TGS 2009: Hands-on: Army of Two: The 40th Day
by Andrew Yoon 
{ Sep 24th 2009 at 10:01AM } 
Ross: "Hey, we're an army of two. I don't want a third wheel."
Seconds after booting up the Tokyo Game Show demo of Army of Two: The 40th Day, we managed to completely botch a hostage "rescue" operation, while brutally murdering the four terrorists involved. Our morality meter went down quite significantly after that, we're sure. Had we managed to progress with some more finesse, we would've been able to sneak behind two enemies, grab them and "negotiate" a solution for the others. Is there a morally "good" way out of a situation like that? Perhaps, but we'll never know.
While it's easy to simply accuse Ross of insatiable bloodthirstiness, his less-than-graceful approach at this scenario could be blamed on the (admittedly early) build's choppy framerate, and the sometimes confusing controls. Ross found it difficult to stick to cover, and move from one place to another; I found myself inadvertently switching between crouching, cover and something in between.
Gallery: Army of Two: The 40th Day (TGS 2009)
It's clear that there are some serious refinements needed before the game ships early next year. In addition to steadying the framerate, EA needs to focus on adding some more detail to the world. The visuals simply don't have the polish of a high-profile title like Gears of War 2.
But beyond the glitchy tech and the unintuitive controls, we still see some potential for The 40th Day. From the get-go of the demo, it's evident that the tone of the sequel is darker, and far more mature than the first. Morality choices may be the game design mechanic du jour, but it's successful for a reason: the hostage situation at the demo's start was intense and nerve wracking. The level design especially feels much more dynamic and interesting than before.
For example, the demo presented a complex with intersecting walkways on multiple levels. Taking advantage of the level's height becomes crucial to victory: one player can draw aggro while the other tries to sneak above and fire at enemies below. At one point in the demo, I was able to run below an enemy on a walkway above, and fire away at his legs.
Too bad the demo was so short. We had just started to get acclimated to the oddities of the game's controls, and started to become a bit more ambitious in our teamwork. At one point, we were caught off guard by enemies that had appeared in the walkways above us. Ross rushed forward, started firing at them to gain aggro, as I made my way around the stairs and started to melee them one by one. (Once again, the game's melee is overly efficient.) We made quick work of the game's "heavy" enemy type, and eventually, Ross found a sniper rifle ...
And he made quick work of the remaining enemies.
Army of Two: The 40th Day has a lot of promise, but it must overcome a lot of (largely technical) issues before we can really fairly judge it. The level design encourages much better two-player co-operation than the first game, and the grittier look is far more compelling. We still have our reservations, but we certainly want to play more before the game releases early next year.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
joeybeast @ Sep 24th 2009 10:18AM
Since one of the level is in the Shanghai Zoo, my question is can I shoot a giant panda?
Xero @ Sep 24th 2009 7:56PM
Overlord let you club baby seals... lets hope EA raises the bar. I second the panda-murder-simulator.
Jesus (PSN: Luttdawg) @ Sep 24th 2009 10:53AM
I'm sure it will turn out fine but my favourite genre is third person action games and I'm still satisfied by both of the Gears games and good old Nathan Drake. Uncharted 2 is just around the corner and there are so many hot games coming in Q1 I just probably won't give this a go. I really didn't think the first one was anything special. Am I being too quick to judge?
BIacked Out @ Sep 24th 2009 11:05AM
I think the games title kills it tbh, two player co-op is great - but four is more.
Jesus (PSN: Luttdawg) @ Sep 24th 2009 11:13AM
Totally agree. Uncharted 2 co-op looks awesome imo and four player Lost Planet 2...I'll be on those games like white on rice!
Jesus (PSN: Luttdawg) @ Sep 24th 2009 11:14AM
Totally agree. Uncharted 2 co-op looks awesome imo and four player Lost Planet 2...I'll be on those games like white on rice!
BIacked Out @ Sep 24th 2009 12:13PM
Yeah played the beta for uncharted and it is awesome, shame i dont own a ps3 lol
Whiskey Jak @ Sep 24th 2009 11:11AM
Sounds like they need to do a lot of user-testing to iron out all the problems they got. It doesn't seem acceptable for me to present a build that has all those problems that Andrew mentioned.
Like Jesus said (lol), the first one wasn't anything special so they need to step up and make a much better game to justify the price tag.
OMGOMG @ Sep 24th 2009 11:38AM
You heard it here first: Jesus is a PS3 fanboy. Do whatever you want with this.
Tucker @ Sep 24th 2009 11:46AM
I can't be sure, so I'm going to ask it outright: did you make quick work of the enemies?
XBL: xGeneral DEATHx PSN: Deeth82 [Planeteer | Power of General Hostility and Angst] @ Sep 24th 2009 2:07PM
Third photo down: Rios is missing a mag. Shootin' blanks, as it were.
WiredKnight: Keeper of Threads @ Sep 24th 2009 2:46PM
You can't fire anything without a magazine, not even blanks.
XBL: xGeneral DEATHx PSN: Deeth82 [Planeteer | Power of General Hostility and Angst] @ Sep 24th 2009 4:36PM
Unless you put one in the chamber, depending on whether or not it's a newer weapon with that newfangled firing pin system like the XD45ACP.
MrAlex @ Sep 24th 2009 2:12PM
A darker more serious tone is not an improvement on the first one, I'd like more fist-bump variants and less door cutscenes. The first one was fine in co-op if a little short.
Owen @ Sep 24th 2009 2:41PM
what the hell, look at the bottom picture, i was under the assumption that you need a magazine with bullets in to make guns work :/
henry @ Sep 24th 2009 4:11PM
Well, there "could" be a round in the chamber and he then took the clip out. It's absurd, but he could fire 1 shot causing that muzzle flash...
fred @ Sep 24th 2009 7:49PM
They should have taken it the other way and made it even more ridiculous instead of darker + edgier.
kentuckyfried @ Sep 24th 2009 10:57PM
Oh brother...sounds like the game's headed towards a potential clusterfuck of situation, like the first game.
Considering the mess the first game was, you'd think they'd plan a little bit more carefully if they cared about raising the bar on this game. Personally, I liked the first one but I've also read about the number of people who abhorred is (mostly the ones who tried to do co-op with the AI instead of a friend).