From the very first preview I was really excited for Army of Two, as co-op games really hit my weak spot. The only thing that appeals to me more than playing as a heavily armoured, overly muscled, death dealing, smack talking army of one is playing with a friend as a heavily armoured, overly muscled, death dealing, smack talking army of two. While the game does have some draw backs, namely the single player, this game is fantastic to play through in co-op. And how could it not be? It’s almost identical to another great co-op game, Gears of War, but is more of a good thing always good thing?

Story wise, Army of Two is a little lacking. Being around three quarters of the way through the game, here is what little of a plot summary I can provide. The game revolves around two ex-rangers turned private military. Missions follow you through a few jobs during your career until the big 9/11 and now the company you work for wants to replace the US military overseas. The story does flip flop quite a bit, with each of the missions you play being from a different point in your career. Jumping from 1993 to 2009, these missions don’t necessarily get played in order. You do get a nice range of timeframes, covering the character’s time both in the regular military and private military before and after you catch wind of your employer’s insidious plans.

Because the plot jumps around in time so much, and also because each mission is just going in a rescuing some half dead marine or blowing something up, the plot and the missions seem to be completely disconnected from each other. Playing through with all characters on mute wouldn’t have much of an impact. I found that half of the exposition comes through via radio messages during the beginning, middle or end of frantic firefights. Having your main game play element (being the aggro system) require one of the players to be almost constantly unloading his (or her) weapon in full auto and then triggering the important conversations to happen during said unloading… well this causes one of the two elements to get overshadowed. (Hint – it’s not the hail of bullets.) Not being able to hear what the characters are talking about most of the time, combined with a fairly weak story to begin with leaves the player not really caring about the plot after the first mission or so. For some games this would destroy any playability, but just like Gears of War (surprise!) the story is just fine taking the back seat while the game play drives. The game was designed for co-op, and in my experience story and cut scenes get ignored when you and your partner just want to get back to some killing.

Now, as for the game play itself you’ll be surprised to see that it’s (once again) almost identical to Gears of War. I say almost because while you do have a heavily armoured muscle balloon running from chunk of debris to chunk of debris for the majority of the game, the developers have added a little something new. This addition is a standard MMO feature called aggro and it changes the game just enough to create some unique game play situations. For those of you that are MMO virgins, aggro is a method enemies use to calculate the threat level a player presents. These methods are usually damage or activity based, and in Army of Two’s case, it is calculated from your volume of fire, the damage you are causing, and how flashy/noticeable the weapon you’re using is. So basically, the more you fire at the enemy, the more the enemy will fire back at you. Since the game revolves around you and your partner, you’ll need to use this feature so one of you can sneak around unnoticed. While everyone is paying attention to the player with the gold plated chaingun firing full auto, the other player can flank around and pop 3 guys in the back of the head.

While the aggro system is really cool, everything else in the game is extremely linear. The game even features a high-tech GPS map overlaid onto the terrain, fully equipped with a yellow line on the ground for you to follow blindly. While there are plenty of cool co-op maneuvers for you to use, such as step jumps, back-to-back cover fire, and co-op sniping, most of them only be used in highlighted spots along the yellow brick road. So, even though these maneuvers are cool to use and watch, you’re really limited on how and when you can use them. You basically skip along the yellow brick road until you hit a ledge, then you and your partner press ‘A’, do your thing and move along.

Further distinguishing itself form other similar games is a unique cover system. Unlike lets say Gears, you don’t lock yourself onto a piece of cover. If you approach some cover you can use, the game will recognize it and stick you to it every so slightly and moving the camera as needed. For example, if you approach a corner in a hallway, the camera will swing around the corner so you can see down the hall while keeping you in cover. If you are crouching and walk up to an abandoned car, your character will lean against it and the camera will raise slightly so you can see over it. In both cases you can do the ever-popular ‘blind fire’, or if you want you can pop up and take aim. This system lets you feel a little more in control, unlike Gears which pretty much sticks you in place once you take cover. In Army of Two, you can freely walk up to and away from cover, leaving the game play feeling a little more fluid.

Overall, I had no real problems with the controls, as I can’t point out any real glaring problems, only slight annoyances. The biggest irritant I found was the radial menus. By holding down the left or right bumper you get either your weapon options or a couple team commands. This is fine, but to actually select any of these options, you have to take your thumb off the left stick and use the D-Pad to make your selection. I don’t understand the reasoning behind this, since you have to stop moving to select something anyway, why not just have the left stick be the selector? The 360’s D-Pad is pretty clunky to begin with and using it makes giving out orders feel awkward.

Ok, so I can hear you now, “Enough about how it plays, how does it look!” I really would like to discuss the visuals with you, honest, but I have a small problem. Army of Two was the first game I played on a HDTV. I picked up my TV a couple days after Army of Two and it was so pretty that I almost cried after booting up my 360. Now, I do have a decent PC setup, so I’ve seen some amazing visuals before, but now they don’t even compare. In my eyes, Army of Two is the best looking game I have ever played, but I freely and fully admit this is because as of today, I have only played two games on my new TV, Army of Two and Dead Rising. So, doing my best to ignore my bias, all I can really say to you is that the visuals are above average. To be fair I’ll just leave it at that.

My final verdict? I would recommend most people at least check this game out. While the single player experience is quite lacking, as is the story, it is obvious that this wasn’t meant to be the game’s focus. Where this focus was placed is in its wonderful co-op, great graphics, and some genuinely fun sections. If you’re looking for a game to play alone, this game probably isn’t for you. If you have someone online or local to play with you then definitely pick it up.