Army of Two

Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
UK Price (as reviewed): £39.99 (inc. Delivery)
US Price (as reviewed): $58.99 (inc. Delivery)

Decent co-op games are something of a rarity, which is something I’ve always found a bit odd. It seems to be happen at least twice a month that the bit-tech forums get a flock of people asking for recommendations for co-operative games.

There are usually two responses in these threads. Firstly, Gears of War – except pretty much everyone has played that and tired of it already. Secondly, Serious Sam, a game I still hold as the best co-op game ever made purely for those moments where players are bombarded by kamikaze grunts.

Now, EA is hoping there’ll be a third response; Army of Two. Built from the ground-up to be played as a co-op adventure, but also playable in singleplayer, the game looks like it could be just the thing to fill that most ominous and mysterious of gaps in the market, the co-op shooter.

Of course, there’s a big difference between looking and doing…

Just The Two of Us

The initial plot and premise for Army of Two is incredibly simple provided you have even a basic understanding of the realities of modern war.

Players take over the role of US Rangers, Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem who, after becoming dissatisfied with the pay and disrespect they suffer in the military, join up with a private military outfit. SSC, the biggest of all the private military contractors, hires the pair on as a full time, two-man mercenary team and sends them on objectives all over the world.

Then the War on Terrorism breaks out and the duo are quickly plunged in to the heart of the war, caught up in a conspiracy about a government bill that could see the US Army supplanted by mercenary outfits like SSC.

Immediately we have a slight problem with the plot of the game though, one that doesn’t stem from any of the huge plot holes. Instead, it’s the player characters. In a singleplayer game one player is assisted at all times by the AI, while in co-op gaming it’s two humans versus the computer. The problem I had was that I never really wanted Tyson or Elliot to win – the pair aren’t really very likeable characters.


Part of it is the murder-inspired fist-pounding already mentioned by certain webcomics, but for me that’s barely skimming the surface. A distasteful high-five or two isn’t enough to make me hate someone so much, but the constant conspiracy-theorising of Tyson and the permanent, bored ambivalence of Elliot is.

With more muscles than brains and more manufactured attitude and quote-unquote cojones than muscles, the pair don’t really come across as characters that anybody will really want to get to know. Or, at least, not anyone we’d like to know. I’m not saying that all game heroes have to be skinny physicists with green eyes and metal jumpsuits – but having something in common with your demographic is usually a good thing. And knowing a hacker called s3kShUn8 doesn’t count.

Still, at least you can’t accuse Army of Two of being inconsistent – the game uses this overhyped sense of attitude all the way through. It’s something of a theme and it’s evidenced in the gameplay too – guns and rocket launchers that can be gold-plated or decked out with…sigh…“pimped” paintjobs.

Mind you, a lot of this is ancillary chaff. In games of this type there’s only so much import that you can put on story and character design. If you boil everything down then Marcus Fenix probably isn’t too likeable as a person either – but the gameplay of Gears makes up for it. Let’s just hope that that the same is true for Army of Two.