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Double-time
Because Army of Two has to be both a singplayer and a co-op and a multiplayer third person shooter, the controls are a little bit complicated – but this is thankfully balanced out by some simple, stylised gameplay which focuses on the games one key mechanic, Aggro.Aggro is probably best described as presence – and why it couldn’t just be called that we don’t know. Basically, because the game requires players to work as a team near-constantly, most enemies don’t pose much of a threat because you can catch them in a crossfire. To help re-introduce some difficulty however the game uses Aggro as a method of prioritising targets.
For example, Elliot and Tyson are assaulting a heavily armoured enemy turret and can’t do any real damage from the front. Moving round the sides of turret might work, but this turret can rotate, so that ruins that plan. What to do then?
The solution is Aggro. One character or player acts as a diversion by constantly firing on the enemy, while the other creeps behind and attacks the turret in its weak point. By firing on enemies, players earn Aggro and whoever has the most at any given point is the priority target for enemies, who’ll focus almost exclusively on that player.
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Aggro has several advantages beyond its usefulness for diversionary tactics though. Hold Aggro at full for a few seconds and both players can unlock certain power-ups; if you’re the one with the Aggro then your aim and damage will be increased, if you’re not then you can go truly invisible for a brief period.
In singleplayer the Aggro mechanic is a little hard to work though, not through any fault in its general design but more out of problems with the AI of your ally. Giving orders to your team mate is done with the D-Pad and you can order him to Stay, Assault or Follow. A single tap on any of these orders will have him do so in a defensive fashion, while double taps will tell him to lay down cover-fire and accumulate Aggro so you can do your own thang.
Thang? Dear God, all the attitood in this game must be contagious!
The actual design of the interface and order system is actually very well-done, especially considering that the D-Pad is also used for changing weapons and giving special orders, but all that means is the ineffectiveness of the Partner AI is amplified.
It ended up taking us more than 25 minutes to take down a single heavy soldier in singleplayer – without dying. That means that the fight itself wasn’t difficult, just that the AI refused to draw enemy fire effectively or wouldn’t make the best use of openings we provided. It became something of a theme. The Partner AI would often be seen breaking away from the shield we were holding up to protect ourselves.
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The Partner AI also proved to be a flaw when it came to healing us too. If either Elliot or Tyson goes down in the middle of the leadstorm then it’s up to the other character to drag them to a safe spot and heal them, the downed man protecting the duo as he is dragged across the floor. It’s a clever and good-looking idea that could really let players form a bond with the AI if it wasn’t for the fact that a single bullet with interrupt the AI’s animation, forcing them to start over again. Often we’d see the AI get caught in a loop of trying to heal us in a unfeasible location, getting shot and starting again. For singleplayer that’s a critical flaw – especially seeing how difficult the game is even on Easy.
That said, there are some rather nice touches to the game which help smooth over these bumps and make the game a little more inventive-feelin’. Our favourite was the Co-op snipe system which lets both Tyson and Elliot snipe at the same time and also proved useful for setting off the explosive barrels throughout the game.
The GPS system is noteworthy as well and can be toggled at any time, overlaying the screen with a blue filter that will guide the player directly to their primary objectives – though there are plenty of secondary assassinations and demolitions to go for too. The intended downside of the GPS system is that it obscures dangers around you so you can’t use it all the time.
Cleverly it’s not only enemies that are hidden with the GPS filter either, but the overlaid map will show paths that may have been destroyed or blocked by in-game events. It’s just one of those nice little touches.
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