the name implies it is meant to be played by two people. If you get dropped, your partner can revive you as with Gears of War. But, if you get dropped in a bad spot, your teammate can drag you to cover and revive you there.

You get paid for completing objectives and taking out bad guys. You get to use the money to buy weapons or upgrade the ones you have with new barrels, stocks, grenade launchers, silencers, etc. You can even get your guns "pimped out" with gold plating. My son really likes customizing his weapon set.

The games is built around teamwork. One of you gets the bad guy's attention blind firing a big loud gun (pimped guns get more aggro too) and your partner sneaks up on their flanks and takes them out. You even get a meter which measures how much attention you are getting (the game calls this "aggro"). The more aggro you aquire makes your character actually glow read and your partner gets a little transparent. Get the aggro meter way up and you get something called "overkill" which puts everything in slow motion and gives you unlimited ammo and 2x damage. There's a couple of other teamwork things like coop sniping (sniping two simultaneous targets) and "back-to-back" which is alot like the overkill thing except you and your partner take out bad guys while standing back-to-back.

Story and movies (that you can't skip) are above average. The graphics don't come close to COD4 or Gears.

The language is very graphic and not just an occasional S**T or D**N as in COD4. This game makes frequent use of F*** and M*****F***ER. Violence level is actually kind of tame compared to something like Gears or COD4. For example, there is no limb or head removal (as with Gears) or blood splats on the walls (as in COD4).

I finally got around to renting Army of Two, and will definitely recommend a rent instead of a buy. While the game is enjoyable, there are some things that hold it back. Your AI partner leaves much to be desired; there are times when you'll tell him to hold aggro, only to find out that he doesn't really feel like it. This is a pain later on when you've got a ton of enemies shooting at you, and a dumb computer doing it's own thing, causing you to restart countless times at the last checkpoint. I imagine that this wouldn't be an issue in co-op, since you and your buddy could talk it out (I didn't play co-op, so I can't say for sure). Along those lines, I had to shoot the computer at 3-4 different spot because he kept getting stuck on the level. That leads to another issue; getting stuck. There were a few times in the game (most noticeably the monorail level) where I myself would get stuck. I would move the stick, and the camera would shake like I was moving, but I was not moving at all. It fixed itself eventually, but it was a huge inconvenience.

If you're expecting a long, engaging game, look somewhere else. It took me five days to beat (due to other responsibilities), with a total of maybe 6-7 hours game time. It probably wouldn't have even taken that long had I actually had a human partner. The story is a little thin, and I felt like it was trying to make a moral point (private military companies = evil corporations). Sometimes the objectives aren't always made clear on your GPS. If you look to far right or left, the red arrow guiding you will disappear...and sometimes there's not even a red arrow to guide you.

At times, the weaponry feels a little weak, and this leads to another of my issues: you knock someone down with a shot (say a sniper round or rifle shell), but you can't kill them until they're going through their get back up animation. If someone's on the ground, and I'm shooting them, they shouldn't be able to get back up.

For parents, you need to know there is a LOT of cursing. I know the game takes place with two ex-Army guys (and I know how Army guys are, being a former one myself) put into some overwhelming firefights. So, like a good soldier, they're gonna curse...a lot, and then some. It's not a problem for me now, but being a new father I'm sure in the near future it will become one. As for the violence, I think it's fairly tame compared to some games (namely Gears where you can chainsaw the locust with blood spattering on the screen)...there's blood, but not an overabundance of it.

I think my final gripe with the game is the menu screens/load and wait times. Just to start playing, you have to go through 4 (if I remember correctly) menu screens. Then you need to wait for the game to load. If it's your first time, you'll have to watch a cut scene (which you'd probably do anyways). If it's your second time, you have to watch the same cut scene...that's right, there's no skipping ahead to the fun parts you sneaky tricksters! During the mission, you can go "mid-mission" shopping, which is a neat idea...only it takes a while to load the screen, then you need to go through even more menu options to get what you want.

Overall, I had an alright time with the game. If not for trying to get the achievements, I wouldn't play through the game again. It's good for a run through, but after that there's not really much to bring you back (unless you're after achievements like myself).

My favorite thing about this game is that it was made from the ground up with Co-Op in mind. It's a lot of fun to play with a pal. With a good selection of weapons to choose from and fairly smart AI, it's a game worth replaying. But be aware: to get the most from this game, you really do need to play it with a real live friend. In an age when it is increasingly difficult to find split-screen video games, I find this game to be important to my collection. Whether playing split screen or over XBOX Live, this is a great buddy-action-flick turned video game.

This game is definitly one of my favorites, mainly for the Co-op concept. Basically it's two mercenaries uncovering a plot to take over the government. It takes place in an alternate reality where private armies are a regular part of the landscape. The story is really good and the charcters are well written, but the co-op is where it's at. Even though the game is short, clocking in at about 10 hours or so, it's so much fun when you can play with a friend oinline and beat the game. Me and my buddy popped it in and beat it in under 4 days, including going to school. We both enjoyed it very much and he probably wouldn't have played it if it wasn't for the two player. Haven't tried multiplayer yet but this is definatly an awesome two player experience. Very challenging too, we played it on normal and had a ton of trouble, but now are trying it on difficult. Overall I'd say if you're a fan of the third person shooter genre then you should pick it up, if not then a rent may be better for you.
Also weapons customization is by far the best I've seen in awhile as well.

I bought this game having watched the video's on amazon, thinking that it might be similar to the traditional shoot-ums where second player isnt going to make all that much of a difference (like gears of war unless you play the hardcore mode) and i was wrong.

This game, unlike many in the past, focus on the dual player mode as a strong story point as well as joint game play. I found this quite refreshing and actually quite hard on the single player mode by myself (maybe because the Bot was a dumbass too but thats just a given).

I like the reliance of other players in the game, for health reboot or swapping weapons, its quite a challenge and keeps you on the lookout for what everyone else is doing.

Good storyline, love the use of weapons and how personal modifications can be made at any given time (a bit annoying being asked it consistently though) and overall fun. The graphics are amazing.

Few things:

1) Quite a short game: Don't get me wrong, as much fun as it is, they could have made it a bit longer, it took me about 6 hours to finish it :/... maybe they are looking to emulate an online community type sprawl like the Halo titles attracted for lan/online?

2)No System link= fail: If there is something that annoys me more then no system link apart from online, its having to share an HD screen split in half, it gets quite annoying at times, but you eventually get over it.

3 out of five stars, not the best but certainly fun.