Incoherent third person/action shooter fails to impress.
The game is quite linear, never letting you stray too far from the route set out by level designers which, in itself is quite baffling as the option with two players to do a little exploring would have been appreciated. However co-op moves are limited to opening doors/scaling fences etc which becomes quite tiresome after you have opened the same bent fence/roller door for the umpteenth time. Gun battles are satisfying and helmets fly and bullets whiz around you as you battle the armies of....???...havn't quite worked that bit out yet as the story is quite inchorent and univolving. As there are only two main characters to flesh out the story line the banter that goes on between you and your team mate is virtually non extistant apart from simple commands you yell at him from time to time, another opportunity wasted. There is no option to change any of the audio levels with the game so fans of "turn the crappy music off" will be dissapointed, would have been nice as it would have made some of the whisper quiet conversations throughout the game easier to hear. The moral choices within the game dont reall make an impact on the outcome of the story so instantly you dont really care, the only reason to save all the hostages would be to get the releative achievment. The end is soured by another moral choice, but again you dont care your just glad its over.
Army of Two, part 2 is enjoyable in short doses but all the little things add up after a while to ruin the overall experience. Was expecting much better as the bar has been set quite high with Gears of War 1 & 2 for the 3rd person shooter market, however it never quite reaches the same level of polish or finish that EPIC created. Rental at best.
Multiplayer was not tested as E.A servers as some of the worst around and to be perfectly honest it would have only made the whole experience taste that much sourer.
Footnote: This game contains some of the most retarded AI ever seen in a video game. Your AI controlled buddy upon spotting a mounted gun procedes to walk very slowly towards it getting gunned down in the process leaving you in a hopeless situation where he cannot be rescued, game over..loading screen again. When calling for help I have seen the same AI running against a fence or wall stuck fast unable to move, he ignores commands and the command interface changes whenever he sees fit. You can tell him to hold and ten seconds later hes charging another machine gun nest/shotgun weilding maniac with the above forementioned results. The enemy AI has two modes, duck behind cover then stick your head out to get it blown off and run straight towards you aiming only at you. On one level I found myself between the floors of a bombed out building watching a bad guy take cover behind a desk, after shooting him he was replaced by another soldier who took the same cover in the same spot. Five minutes later I had cleared all the bad guys and they all ran to the same spot and took the same cover never once paying attention to me. I think as gamers we expect a little more of a challenge when we play modern games, not ones with AI routines lifted straight out of "my first AI routine engine". Imagine if you put the enemy AI from AO2 and put it up against say Ghost Recon 1, what do you think the results would be? Target eliminated..thanks Jack Stone...thanks a bunch.