Army of Two: The 40th Day (Xbox 360) Review

Posted by Joe Roche on 03.06.2010

The bro-mance of Salem and Rios heads to Shanghai where all hell breaks loose, but is the game any good?



Title: Army of Two: The 40th Day
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: EA Montreal
Genre: Third Person Shooter
Players: 1-2 (Online Multiplayer 2-10)
Rated: M for Mature

Army of Two: The 40th Day is a big budget summer blockbuster that you can play on your console with a friend. That one sentence review pretty much sums up the game in both its positive and negative aspects. Army of Two…um, II spends a great deal of time pumping up the action – throwing a Michael Bay level of explosions at you as the entire city of Shanghai crumbles to the ground. The highlight of the destruction of Shanghai would have to be the moment where you’re standing on the ledge of a crumbling building as a crashing jumbo jet with its wing on fire streaks toward your position. It’s at about that time when you realize that Army of Two: The 40th Day is going to be a high octane, fast paced action game and you might as well just strap yourself in and enjoy the ride.



Unfortunately continuing the summer blockbuster comparison is accurate when it comes to the rest of the game. Sure the explosions are cool, and watching Shanghai crumble around you is pretty excellent visually – but you won’t spend much time (or any time) dealing with things like “storyline,” “plot progression,” “character building” or “depth.” Instead what you’ll get is one liners, fist bumps and rock, paper, scissors games between explosive shootouts. Much of the main storyline is told through radio transmissions that you pick up as you progress through the streets and buildings of Shanghai. In order to follow any of what is happening you have to find a radio, press pause, and listen to a broadcast – a system that I absolutely hated because it took me completely out of the game. I appreciate coming up with a new way to tell a story but there has to be a better system then the one used in this game as I found myself playing about 85% of the game before ever listening to one broadcast just because I thought it was too awkward to pause what is essentially a non-stop firefight to listen to a radio broadcast. What that means is that for most of the game you’re just walking from alley way to building firefight without any real grasp of what the hell is happening.



Not that listening to the radio transmissions clarifies much. At best the game desperately tries to be poignant however by dedicating next to no time on plot progression or character development there’s really no reason for you the player/viewer to care about anything that is happening on the screen. Army of Two: The 40th Day is like the movie “Die Hard” if you removed John McLane’s wife from the story arc. By that I mean it’s still fun, there is still a bunch of great action sequences and some genuine chuckle moments but ultimately no real reason for any of what is happening to occur.

Here’s the thing about Army of Two: The 40th Day – none of the previous three paragraphs really matters because this game isn’t about the campaign, or really anything other then the co-op and multiplayer. If you want to hate this game try to play through the campaign SOLO. I know that the AI has been improved from the original game, and you’ve got more co-op options – but your AI teammate is still stupid, and will die a bunch of times. There is a moment relatively early in the game when you first come up against a particularly bad dude with a chain-gun and my AI teammate must have died fifteen consecutive times in less then 20 seconds. This game wasn’t designed to be played solo – so if you’re looking for a single player campaign worth sinking your teeth into this is simply not the game for you.



The problem is that the co-op mode isn’t that great either. It’s not that Army of Two: The 40th Day doesn’t have a solid co-op mode, because there is nothing per se wrong with the mode. The problem is that there are so many games that do co-op better then Army of Two: The 40th Day that I have trouble recommending the game. Here’s the biggest concern that I have about the game’s co-op, because it’s a story driven (somewhat) game playing the co-op mode online is difficult because you’re almost certainly not going to play through the entire 5+ hour campaign with the guy you meet in the Xbox Live staging area. Unlike Left 4 Dead 2, or Modern Warfare 2 which provide co-op experiences that essentially less then a hour and move on – Army of Two: The 40th Day has it’s co-op integrated to the main storyline so there isn’t much draw to jumping online for an hour to play through one chapter of the story with a friend who is going to be logging off after you get through the first stage.

Along with the co-op there are a couple online multiplayer modes that are worth a check, the most engaging of which is the “Extraction” game mode which plays very similar to the Gears of War 2 “Horde” mode (an essential feature for every game now it appears). The game allows for up to three other teammates (so four players) to battle wave after wave of mercenaries. The one aspect of the mode that I liked was that you switch locations after each wave – unlike Horde (and similar) modes. Also bundled in the multiplayer are your common game modes which are essential to any third/first person shooter.



I know it seems like I’m down on Army of Two: The 40th Day but there are some things that the game does well. I probably glossed over it a bit but the effects as Shanghai falls down around you are spectacular. There is an interesting bit of graphic work done with the colors in the game – as the horde of mercenaries takes over more of Shanghai, and the deeper you get into the game the color apparently drains from your surroundings. There is a moment when you’re about ¾ of the way through the game and you drop into a Shanghai alley where the only colors you really see are grey and red, making the red stand out (symbolic as all of the propaganda distributed by Jonah is red). This is a pretty small detail admittedly but it was one that I greatly appreciated.



Also new to The 40th Day – you are now presented with various moral choices as you progress through the game. This feature is a little more interesting with a human controlled partner because then the choice may not always be yours – as the first person to chime in on the choice wins the day. However, while the moral choices felt a bit tacked on it was interesting to be presented with the question of “Whether X lives or dies” – and then seeing the ramifications of your decision through comic book style artwork and storytelling. Granted not all of these cut-away sections were good – one in particular stands out as ridiculous after you make a choice to shoot a white tiger as you fight through Shanghai Zoo. The cut scene showing the ramifications of that decision was so dumb that it almost turned me off completely to the decision making process. However, this feature is a nice little addition that at least creates some consequence to your actions – of course better developed characters might have helped in that progression as well.

There are some other aspects of the game that might be appealing to some – the customization from the original title is back in full force this time around, right down to the ability to upload your own personalized face masks to the EA server to upload into your game. I’ll admit that being able to throw a soda can silencer and a kitchen knife bayonet onto my zebra pattern AK-47 was enjoyable.



PROS
- Graphically watching Shanghai crumble around you is great
- Multiplayer “Extraction” mode is a fun take on Gears of War 2’s “Horde”
- Tons of customization options
- Mindlessly fun

CONS
- The storyline is pretty weak
- Single player mode is terrible
- Co-op is good but probably not that well thought out
- Pretty boring enemies with little variety
- Why is Shanghai littered with perfectly placed spots for cover?

Graphics	8.5	Main characters and surroundings looks great, enemies are a bit cookie cutter
Gameplay	7.5	Single player AI teammate is awful, everything else is pretty standard
Sound	8.0	Good sound on your weapons, not much wasted time with dialog or story telling
Lasting Appeal	7.0	Campaign is very short, multiplayer is there and good but it's better in other games
Fun Factor	7.0	You can have fun with this game, but there are better options out there
Overall	7.5   [ Good ]

Screenshots
All 7 Army of Two: The 40th Day Screenshots