Metareview: Army of Two

by Nick Doerr { Mar 8th 2008 at 11:30AM }

It's been a while since we did an actual Metareview, hasn't it? If memory serves, our last time was with Mortal Kombat II way back when the site was still blossoming. Well, we've all been fairly swamped and couldn't dish out a proper review for a few games that still deserve attention, so we're bringing the Metareview back for games we want to review, but couldn't get around to playing enough to be confident in our opinions. Today we're covering Army of Two. So how did the game stack up? Take the jump and find out.

Gallery: Army of Two

Taking an aggregate of some of the major reviews so far, here's what we've got for Army of Two:

1UP: 7.5 / 10 -- "... as great as it is to play this new-and-improved -- and now, overall, pretty good -- co-op shooter, no amount of polish can disguise that it ultimately falls well short of its once-lofty ambitions."
IGN: 7.9 / 10 -- "As you can tell from the title, the game places a premium on co-op play, and while the single player experience is fine, it's co-op play where this title really shines."
GameDaily: 8.0 / 10 -- "Not only is it fun in single-player, but it's also a blast with a friend through online or local play. The missions are terrific, action-packed stages where something is always happening."

We feel three major reviews is enough, especially when the scores are so close to one another. From reading the reviews, you get the same vibe across them all -- the game is all right as a single-player experience, but was obviously built for co-op mode. If you play this game, play it with a friend and you'll have oodles more fun.

Tags: army-of-two, ea, electronic-arts, metareview, ubisoft

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Kspraydad @ Mar 8th 2008 11:37AM

? Nick...you posting things out of order? Didn't you just do a Metareview of The Show yesterday?

:)

Andrew Yoon @ Mar 8th 2008 11:46AM

Whoops. MLB 08 was sent out first, instead of Army of Two. You still get the gist!

sean @ Mar 8th 2008 11:38AM

i wanted this game to be one of the best games of the year. but i think its basically a shooter with a few cool things tossed in. o well guess ill find out for sure when it gets here.

Patrick @ Mar 8th 2008 11:46AM

Sean, I wanted the same thing. I wanted this game to be super sick. I love FPS but a TPS is so much harder to make well. I wanted this to be super fun until socom came along. It is fun, but you need need a human person to play. My friends are stuck on ff11. An AI partner is decent but it would be a lot better with a human. Online just lags and is very slow but it was fun even though i maybe got one kill.

JKPierce @ Mar 8th 2008 11:58AM

Online is damned fine, as well, with a random partner for the story mode or adversarial mode in which random objectives are given. The reviews strangely didn't touch on it well enough.

My only quips with it (besides the occasional crippling bug) are the lag experienced--seriously, EA, there are only four people--and that the server is over once one person leaves. And there are quite a few sore losers.

Man up if you're going to play Online. Jeez.

batmanhill6157 @ Mar 8th 2008 12:15PM

I love this game, but I'm a big sucker for co-op so they prob could have done worse. Some pointless problems but they don't really break the game

Shane-O-Mak @ Mar 8th 2008 1:50PM

i would give it a 6 or 7. clunky controls up close, bad voice chat online, laggy multiplayer. i'm trading mine in

Speddy @ Mar 9th 2008 10:48PM

Yeah, 6-7. The AI blows. There are too many "wtf am I to do? I just did THAT!". And the enemy AI sometimes one ups you (which can be fun). Haven't tried the online co-op yet (still waiting for other friends to get copy...no I do not like to play with unfamiliars)

I suspect a GearsOfWar ripper as even when you finish a mission, you'll hear a BONG that sounds too identical to the "toll bong" in Gears.

One thing I did like that Gears would do to exploit, the back-to-back...

Soulheart12 @ Mar 8th 2008 12:54PM

This game has a great co-op and even if you don't play it with someone the AI is smart enough to get you through the game. The problem a lot of people are going to have though is the online versus mode and glitches with the online co-op. For those of you wanting this game I suggest renting it until EA does something to patch it.

PSN: KillaKornbread (the shirt is a lie!) @ Mar 8th 2008 1:28PM

this game was fun. me and my friend beat the co-op in like 7 hours the other day. it was alot better than i expected since you really do have to rely on your partner to do good in it. i like having my own money to buy new weapons based on how i personally do in the level. me and my friend were pretty close to the same level of play though i think he won a few more rounds than me since he had already gotten the learning curve before i got there. we did experience some HUGE framerate issues and come weird colors at one point to the point where i couldnt see enemies if i had the GPS up. that lasted like 3 levels right at the end of the game.

we only played online for like 2 minutes, which was just long enough for us to spawn, realize how incredibly laggy it was, get shot, and quit.

overall good game, i was pleasantly surprised. i dont think i would buy it but it is certainly worth renting if you have a friend coming over.

Brad @ Mar 8th 2008 2:10PM

Surprisingly enough the AI partner in this is pretty damn good, you don't have to babysit him. The enemy AI is good too, retreating, changing firing spots, lobbing grenades, running up to you when you're reloading etc

Plus the ability to modify your equipment is pretty sweet. Id give this 8.3/10

kevin @ Mar 8th 2008 2:27PM

sounds ok, i was thinking of getting the game but ill just wait until everything gets patched up i guess

Bran @ Mar 8th 2008 2:38PM

The single player/co-op campaign is entertaining, maybe even for two run throughs, but the online multiplayer "versus" is a disgrace to multiplayer games.

It has a terrible lobby system, no customization(can't level up or achieve anything to personalize your online character), no host migration and no stat tracking. If someone drops out or loses connection, everyone gets booted to the main menu of the game. Even when you actually get to complete a versus match, you STILL get booted to the main menu and have to search for friends again or play with anonymous people.

And then there's the lag. The versus is Peer-to-Peer. If I wanted that, I'd get a 360. So your connection is only as good as the slowest connected player in the game. At best, the versus online mode feels like you're in constant slow motion and at worst feels like you're doing the robot dance with constant stuttering and audio skips.

I'm sure EA will release a patch to improve versus play, but that won't change having no reward system for doing well online.

Despite this, I bought the game and enjoy the campaign.

7 out of 10

JKPierce @ Mar 8th 2008 6:06PM

About 3/5 of the servers joined go without any difficulties at all. There is a good deal of lag on some, and consequently communication problems, but it doesn't entirely ruin the experience.

The complaint of a reward system is strange to me, though. The game is -fun-, is more reward necessary? I suppose can see the desire for frivolous rankings plastered everywhere you go, but how are the Online leaderboards not enough?

Bran @ Mar 8th 2008 7:26PM

I'm mainly left wanting a way to customize my online character, have a feeling of accomplishment or to earn something by playing. Most, if not all, of the AAA console titles of late have some kind of unlockables, customization, distinguishing aspects or rewards of some kind for playing more or doing well.

At least let me customize my gun and armor like in the campaign. That's my main gripe.

RPMd70 @ Mar 8th 2008 4:17PM

I bought it the first day it came out and i'd rate this game a solid 7.75.

Haven't had a chance to play online yet, but with these comments, i'm dreading it.
My cousin and I had a blast playing the normal campaign version. The whole upgrading thing is pretty sweet, but I just wish you could upgrade the higher end primary weapons, like the m134... mmmm. haha

josh @ Mar 8th 2008 4:47PM

This may be an odd place to post it, but i have a question about the game. I have played it online with a friend and we can't get the voicechat to work. We both have the same bluetooth headset that shipped with warhawk, and I know the game supports voice chat, but we can't figure out how to use it. Is there somthing I'm missing, like a button that needs to be pressed to talk? Any help would be great, the game really lacks without the ability to talk to my partner.

JKPierce @ Mar 8th 2008 6:00PM

Haven't had any problems. Usually have to turn it on and off in-game, too, so I can't imagine the problem you're having.

Kaylin Bradley @ Mar 8th 2008 9:32PM

I've only played in single player so far, so I can't comment on anything else, but the AI seems very solid, and I really love the way aggro is implemented. The biggest drawback of the game I found was the load times. They're ludicrously long. Oh, and what's with the "We just killed 100 people; let's fist punch!" thing. That just ain't right.

josh @ Mar 8th 2008 11:43PM

just to feed anyones curiosity, i just got done playing about 3 hours of online versus games split screen with a friend and didnt have any huge issues with lag. Yes there was lag, but it never go so bad that it made the game unplayable or even so much that it took away from the fun. The only part that could get annoying were the NPC players, sometimes they spawn way too fast, for example there was a mission that we had to rescue a guy in a room full of NPC guys, and as we were clearing the room they were respawning behind us so it seemed endless. The other team actually ran in once we almost cleared the room and took the guy. So that can be a pain, but all in all its fun. Co-op campaign is really fun tho.

josh @ Mar 8th 2008 11:46PM

sorry for the double post, but i forget about another cool feature. The ability to earn and spend money in game is fun. You get money for doing objectives or even killing NPC's and you can buy new weapons in game to make it easier for yourself. So winning objectives to rack up money is for more than just ramping up a point score.

Paco @ Mar 9th 2008 6:24AM

i liked this game i played the campaign mode for a while and then went straight to online there was a little lag on some of the matches i had but wasnt to bad. the only problem i had was i was playing with my son in splitscreen mode and alot of times when we started a match either he could move and the top screen was the other teams veiw or vice versa and it happend alot along with being booted.anybody else have this problem

jochmx @ Mar 22nd 2008 6:48PM

army of lag, its gonna die if they dont patch and make server/client instead of peer to peer, and somekind of lobby that tells your ping with other players.