As the title suggests, I found Army of Two in my mailbox courtesy of GameFly and I don't think that the fact that it's a co-op game really saves it.
Now, I didn't try it on a crushing difficulty and I didn't take it online, but I feel that the singleplayer experience was lame and rather boring, not to mention short where I went through two thirds of the game in one sitting. Hell, I played the game a little bit on my own, started it again with my room mate playing co-op until we got to Iraq, played from Iraq to Maimi, played Iraq to Maimi again but in co-op, and then finished the game on my own all in about two days (not even extremely long sittings either).
I am more willing to forgive Call of Duty 4 for it's short singleplayer because that campaign was awesome and intense. Army of Two on the other hand began to get boring very early on and it only got a little interesting when the big plot twist happens. In a way, you could kind of see it coming even if Yahtzee didn't already spoil it for you in his review. Anyway, the gameplay is sort of interesting with it's co-op mechanics and the use of aggro was interesting, but it would be a little weird how a bunch of soldiers wouldn't realize you're running infront of them and make your way behind them while being very close to them. Still, using it as a distraction for your partner to find cover was interesting, but too bad the only enemies that you actually had to kill with it were the same guys with armor covering the front of their bodies. When it comes to the other co-op mechanics, I feel that they could have used less opening door sequences and stuff like that. Also, I think the cover system could have been worked on a little bit more. It's cool how it automatically puts you in cover when you're nearby, but the character shoots from the right side so trying to shoot from the left can be difficult.
The storyline felt very bland and not very original. The acting was decent with some weird lines and some off sounding dialog from certain characters. Still, I feel that the storyline was actually ment to have 7 more hours of gameplay, but it was apparently scrapped. The female character over the radio mentioned that they had known each other in the company for thirteen years, yet you only get like a couple hours of actual game. Hardly any of the characters felt like they had some real storyline and it was like everything was just thrown together with some cheap glue.
The weapons are what make the game a little more fun. Being able to customize your weapons and mask is pretty cool, but it's not extremely neccessairy. I saved up my money and bought an Aug in the second mission and had nearly everything upgraded soon after that and used it throughout the rest of the game. Once I bought the Aug (and an MP7 secondary weapon), I was pretty much set and there was no other real incentive to purchase anything else becuase there was absolutly no need to.
Lastly, the graphics are good too. I wouldn't say they're the best all around, but it's still a pleasing game to look at. There is some noticable texture popping and clipping of models, but it doesn't kill the experience. I don't know about the 360 version, but I noticed that the frame rate was pretty good and it was a rather smooth experience mostly throughout. This game kind of goes with the stereotype of this generation of an extreme amount of bloom. There is so much bloom in this game that I had to put on my sunglasses.
Now this is only counting the story and not the multiplayer because I don't even want to bother with the multiplayer. Maybe that'd help the experience out a little bit more, but I've made it through the storyline and the game is ready to go back to GameFly. I'm hoping I can get REALLY lucky and get GTAIV, but I can dream right?
Anyway, what were your thoughts on this game? This is a game where I can agree that the generation is seeing many shorter games since there are no real redeeming qualities that I see in this game that make the experience worthwhile.
