Army of Two is a game about two guys that work for a private military company. Private military companies are corporations that employ mercenaries and are often involved in small scale conflicts that governments cannot or will not officially interfere with. As such, private military companies are embroiled in controversy – does the deployment of mercenaries serve legitimate purpose, and should companies be allowed to profit from war? Don't expect a fair and balanced answer to that question from Army of Two as it serves as a glorification of private military companies; getting paid money to shoot people and blow stuff up, and wearing lots of cool masks and armour during the process. It's a pity Army of Two doesn't do the thing it was intended to do; glorify cooperative play in video games.

The game starts off in Somalia in 1993. Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem are stationed there with the American Military when they have an encounter with Philip Clyde, a contractor with a private military company, Security and Strategy Corporation (SSC). Upon completion of their objective, Clyde offers Rios and Salem's commanding officer Richard Dalton a job with SSC. Dalton in turn recruits Rios and Salem a year later. After this, the game follows the pair's career over a number of years – through operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, before going off into a plot concerning the drafting of legislation in the US Congress to privatise the military. However, the game is mostly about blasting through scores of soldiers with a buddy and making a crapload of money in the process, so the bog standard story gets lost outside of a couple of cutscenes between missions.

One can tell from the outset that Unreal Engine 3.0 is driving Army of Two, due in large to the large, chunky plastic-looking character models with the usual assortment of fancy visual effects. Rios and Salem's designs are reasonably good; players have access to a wide variety of different masks, so they can dolly up their big macho soldiers the way they want. On the other hand, just about every other character and enemy in the game is totally bland from a technical and visual standpoint. The frame rate is generally stable, but will always get bogged down in the middle of large fire-fights. Sound is functional, but not outstanding. Voice work is reasonably good though; Rios and Salem have a good chemistry going, though other characters tend to go a little too heavy on the cuss words in a vain attempt to be edgy.

In-game action in Army of Two takes on the form of a light tactical shooter, with heavy emphasis on cooperating with your partner in order to achieve your mission objectives. EA has gone to the effort of making all sorts of fancy bells and whistles to make cooperative play seem like the way to go – the problem is that they force them down your throat. One is forced to work with their partner, be they computer or human, at all times – it is practically impossible to attempt to do anything yourself in Army of Two because your character is just too weak. Most of your arsenal will feel about as effective as a potato gun as you fruitlessly spray bullets in the general direction of your opponents from behind cover. It obviously wasn't enough for EA to make the guns weak; they had to make them inaccurate and totally awkward to aim as well. Of course, in the name of what EA considers to be fairness, your opponents have a level of accuracy that would pick them up multiple gold medals in Beijing come August. This means you've got to constantly take cover, or you'll be turned into Swiss cheese. Problem is the cover mechanic is terribly picky; if you are not exactly the right distance away from the point which you wish to take cover behind, you'll either roll into it and not attach to it, or jump over the top into a barrage of lead.

With the odds stacked so highly against you, you've got no choice but to make the most of the game's cooperative play system. Most of the cooperative interactions you'll use are basic things such as helping the other player reach another platform or healing one another. The more interesting cooperative moves require a bit of strategy. Each player has an Aggro meter, which fills up whenever that player is essentially leading the charge and grabbing the enemy's attention. At its most basic level, you'll have one guy take fire up his Aggro meter while the other sneaks forward and takes out a few enemies, and the meter will constantly see-saw between the two states. If one player keeps their Aggro meter full and manages to strike an enemy, they will be able to enter overkill mode. The aggressive player's overkill mode provides a boost in strength, allowing them to do double damage, and giving them temporary invulnerability. The other player will enter overkill stealth mode, where they will be invisible to the enemy. Army of Two is best played with a friend, as the partner AI has a tendency to be incompetent; getting stuck in walls, ignoring your pleas for healing and generally charging head on into an open space full of enemy soldiers are all on its agenda. Just make sure you and your buddy run through the training area first. Still, there are a few cool cooperative moments, like when you use the co-op snipe function to pick two soldiers off at the same time to prevent alarms being raised, or the back to back sections that have you surrounded by troops, but with an unlimited supply of ammo.

The Army of Two campaign is made up of six missions that take place over the course of 16 years. Each mission is up to about an hour long, with a number of main objectives that play out in a linear fashion. Since Rios and Salem are private contractors, they get money for each objective they accomplish, which you can then spend in a store at the start and middle of each mission. You can buy any number of weapons, face masks and body armour, though most of them will be unlocked after you complete the game for the first time. There is also the (mostly useless) option to "pimp out" your guns with various fancy metal trimmings and other fluff. Generally, your missions will consist of killing someone or blowing something up, seldom ever straying beyond your standard shooter fare. Missions have a tendency to suffer from idiotic check-pointing syndrome, where the game will frequently give you checkpoints in sections where you don't need them, then make you play long, difficult stretches without any relief.

In addition to cooperative play, Army of Two has a competitive multiplayer mode for up to four players. In teams of two, players go head to head to make as much money as possible. Game modes will have you trying to kill the other team, trying to kill computer controlled enemies, rescuing hostages or planting bombs. The best game mode has a combination of all of these, where players need to complete as many objectives as they can in the time limit. The multiplayer section doesn't have any real staying power – Army of Two's mechanics tend to get in the way, and the fact that EA decided to make the PAL version of the game entirely separate from the US version means that you have far fewer opponents to match up against.


Army of Two had potential, as all cooperative games do, but the quality of the experience just doesn't stack up against the other games on the market trying to do the same thing – namely Gears of War and Halo 3. The shooting mechanics are too cumbersome, the cooperative mechanics are forced upon you at every opportunity by making your character totally weak, and the partner AI is far too unreliable. These factors, combined with the game's short length, non-existent replay value and limited multiplayer should be enough to inspire you to leave it on the shelf, but if you're in need of a quick blast and have a buddy who's willing to be bossed around, then Army of Two might be worth a rental.