Army of Two is a 3rd-person shooter centered around two characters who are vengeful mercs for hire. The whole theme behind the game is doing things that take two people to accomplish, like giving high fives or holding each other's beer. Rock on, bro!
Gameplay: 5.0
Unique gameplay concepts - What drives the game, and what is it similar to?
It takes two people to do many things - tango, play chess, conceive children, etc. In Army of Two, it's all about things that are unnecessary, like opening doors and healing yourself. Seriously, this game beats that concept into your head until you can't take it anymore.
There are several things that they put into the game to follow this motif. In order to get up a tall ledge, you need one guy to boost you up, and the other guy to get boosted, then pull him up the ledge. You need two people to do other things like knock down doors, press buttons (seriously?), parachute (kinda.. gay?), shoot lots of guys, etc.
The concept is good, but their execution is so cheesy I swear I must've facepalmed at least a dozen times in horror.
At certain points in the game they yell out "back to back!" and they stand back to back and shoot guys in slow motion. You also need your partner to heal you by dragging you around and then jabbing something into you when it's safe. I mean, they go so far out of their way to pound this "two people" gameplay mechanic, that it's almost like they forgot that gaming isn't about being a team or anything like that, it's about having fun first. It actually reminds me of Left 4 Dead, now that I think about it.
Their battle system is as mediocre as it gets. Point at guys, shoot them, use your partner for something useless, etc. It would be redeeming if this game had exceptional combat mechanics or something, but, it really doesn't.
Their only unique combat mechanism is their attention (or "aggro") meter, displaying who is being more aggressive and how enemies will respond to it. You can tactically try to have one person be more aggro than the other, but it always comes down to "hey, let's flank them and shoot em a lot".
Since it's a "Army of Two", requiring two players, if you play by yourself you're given an AI partner, who is totally incompetent. If you decided to buy this game and don't have somebody to play it with, you might as well return it right now.
They also have a pretty standard upgrading system with the money you earn throughout the game. You can upgrade things like weapons and armor, but a lot of the upgrades are totally worthless - like buying masks that do nothing for you, or "pimping out" your gun. I feel like an ass just using the term they used in the game. Gonna go wash my mouth out with soap. BRB.
Presentation: 7.0
Graphical and audio presentation (animation, texturing, overall look & artistic style)
Presentation is decent. Maybe the best part of the game?
Theatrics: 3.0
Story, Dialogue, Cut-Scenes and Artistic Use of Camera
The overuse of words similar to "dude" and "yo" in this game are unbearable. The dialogue had to have been written by a fraternity-residing college student. I mean, bro, it's like totally.. um.. weaksauce.
The story is also not memorable whatsoever. Some guy screws your two characters over, and you go on a long wild goose chase to track him down and fight him. Also, some people pay you to fight for them, or something. Who cares?
The two characters in the game are as stock and unmentionable as possible. One guy is the tough guy and the other guy is the.. almost as tough guy. They carry big guns and wear big armor. That's about it.
Oh, and they have a "hacker" friend for you that does nothing 8ut t41k 1n 1337 5p34k (which you can't hear, you can only read as subtitles). It's ridiculous and utterly pointless.
At least being able to press a button to whomp your friend on the head as some sort of joke, or high five them was at least memorable. Again, drunken college guy sort of stuff here.
Controls: 8.0
Ease of Use and Smoothness of Controls
The game's controls are actually pretty smooth. A lot of instances of teamwork fighting can be awkward, though, and dragging somebody around/healing them is really annoying.
Replay Value: 5.0
Total Gameplay Time versus Expected
I can't believe I played through the entire game, but, I did. I have no desire to play it again, at all, or it's sequel. I never had any desire to put their combat to the test in multiplayer considering how utterly mediocre it already is.
Fun: 5.5
What were the most and least fun parts of the game? Overall, how much fun is the game?
The game's combat really isn't THAT bad. But the rest of the game is just laughable. In fact.. I think I enjoyed it more than somebody should have because of how stupid a lot of it was. Still, you're not missing anything by not playing this game.
My Overall Rating: 5.0
Complexity Level: Short Explanation Required. This game is one that has a short tutorial on how to play, explaining the different game modes it can enter, like back to back or.. parachuting or whatever. Basically all of the teamwork mechanics require a little bit of explaining to show you how it works. Still, it's not a difficult game to pick up at virtually any experience level.
Gameplay: 5.0
Unique gameplay concepts - What drives the game, and what is it similar to?
It takes two people to do many things - tango, play chess, conceive children, etc. In Army of Two, it's all about things that are unnecessary, like opening doors and healing yourself. Seriously, this game beats that concept into your head until you can't take it anymore.
There are several things that they put into the game to follow this motif. In order to get up a tall ledge, you need one guy to boost you up, and the other guy to get boosted, then pull him up the ledge. You need two people to do other things like knock down doors, press buttons (seriously?), parachute (kinda.. gay?), shoot lots of guys, etc.
The concept is good, but their execution is so cheesy I swear I must've facepalmed at least a dozen times in horror.
At certain points in the game they yell out "back to back!" and they stand back to back and shoot guys in slow motion. You also need your partner to heal you by dragging you around and then jabbing something into you when it's safe. I mean, they go so far out of their way to pound this "two people" gameplay mechanic, that it's almost like they forgot that gaming isn't about being a team or anything like that, it's about having fun first. It actually reminds me of Left 4 Dead, now that I think about it.
Their battle system is as mediocre as it gets. Point at guys, shoot them, use your partner for something useless, etc. It would be redeeming if this game had exceptional combat mechanics or something, but, it really doesn't.
Their only unique combat mechanism is their attention (or "aggro") meter, displaying who is being more aggressive and how enemies will respond to it. You can tactically try to have one person be more aggro than the other, but it always comes down to "hey, let's flank them and shoot em a lot".
Since it's a "Army of Two", requiring two players, if you play by yourself you're given an AI partner, who is totally incompetent. If you decided to buy this game and don't have somebody to play it with, you might as well return it right now.
They also have a pretty standard upgrading system with the money you earn throughout the game. You can upgrade things like weapons and armor, but a lot of the upgrades are totally worthless - like buying masks that do nothing for you, or "pimping out" your gun. I feel like an ass just using the term they used in the game. Gonna go wash my mouth out with soap. BRB.
Presentation: 7.0
Graphical and audio presentation (animation, texturing, overall look & artistic style)
Presentation is decent. Maybe the best part of the game?
Theatrics: 3.0
Story, Dialogue, Cut-Scenes and Artistic Use of Camera
The overuse of words similar to "dude" and "yo" in this game are unbearable. The dialogue had to have been written by a fraternity-residing college student. I mean, bro, it's like totally.. um.. weaksauce.
The story is also not memorable whatsoever. Some guy screws your two characters over, and you go on a long wild goose chase to track him down and fight him. Also, some people pay you to fight for them, or something. Who cares?
The two characters in the game are as stock and unmentionable as possible. One guy is the tough guy and the other guy is the.. almost as tough guy. They carry big guns and wear big armor. That's about it.
Oh, and they have a "hacker" friend for you that does nothing 8ut t41k 1n 1337 5p34k (which you can't hear, you can only read as subtitles). It's ridiculous and utterly pointless.
At least being able to press a button to whomp your friend on the head as some sort of joke, or high five them was at least memorable. Again, drunken college guy sort of stuff here.
Controls: 8.0
Ease of Use and Smoothness of Controls
The game's controls are actually pretty smooth. A lot of instances of teamwork fighting can be awkward, though, and dragging somebody around/healing them is really annoying.
Replay Value: 5.0
Total Gameplay Time versus Expected
I can't believe I played through the entire game, but, I did. I have no desire to play it again, at all, or it's sequel. I never had any desire to put their combat to the test in multiplayer considering how utterly mediocre it already is.
Fun: 5.5
What were the most and least fun parts of the game? Overall, how much fun is the game?
The game's combat really isn't THAT bad. But the rest of the game is just laughable. In fact.. I think I enjoyed it more than somebody should have because of how stupid a lot of it was. Still, you're not missing anything by not playing this game.
My Overall Rating: 5.0
Complexity Level: Short Explanation Required. This game is one that has a short tutorial on how to play, explaining the different game modes it can enter, like back to back or.. parachuting or whatever. Basically all of the teamwork mechanics require a little bit of explaining to show you how it works. Still, it's not a difficult game to pick up at virtually any experience level.
No comments:
Post a Comment