Battlemouth

Last week I grew a little weary of killing zombies on Left for Dead 2, and decided to try something new. Since Mass Effect 2 still has a little bit before it is mine…I went with Army of Two: The 40th Day. Simultaneously, miles away, my good friend and the ruler of all Battlemouth, Mike, had done the same. After some discussion, we decided to combine our collective experiences with the game into a team review. Here are our thoughts!

Aaron says….

Rios and Salem are back for…well…more of pretty much the same stuff as the first game. I really only rented this new one so that my hetero-life-mate, Phil, and I could team it up. Army of Two is really only meant to be played co-op, and therefore I think ends up getting better reviews than what it really deserves.

That sounds a little more harsh than how I mean it. It isn’t that the game is boring, or has bad graphics, or is unoriginal, in fact, it has some really great features, like the aggro system. RPG-ers are probably the most familiar with the term “aggro” but in a shooter, it is definitely something new. I’ll get into the “aggro” system in a minute, the point I am making is that while that feature and others are indeed cool, most are also…in the original Army of Two. I guess I feel like, if you play almost any game with a friend, you are going to have more fun than if you play alone. A generalization, I know, but a fair one if you consider the success of Xbox live and other online communities like WoW. The game is fairly fun by yourself, and the intuitive controls allow you to remain in control of your partner. However, lack of any real story, or the fun debates that happen when you and your friend are offered the choice between “kill” or “save”  leaves you wanting more .

If I were to judge the game solely on my experience playing with a live partner, I might feel a little better about the rave reviews it’s getting.  Realistically, the the Army of Two games aren’t the type you pick up for the story line anyways. After all, you are a couple of mercenaries that spend their time thinking about what paint scheme they should put on their new M416 more so than what will happen if a certain dictator takes over a certain country or some such shite. The things that are enjoyable in Army of Two, the weapon customization (breaks down to everything from different barrels to grips and suppressors), the team work, the mask customization, and the great aggro feature, keep the game entertaining.

The aggro feature, in most RPG games comes into play when a certain character, through use of a spell or more likely sheer size or intimidation factor, aggro’s the attention of attacking forces, causing that enemy or group of enemies, to attack him or her. So in other words, a badass fighter is going to want to aggro the enemy so they attack him and leave his mage friend to cast spells in the background… The premise is identical in AoT40D, only it is the sound or size of your gun that will draw fire upon you or partner, thus freeing up your counter-part to make flanking movements, or snipe from a distance. This is all well and good, and the Ea Montreal team did a good job of making an understanding of this system necessary to win certain “boss fights”. My problem is that the AI is programmed to respond so much to the aggro that there are times when you can literally walk RIGHT up to baddies firing on your homie and punch them in the balls for the kill. Or worse, they will walk right past you, and not keep firing on your partner only.

At one point I shared cover with an enemy while he fired on my teammate and I fired on his…a little silly. So do I wish I had never rented the game? No, I wouldn’t say that, Phil and I had some really good times playing it, and I even enjoyed a play through on my own on contractor setting. I was not impressed with the online modes, they could be fun but lets be honest, it’s an EA game and apparently  those guys can’t produce a good server set up to save their lives. Take away any real fun online and that forces you to take away the “design your own mask/armour/gun” features because those are ONLY visible online. The gun customizing is always pretty fun, but after a while you just end up buying gold and silver plating for that same rifle you bought half way into the game but have now spent too much money upgrading to get a new one, or maybe some diamond crusting for your grenades…

I would say that this game did what I wanted it to, it was something besides Left 4 Dead 2, and it gave me a good 3 days off my “Mass Effect 2″ game watch. Throw it on your gamefly or whatever and take it as a filler when something you really want doesn’t have any copies yet. If you can overlook it’s immense amounts of flaws, its pretty not horrible!

Mike says….

Picked this one up on a complete whim cause I needed something to pass the time till Mass Effect gets to my doorstep. Played the first AoT and left satisfied, but not blown away so I went into the sequel with the same mindset. But I’ve got to give it to EA they really put some effort into this one and gave a reasonably well polished product that was fun enough to play for a few days.

Like the last game this one is infinitely better when actually playing with another human rather than the AI, but the AI wasnt nearly as bad as last time. At least this time my AI teammate wont casually drag my wounded body out into the line of fire then try to heal me.

As far as the story goes I could really care less. I’m not playing AoT to get a stunning story telling experience. I play it to blow shit up, lots of shit. The game play is solid and entertaining, although its fairly formulaic in that you go to an area, clear out a few waves of enemies, then move to the next area. Thankfully its spiced up with a few different enemy classes and some interesting level design (hiding behind hippo corpses).

The game is short there is no denying that, although the harder difficulty and weapon upgrades encourage additional play through. I had my fun through the game once and sent it back to blockbuster, its was a fun weekend but I don’t see it being much more than that. The online multiplayer is bland and stuck in there just for the sake of having multiplayer.

So, rent it, gamefly it, borrow it, whatever you need to do, and you’ll enjoy it. But if you pay full retail you’re probably going to be left wanting a bit more for your hard earned cash.