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| From: Electronic Arts
Category: Video Games
List Price: $29.99
Buy Used: $17.00
You Save: $12.99 (43%)
New (44) Used (44) from $17.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  91 reviews
Sales Rank: 972
Platform: Xbox 360
ESRB: Mature
Media: Video Game
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 17 - 20 years
Operating System: Xbox 360
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 0.1 x 0.1 x 0
MPN: 15751
UPC: 014633157512
EAN: 0014633157512
ASIN: B000RHZ9JI
Release Date: March 4, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Game Evolved August 22, 2008
Unlike the game Battlefield Bad Company where every step is one in the wrong direction this game evolves a Genre started by Gears Of War.A lot of games even great ones make game mechanics that are confusing and awkwark.But this is not the case.You intuitively begin to use these mechanics to your advantage right away and discover that great games have to have this type easy to use mechanics.The Tutorial is bar none the best one of any game explaining everything you need to understand.Explaining and Practicing Agro will even give you an important Achievement!The way you change and upgrade your weapons are done in a a way in which after you hit a new checkpoint you can have the option of changing or upgrading them.And trust me you'll want do get as much money as possible through missions to unlock them.You can also unlock Masks,Armor and even the appearance of your weapons.You have three types of weapons Heavy,Medium and light and the right blend in different situation.
The game invokes Team work and indeed that is important.But a lot of times you can command your partner to clear entire spans of a map without you moving a muscle.And the most annoying and definately a flaw is when you send him to an otherwise unopposing situation,he goes down and you have to drag him to cover and revive him.And the A.I. in this game is Smart.They will try to flank you,use suppressive fire,throw grenades,man unused turrets and will group up to become more effective in certain place.So,you'll be trying to grab your buddy and take round after round nearly to the break of death.And even though He's firing his gun to support you as you try to save his life most times both of you go down and once that happens gave over.Grenades aren't used a whole lot,because most enemies are too smart to stand there and just be blown up.Plus the system in which you use exposes you to enemy fire WAY too much.
However that's about it with the negatives.Here comes some more great things.The story is actually pretty good and the main characters are expertly done and fit perfectly.And most of the events are base in real life conflicts.Now there was a big controversy about the game when it was was first announced that part of the game would have events and images about 9/11.It does,but I believe they did it quite nicely and with good taste that I guarantee wouldn't offend anybody who saw the scene.I'm not a reviewer who reveals the story,but I will say that it's really good.And when you finish the game you'll feel that you have actually accomplished something.
Online is great as well.I only played a few games online,but from what I played of it was fun and when you get a great paring of players it becomes really tactical and like a fine game of Chess.And people like Halo 3 or Call Of Duty 4 get excited about playing.Though there are people who are loud mouth trash talkers who like nothing better than to insult you on your skills and call you every derogatory name in the book.
Army Of Two is a shining example of how you evolve a genre of Gameplay without ruining the game in the process.It should be noted that what works the best in the game is mechanics they modified from ones in Games such as in Gears Of War.Small Tweaks that should have always been standard in every future releases.And how more fluid things progress and you fight.And controlling your partner and him actually being useful.Although it had some noticible flaws that keep it from being a solid five if you thinking about buying this game then do so knowing that you just picked up a quality game worth your hard earned money.
A quality title that exceeds more than it disappoints August 15, 2008
Army of Two is a co-op focused 3rd person shooter from EA's Montreal studios; a relatively recent studio formed in 2003 by EA largely comprised of former studio acquisitions made by EA over the years. Being the studio's first effort, Army of Two delivers as a respectable entry into the 3rd person genre that largely satisfies more than it disappoints.
The game's focus is on private military missions in which you take control of one of two for-hire mercenaries - Elliot Salmen and Tyson Rios. As soon as the characters are introduced, you immediately become aware of how stereotypically American these brother's in arms are. They use "dude" constantly to refer to one another and often fist pound to congratulate one another on a job well done. While this certainly doesn't detract from gameplay, it presents a sense of disdain for the two as they both seem to embody the very sense of wrong attitude often accompanied with war by American youth. Perhaps it was intentional by the Canadian based studio to present an exaggerated perspective so it would resonate with players how we, as Americans, sometimes see war as a game to win more than a tragedy to avoid. However, it's more likely the 'heroes' of this title were a product of EA's American marketing division rather than a pseudo-intellectual cultural critique.
The controls of the game will be immediately familiar to Gear's of War players as the cover mechanic is largely the same. It mostly works to great effect, save for situations where tiny nuances (like being able to quickly switch from cover to cover) are non-existent. That said, aiming is accurate and the controls felt responsive for the most part. One of the 'innovations' the game touts in gameplay is the Aggro system - a system lifted from MMORPGs which allows a player to hold enemy attention by one player being more aggressive than the other. This creates situations where one player can hold enemy focus while another moves further position to flank, but this requires players to constantly work together to take down each set of enemies. After the 20th set of enemies, chances are, players will probably devolve into normal play-style of shoot everything that moves, nullifying the system. The only time when this system is truly enforced is when invulnerable enemy turrets appear, in which one player must distract the turret user while the other takes them out from an exposed angle.
Being that the game is co-op focused, single-player feels more like a side-show than the main attraction. While you can play this by yourself, the fun factor drops substantially as your computer AI counterpart continually runs into enemy fire like a moth to flame. The computer controlled player is functional enough to be a stand-in but acts more like a inadequate mobile turret than a strategic, war-honed killing mercenary. Like in Gears, you have some basic commands you can issue to your side-kick but these are largely worthless as the AI seems to have a mind of its own in most situations.
Co-op, however, is where the game's main design truly struts its stuff. Playing with two players is a blast, forcing players to work together to take down enemies. When one player is downed, the other must revive him before he bleeds out. Unlike Gears, however, the downed player is able to still shoot to help make the area safer for the player tasked with rescuing to gain access to. The attending player is also able to drag the wounded to safety to perform a quick 5 second maneuver for revival.
The enemy AI is challenging but largely this is due to their overwhelming numbers more than clever tactics. While the AI will occasionally rush for flanking positions they are more likely to retreat to further away cover causing artificially lengthy fire-fights. A sound effect let's you know when you've cleared the area, but often times it plays when enemies are still about, leading to untimely and undeserved deaths. This notification really should have been caught in QA before the game was released as it's rather pivotal to fluid gameplay.
Throughout the missions you travel to different parts of the world. Aircraft carriers, remote jungle villages, and office buildings are all par for the course. The environments feature some destructible objects (windows, largely) but mostly feel static. Level design is also incredibly linear, with very few places to explore outside of the main runway which you're expect to traverse.
One of the more interesting aspects of the game is the weapons dealers which can be accessed at certain points during missions. You can choose from a variety of them, each dealing in a specialized area of customization for your character. One sells mask designs (which seems like a rather dismal career in the black arms market), another special weapons such as sniper rifles and rocket launchers and others in more traditional gear. Weapons can be customized with increased magazine capacity, barrel length and better scopes. Laughably, each weapon also has a 'pimp' option to bling out the firearm, which adds extra aggro - presumably because enemies find it humiliating to be bullet ridden by a gold encrusted MP5. In any other game the pimp option would have been out of place, but strangely, in Army of Two, it's right at home.
Graphically the game looks stellar, with the main characters models stealing the show. The environment and enemies look great too, from the heavily armored foes right down to the politically incorrect middle-eastern suicide bombers. The frame-rate is rock solid for the most part and the game is a solid testament to how far next generation console gaming has come. Sounds are crisp, clean and generally lend themselves to whatever is occurring on-screen. The voice acting is a little over the top, from both the main characters and supporting cast, but this is a result of the ham-handed script the actors were given.
The story in Army of Two is serviceable but forgettable as well. The foreshadowing is as thick as it gets, with the secret protagonist being as subtle as a loud fart in an empty hallway. They should really employ Army of Two's plot prediction as an IQ test for being qualified as a sentient being, because if you can't predict this game's inevitable end within 5 minutes of it's opening story you're either a vegetable or mineral.
Overall, Army of Two is a mixed bag. It has great graphics, fun co-op gameplay and character customization which really adds value to the entire package. Detracting from the experience is it's cliched, hokey story and extreme attitude, which seem almost offensive in a game revolving around for-hire killers.
Great game but where is the rest? August 12, 2008
This game is a great shooter when you have a friend to play it with. Playing the game by yourself isn't quite as fun but it isn't terrible. My only complaint about it is the game is too short to have much value. My friend and I beat the game on the Contractor difficulty in close to five hours. After that you can try on professional difficulty but it is the same game over again with the reward of unlocking the rest of the secondary and special weapons.
 REVIEW ON MY ORDER THAT I NEVER RECEIVED July 28, 2008
0 out of 9 found this review helpful
Amazon is asking me to write a review on someting that I order A month ago and never received.
Amazon please help me out here!...Somebody send me the game!!!!!
 Demo is all you need July 24, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This game is entertaining as it is meant for co-op. If you are playing by yourself, wait for gears of war 2 or just play gears of war over again. In the beginning of the game, the graphics and the gameplay was very entertaining. However, after 4 or 5 levels of the same thing without a decent storyline, the game gets extremely repetitive.
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