This was my first rental from gamefly…lucky me.  I don’t know why I am constantly surprised by the low standards of game developers these days.  I mean, I see it all the time.  Gears 2, Too Human, Unreal Tournament III, etc.  I can now add Army of Two to that list.  I tried, I really tried to get into it.  After the first 30 minutes of game play I knew I would not like this game.  But still I pressed on, and played it for about 2 hours total…and then I couldn’t do it anymore.  Allow me to explain.

First lets talk about the AI.  Actually I don’t want to even call them AI because there is no “I” there (for those who may not know….”AI” means “Artificial Intelligence”).  The enemies were dumb as rocks, and that may be an insult to rocks.  They constantly ran from behind cover, right in my view for me to shoot them.  Also, more times than I can count on my hands (I have two BTW) the enemies would just run right up to my face…then start shooting.  Not shooting while approaching.  Not shooting some, then approach.  No….just run up so close I could smell their breath…then start shooting.

Next, lets talk about the amount of damage that you can soak up.  While I know that it is limited, I have no idea what that limit is because I have never reached it.  I could sit there, let 3 enemies hit me while I’m waiting for one enemy to poke from behind cover, shoot him in the face…and not even get put down.  You notice especially how much damage you take when your in “Back to Back mode”…which is dumb all in itself. Your surrounded by enemies so you and your partner decide to go back to back.  Everything goes into slow motion…except the bullets after they leave the guns.  You are literally being hit from every direction, yet you never go down.

Next….no cover system?  Are you serious?  How many 3rd person shooters do we have now?  Its pretty obvious that in these types of games a cover system is definitely needed.  For some reason EA decided not to have a cover system put in place.  Basically, you just have to run up to whatever wall you see, but don’t expect to be able to peek around that corner…<sarcasm>why would you want to do that anyway?</sarcasm>.  Basically, you are all in or all out.  If you find a stone or something to sit behind you will be in better shape because you can shoot over them.  Other than that you are SOL.

Can’t really say much about the story.  Basically you are two ex-army rangers, who dump the army for a private military gig…didn’t know it was that easy to leave the army.  BTW, the army also taught you everything you know.  Sucks to be them huh.  By the time I decided to stop playing I appears there was going to be a plot twist where your boss turns on you…but the story wasn’t enough to compel me to play.

I’m really happy I didn’t buy this game.  I would have been super pissed.  It wasn’t even worth the 2 hours I wasted on it.

Recommendation: Don’t waste your time.

*Looks like Yahtzee and I have some views in common with this game…but he is funnier.