When the original Army of Two made its debut I was one of the first to wisp up a copy namely for the game that in my mind took my childhood fantasy of playing an entire game with a friend and restricting any chance of success if you don’t work together.

 

While in essence Army of Two was suppose to take what Contra did for my 8bit and enhance the current generation of gaming consoles with a must have title. It failed to have any replay value, and looked unpolished and rushed, while Army of Two did bring a few friends over, it failed to entice us to replay, even with the gold guns... So what has EA done differently this time round and is it now the game it should have been?

 

 

Army of Two: The 40th Day while not a hotly anticipated title, it still has a lot of gamers monitoring its progress and any adjustments to improve gameplay, graphics and of course co-op gameplay adjustments.

 

While Army of Two: The 40th Day had to move away from the industry standards of numerical numbering for progressive titles, such as Army of Two and then Army of Two 2, for obvious reasons EA did grab at straws for title names, while the title does relate to the plot it does ensure that the third title in the series to once again break standard numerical title numbering.

 

 

The largest complaint from the original Army of Two was undoubtedly the hour worth of tutorials on how to slap and high five your partner with a few demonstrations on flanking and covering. Army of Two: The 40th Day migrates away from excess detail and explains the basics which enables you to jump into precarious situations with your friend locally of over the internet.

 

The other main concern came from the tree hugger gaming community, they were unimpressed that in essence EA had created a mass murder title which had no real ethics... Its war FFS (Google the term if you really must know) and EA has for Army of Two: The 40th Day introduced an ethic system to counter this complaint, so now you get asked what you want to do similar to Bioshock, don’t lie and tell me you didn’t kill the little girls each time! You are now kindly asked if you want to kill the last species of tiger in a zoo mission for example, to get a wicked shotgun. Now let’s logically put the idea into perspective do you leave an endangered tiger alive and lets yourself become extinct or kill the tigers and take that shotty? So before you head out and buy the title for your animal loving significant other, just remember that you are going to kill them tigers!

 

While EA have expanded on the original Army of Two and at face value Army of Two: The 40th Day has eliminated a multitude of complaints, yet its hard to take the game seriously when the main bragging rights are jewelry for your weapons. Would you rather unlock some sweet co-op special moves or grab yourself a diamond encrusted diamond grenade to kill all the enemies who long to be princesses?

 

 

If you chose the girly-fied grenade then Army of Two: The 40th Day is a title for you, if you chose something deeper then Army of Two: The 40th Day won’t fill your appetite...

 

Army of Two: The 40th Day has almost no story instead it plays like one long, tedious and at some points never ending, which for the type of game is actually required. Its not a game that requires much of a story, a simple go here kill these people then get back here suffices. Salem, Rios and Alice, the two soldiers and the intelligence lady of the previous game have started their own mercenary unit, while doing an assignment in Shanghai a unknown third army surrounds the city and you must now shoot your way out… As I said bare minimum story line, but for Army of Two: The 40th Day it works and gets you into the fray almost instantaneously. For those gamers who actually care for more there are audio tapes scattered throughout the levels for you to collect and decipher.

 

“Army of Two is about teamwork if you a glutton for kills you will die with your partner”