As much as we love them here at DailyGame, it’s hard to deny that the squad-based shooter genre has been done to death. Certain games are a blast to play, but by and large the market’s been flooded. Several years ago Ubisoft introduced a new way to play team-based games online with the co-op multiplayer options in Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. But where that game has two-player co-op as a gameplay mode, EA is looking to make an entire game, if not a franchise, out of the concept with Army of Two.
Designed for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Army of Two takes everything from the co-op aspects in Pandora Tomorrow and, to a certain degree, Perfect Dark Zero, and builds the rest of the entire game around the concept of working with, not just alongside, a teammate.
As part of a privatized army (a mercenary force), players will work hand-in-hand, arm-in-arm, back-to-back and gun-to-gun with a single teammate. Whether this teammate is controlled by the computer or another human, the purpose is the same: to achieve the objective with both teammates intact, or die trying. There is no middle ground. This isn’t Mad Max’s Thunderdome; where two men enter in Army of Two, two men must leave.
The gameplay is built around this cooperative concept. In one mission, we were dropped into a hostile zone via parachute. While one player controlled the parachute’s direction and rate of descent, the other player, who happened to be strapped to the chest of the “driver,” sprayed gunfire at the enemies below. When enemies were behind the chute, the gunman had to communicate to the driver to turn around. When enemies ducked behind a building, the gunman had to tell the driver to steer around the structure. And when the gunman started taking too much fire, it was up to the driver to maneuver his teammate out of harm’s way.
Since our demo was played on a single Xbox 360 console, the action was often divided via split-screen so both players could see their respective area of fire (in-vehicle sequences are played this way as well). At other times the action took place on a single screen, much like an action RPG. At other times, though, the split-screen mode was complemented by an “overall” view above the two split “windows,” which put both a tactical and a strategic view of the combat on-screen at once.
The strategic aspects aren’t just in the presentation, though; remember, Army of Two borrows heavily from the co-op in Pandora Tomorrow, Chaos Theory and Perfect Dark Zero. In addition to deformable cover, which always adds an element of strategy, Army of Two relies on truly cooperative play: Boosting a teammate onto a ledge. Anchoring the rope as a teammate rappels down a building. Exchanging ammunition when one mercenary’s gun is empty. Slowly escorting an injured teammate from danger, much like in Full Spectrum Warrior. You can even perform co-op CPR on your teammate via a “kick meter” that determines success or failure. From top to bottom, Army of Two is driven by co-op play.
Even so, the best of friends still get upset with one another, and there will be times when you’ll just want to cuss. Feel free. Just remember that EA has programmed the AI-controlled teammate to react to harsh words, so if you tell him to go “F*@k himself,” you can expect either a like-toned response or, better yet, for the teammate to flip you the bird. It’s hilarious.
With truly cooperative gameplay, plus the ability to upgrade and buy weapons using the money earned for beating levels (you’re a mercenary, remember?), Army of Two could very well be the game that redefines how gamers play team-based shooters. With the game not scheduled to release until 2007, EA has plenty of time to refine the controls, enhance the voice commands and boost the graphics even further. But where gameplay is concerned, EA’s new next-gen franchise already appears to be locked and loaded.
— Jonas Allen