Army of Two (Xbox 360)

Army of Two is a game that’s larger than life, there’s a temptation to compare it to Gears of War, just as every shooter usually gets nailed in comparison to the glowing gem of Microsoft’s crown: Halo 3 (which was a bit of a let down) and is however defended to the death by rabid Halo fanboys. Don’t get me wrong, I like it, yet there always feels as though there’s something missing from the games.

Army of Two fills in that gap for me since it takes the core concepts that I liked about Chaos Theory (Splinter Cell 3) on the Xbox in terms of co-op and gives me a whole game to play either SP or MP with a friend.

So if the game plays pretty well, how’s it look?

Army of Two is a damn nice looking game, there’s no denying that the developers have spent a lot on the graphical polish and the characters have distinct features that set them apart from each other. Tyson is the bigger of the two and his metal skull style mask is the most macabre of the pair, he’s the serious one and not so much of a show-boater as Salem. He’s thinner and has a lot more in terms of flare, especially upon his mask (even though you can customise their masks and give them better armour later on).

The use of lighting and shadow, the use of textures and the design of the game is definitely what sets it apart: Gears of War was a nice looking game but Army of Two looks nicer when you compare the two. The level designs in Army of Two are setup to make good use of co-operative play and there are plenty of places to use the co-op moves like step-jump with a partner.

The animations for the main characters are great, even the enemy animations and AI take advantage of complex moves, running to dive or slide behind cover. Peering out over and blind-firing to keep you disorientated. These are all superbly animated and there’s a real feeling of polish given to this game in this department. I have a particular soft spot for the aggressive and appreciative partner animations, especially the gun-guitar solos.

To go with the great animations and graphics, you have some truly excellent and meaty voice acting between the main characters, they are full of personality and their actors do an excellent job bringing Elliot and Tyson to life. The voice work in the entire game is pretty spot on. It’s a mature rated game, so expect some swearing with the over the top gunplay. Married to the voice work are some excellent audio sounds in general, with the guns sounding strong compared to the pop-gun sounds of some games.

The music is likewise dramatic enough and original to stand alongside the other sound. The score doesn’t annoy and it doesn’t drown out the rest of the game.

Army of Two is definitely a good game, it needs an option to choose which kind of split-screen to employ and could have done with being a bit longer with a few more special unlocks to add replay value. I guess the developers are hoping that the players will keep on plugging away at the multiplayer which is certainly fun and fairly unique in terms of allowing enemy AI to mix things up with the regular objectives.