Army of Two and the Future of Co-op

After writing my entry on co-op gaming I couldn’t pass by Army of Two without trying it out. A few weeks ago, my girlfriend and I rented it and beat the campaign together on the default difficulty. While not exactly a gaming revolution, Army of Two is a model for what co-op games should play like.

For starters, there is the sheer variety of ways you can play this game: by yourself with an AI controlled partner, local split screen, private co-op match with a friend over Xbox Live, or even a public game, enabling you to find someone to play with quite easily. EA Montreal did such a good job with the menu system and various co-op play methods that nobody should even have to play with the AI partner, except when going for the achievement requiring you to do so.

True, this game can be played lone wolf style, completely ignoring your partner, whether human or computer controlled. It really shines when you work together, however. While the Aggro system seems like a cheap gimmick at first, it quickly becomes one of the main strategies necessary to stay alive. One player can shoot at an enemy (among other methods) to raise their Aggro meter, making enemies pay more attention to them and letting the other player sneak around undetected. This encourages communication, and lets the players come up with unique and effective strategies for overcoming every obstacle. Other co-op moments range from amusing (the Back to Back bullet-time mode, which unfortunately is only triggered automatically at select points) to clichéd and rather pointless (the Step Jump, where one player must give the other a lift up to an inaccessible area – why not just put in some stairs or a ladder?) I would like to have seen more implementation of vehicles – Halo proved there is nothing more satisfying than gunning while your partner drives. All Army of Two gives us are a few brief hover boat sections which suffer from imprecise driving controls. Thankfully, working with your partner is overall rewarding and rarely frustrating.

Army of Two has its (very large) weak points, including the barely cohesive and overdone story, the extremely short play time (expect to get through the campaign in four to six hours) and lack of replayability. Sure, you could go through on harder difficulties and collect more money to upgrade your guns, but I imagine most gamers will not have much reason to play through it again. Despite these issues, I have to commend EA Montreal for letting you play a game with a real friend sitting right beside you. It’s a concept that is becoming increasingly lost with developers in this generation, and I hope to see more games following Army of Two’s example.

One last note: There is also the game-crippling update I downloaded near the end of the campaign, which erased all my money, upgraded guns, and achievement progress. I haven’t heard about this affecting anyone else, but it brings up an issue for a future post. Check back in next week to read about the decline of Quality Assurance testing in the gaming industry.