We wouldn’t be all that happy with an army of two. Think about it. The Trooping the Colour would be less than spectacular, the marching band, we suspect, would be a little lacklustre, and with the hierarchy consisting of so few, we’d imagine discipline would be pretty slack. On the plus side, we’d save over 32 billion quid per year, which would equate to a tax rebate of 500- odd pounds for every man, woman and child in the UK. We’d be happy with that. Especially if that reduced defence force was anywhere near as effective as Salem and Rios, the titular two of EA’s latest shooter franchise.

They’re raucous, uncaring killers, who pretty much dive into every situation with guns in one hand, and dicks in the other. It’s all ‘hoo-raah! and air guitar’ with these guys, and in that sense it makes for the most mindless gun-and-gun gameplay you’ll encounter this generation. This is what Army Of Two was going for though, almost without doubt, and unless you were expecting some kind of intelligent comment on terrorism and the method of war, you won’t be disappointed.

Army Of Two isn’t a careless title though. It’s not utterly bog-standard, and has a number of elements that raise it above the generic nature of the rest of the game. The things that EA has concentrated on pushing aren’t particularly special though. The prime example being the ‘Aggro’ system. Now this is something that a more subtle title would have put behind the scenes. But it is a good concept, the idea that if one member of the team is doing all the shooting, they’ll draw more attention than someone being a little quieter on the battlefield. The way Army Of Two does it is unnecessary though. There’s an ostentatious meter to tell you who’s getting shot at as well as a bizarre oily, red coating around the character drawing the most aggro. The only reason we can see for it to be so forcefully driven like this is to show that the mechanic works. It could have easily been done in a less obvious fashion, even to the point of being an AI characteristic, rather than an overt gameplay mechanic.

That aside though, it does make it clear when the aggro system is in effect. The trouble we have with it is that if you know exactly when you’re taking all the aggro, and when your partner is invisible, it takes much of the improvisation out of the gun battles, making them a good deal more staid than they might otherwise be. With such an overt system, one player simply has to blast the crap out of something in the vicinity of an enemy until the meter is full, then allow the other player to run ahead and melee kill the offending terrorists. As long as you don’t approach it with that mentality, it still works, but seems like a missed opportunity to do something really special with enemy behaviours. Those enemies have some brilliantly suited AI given the type of game and, importantly, move around cleverly, creating genuine tension and urgency.

… continued