E3 2009: Army of Two: The 40th Day impressions

by: John - posted: 6/4/2009 1:24:00 AM

Army of Two was one game Chuck and I had fun playing co-op. It wasn’t too deep but it was just good co-op fun. Army of Two: The 40th Day looks like a much more polished game than the first one while retaining the fun of playing with another person.

Many of the tactics shown during the demo can be done at any time. While all the things you can do in the first game are back, the demo focused on what new things can be done. You can take enemies as human shields to help protect you. Mock surrender is something new as you can walk up to enemies with your hands in the air. Getting you closer without being fired upon, you can then attack the enemies and catch them by surprise.

One of the cooler new features of the game lets you tag enemies that your partner can’t see. Doing so brings up a screen on your partner’s view where the enemies are highlighted. With that information you can plan your attack accordingly even though one person cannot physically see the enemies. It makes the game more team oriented as you have to work together with your friend a little more to be more efficient in taking out the opposition.

There are many decisions throughout the game that you can make. You can choose to take out the enemies or just tie them down. You can choose to rescue hostages, which is a good decision as civilians are currency in the game or you can choose not to save the hostages. Sometimes, there will be choices made available where the first person to make a decision determines what happens. This was built so that you and your friend could talk about what you want to do and it can also lead to some conflict with teammates as one might want one route and one might want the other. It’s an interesting dynamic and one that I want to experience some more to see how much it adds to the game.

You’ll be battling through some interesting environment such as zoos and office spaces. With some games having you arrive at an area after the devastation happens, Army of Two: The 40th Day lets you experience the destruction as it happens making for a more exciting game. You’ll see how things get to the way they are and see the environment change as the chaos spreads.

The weapon customization feature has been updated to be more organic. It’s been called Legos with guns as you can now mix and match parts from any weapons. So you can create a weapon by merging parts from different types of guns to form one that’s suitable for you. Seeing the mixing and matching of parts looks pretty cool when the finished product is displayed.

The demonstration of Army of Two: The 40th Day showed me that they are taking this series to the next level with a more organic cooperative experience. I think they’ve taken what they did with the first game and refined it while adding some cool features. I’m a sucker for good cooperative games and Army of Two: The 40th Day looks like another cooperative game that I will add in my library.