Saturday, December 19, 2009

Army of Two The 40th day. Demo Review







This is not just a sequel. This is not like other game sequels where the company simply pumps out a look alike with similar features to feed off of fandom and popularity of old features they copied. This is not KOTOR 2.
Alright so what the hell is it you ask?
It is a keep what works and improve on what didn't. This sounds like a simple enough deal but really it is more profound. So many times gamers are promised a sequel that not only lives up to the hype but actually improves from where the first game left off. More times than others its the story that suffers and makes the flaws in gameplay more obvious.

Not every game can aspire to be Fable 2 or Saint's Row 2 where the first games were pretty damn good but the sequels were excellent.
The sequelitis as it can be called is a terrible plague for gamers and companies with otherwise great Titles to work with.

So what is so good with this iteration. Well for starters the whole thing is fantastically stream lined. The graphics are very clean and do not suffer greatly from darkness covering up for bad design. This has been another frequent irritation of games lately. But regardless aiming, ducking for cover, even picking up ammo has been greatly simplified and allows the player to focus on being part of the action. The elements of action are great. Just in the opening moments of the demo gamers get a great cut scene to take you to the new war front for Salem and Rios. Your in China, Shanghai to be percise, and the city is going to be a very different place.

Every little or major improvement tells us one thing. This is going to be a very hoss game and should be so good that it will be one of the best ever coop games. The ability to truly change tactics on the fly or plan ahead allows gamers to really cater to their strengths or even guard against their buddies weakness. The story in the demo is already great and this taste of what is to come really has my mouth watering. Its like a juicy steak with sauteed mushrooms and a pile of cheese and sour cream on top of buttery mashed potatoes. This game is the equivalant of the fat man super value menu or an all you can eat gourmet buffet. Food is one of many weak spots outside of the virtual world.
My weakness in the demo was that the customization was so great even on the demo that I had to get quality trigger time with each gun and that meant wasting alot of ammo on target practice.
The game is very smooth and has little to no pop up or blocky graphical issues. The best part is that the game is still a couple of months away and this is just the demo.
Army of Two the 40th day is going to be a great shooter. Look for it in Feb. and until then the demo is defintately worth the time it takes to download it.
The demo gets a score of 4.79 out of 5. The only reason this didn't score a little higher is that for some reason it kicked people out of coop games a few times to many when it first came up for download.

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