by Manio

Army of Two: The 40th Day is a third-person shooter video game that is developed by EA Montreal and published by Electronic Arts for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Portable. It is the sequel to Army of Two. Army of Two: The 40th Day was released on January 12, 2010 in North America and January 15, 2010 in Europe.

Plot
TFD is set two years after the events of the first game. You take control of either Tyson Rios, or Elliot Salem two soldiers inducted into the service of Trans World Operations, or T.W.O.
They are on a mission in Shanghai when things go bad. A group of PMCs work together to attack the city, causing mayhem, destruction and causing Rios, and Salem to start kicking some ass. The whole plot revolves around Rios, and Salem trying to get out of Shanghai alive and try ending this whole war-zone that’s happening, and causing loads if innocent people to die.

I thought the plot was kind of bland. It didn’t explain much about what was going on, I also hopped into this game without playing the first game, so that might be part of my reasoning. I couldn’t find myself getting interested in any part of the story, and the characters didn’t have any appeal on me, I couldn’t get attached.

The story does have some of its “holy shit” parts, but other than that it was just too bland for me to get into. This is why, I can’t really put anything in the plot section, as I didn’t feel that big of a plot, or there was barely anything there I didn’t notice it.

Gameplay
The game focuses on a co-op experience, where two players (or one player and an AI) work together to kill enemies, and get out of tough situations. Basically, the game is a third person shooter, with the ability to take cover and plays really similar to Gears Of War.

Allow me to delve into the game, and first up I’ll be discussing the co-op. As stated above, the game focuses on the co-op experience, where you and one other get to take on the world. In the game there’s loads of moments where you must work together to get past obstacles, or get past some tough moments and basically use good-teamwork to stay alive. For example, if you get to a certain wall you may need to use a boost, where one person boosts the other up onto this ledge and brings the other player with them, and continue on from there.

Rios dragging Salem to safety, so he can heal him.

A cool thing I noticed was the “Mock Surrender” where the players surrender before entering combat, and the enemies in the area move in to inspect, this is when you can use a quick draw and eliminate all the enemies in a slow-mo action sequence, or sometimes your partner will use a sniper rifle and attempt to snipe out all the approaching soldiers, and simply provide an ambush. Another neat little teamwork addition is the ability to drag your wounded partner behind some cover, and heal him without getting your own ass shot to bits. This can be pretty helpful when you have some enemies distracted by your downed partner and you can do this without worrying about your own ass being shot.

If you need an easier way to save the hostages in the game, it allows the player to grab a nearby enemy and use them as a hostage. Make sure you grab the highest ranking soldier, or they’ll just shoot your hostage if they are a private. This made the game interesting, as I could then run around and tie up the soldiers and save the hostages, and made a change in gameplay rather than running in and shooting the place up.

Weapon Customization is also another huge part of this game, as you can add loads of parts to your weapons and make them totally customized. For example, you can customize an AK-47, giving it a G36c barrel, M16 Stock, and a Screwdriver bayonet and polish it off with a golden weapon skin. To customize your weapons, all you need to do is hold down the “Y” button on the 360, and move the directional pad down to begin customizing your weapons, but make sure you have enough money because you need to buy the parts. To get money, all you need to do is kill people and do some little side-missions, like saving civilians and what-not.

Another form of customization is the Mask Creator, which can be found online at the TFD website. This allows the player to design a mask on this website, and transfer the mask design into their own game and use it for the Campaign, and Multiplayer and basically show off their designs. For example, there are so many mask ideas and completed that you can basically find anything, whether it be a Spider-Man mask to a Gene Simmons, mask from KISS.

A mask made using the Mask Creator, courtesy of myself.

If you get bored from just running, taking cover, and saving civilians you can gather the collectibles that are lying about. These are basically items that you can collect to get money, or some information. Players will be able to find “cats” around the game that when broken get collected, and if a player can collect all of them they get a shiny little achievement. The other collectibles are radios which have some details about what’s going on, and provide some details to the player.

The game also introduces morality choices. This means you can get good morale, or bad morale depending on your situation. This means if you choose to save civilians, or gun them down because they’re wasting your time. The only complaint I have with the morality choices, is if they made a bigger, and more noticeable impact. Rather than having someone lock up a weapon crate because I made a bad choice earlier in the game.

The game did feel good to play at some points, by myself, but when I went into the online games, and online co-op I was hit with a number of issues. The death-match variants were plagued with extreme lag that rendered it unplayable. I decided to not give a shit about the death-match, and play some co-op with Gameshark, and we were instantly plagued with connection issues, and annoying things that were booting us from the game for no reason. This definitely made me reconsider purchasing this, and made me glad I only rented it. The game feels good, but the online co-op has too many problems from what I’ve noticed, and definitely made the experience something terrible.

Another complaint about the game was some of the cover system issues I had. I’d go dive behind some cover, and then end up hopping over the cover and get stuck in the air, unable to move and end up getting killed. This caused huge moments of frustration, and ultimately concluded with me stop playing the game.

Over-all it’s a decent game, but not horrible. If you’re expecting a fun, and exciting game you might just get that, but I really only found myself playing it when I was bored, and needed to get rid of some frustration. It’s still fun to have a run through with a friend, but it definitely didn’t appeal to me.

Rios and Salem shooting from behind cover, and taking out some soldiers.

The game did at least make me laugh, and have those “oh shit!” moments which I look forward to in these kind of games, and I’m glad it delivered that to me. For example, when myself and a fellow NooBTooBer Gameshark were playing we were co-ordinating our shots to take out some soldiers and free some hostages.
We were successful with the elimination, and saved the one hostage where she miraculously died after, causing us to laugh and ponder if Gameshark accidentally shot her, or decided to do it for a laugh. I’m glad an action game, can give the chance for players to not only have a good time playing, but also laugh at some serious parts.

Graphics
When I first loaded up the game and saw the characters the textures looked a little “pixelated.” Then, I never noticed the problem again, so it might have needed some loading time or something.

The game looks nice in some places, and some others places look rather..unfinished. For example I was running through this zoo, and noticed the water effects looking good, and the dead hippo’s looked good, but then I was met with a wall that looked like it had all the textures and details wiped from it, and it looked like somebody painted something in Microsoft Paint, it looked terrible.

A look at how they pulled off a neat little setting based on a Zoo.

Other than that, the game looks fabulous, from the setting of Shanghai, to the custom masks and weapon skins that truly make the weapons, and what-not look more interesting than they should be. If you’re looking for a pretty game, then this game really does that, and it pulls off a great “gritty” and “dark” themed scenario. Very well done on this aspect.

Overview
The game tried to pull of something fun, and exciting and it did for most parts, but I ended up being disappointed in the end, and over-all found the game to be a disappointment.

I came into this game without playing the first one, and may need to go back and see what my views are on that game. If you want, I’d advise a rental, but I barely advise a rental. A total thumbs down for me.