In the world of video games filled with infinite genres and play capabilities, I am a solo gamer by choice. Multiplayer or Co-op only seems to work for me when I’m playing Mario Party or Super Smash Brothers with my sisters. To that end, I also hardly ever touch shooters, as multiplayer seems to be the focus in many of them. Sure, there are single player campaigns, but more of the fun seems to stem from grabbing a group of friends (or complete strangers) and fragging the ever loving hell out of each other while shouting obscenities, racial slurs, and questioning each other’s sexualities. To drive my point even harder, the last shooter I actually played with any sort of vigor was Perfect Dark, as the single player campaign grabbed me enough to enjoy it, without needing a multiplayer. So it comes at no surprise to anyone I know that when my boyfriend asked me to play Army of Two: The 40^th Day, which was not only a shooter, but a game with forced Co-op, my reply was: “Bitch you be trippin’.”

Now, me being struck down with a bout of food poisoning (the continuously vomiting bile kind), I thought to myself: Hmm…A third person shooter with rumble effects and copious amounts of blood would certainly be a good idea, especially because I get to play it with my sadistic boyfriend. However, as I was too weak to raise my arms enough to play Rock Band, the free episodes of Spongebob had run out on his On Demand and I could play Army of Two from a laying position on the couch, I was instantly hooked!

To be honest, the game intrigued me as I got the general gist of it. Not having played the first installment, I was going in blind, but hopeful. I mean, maybe this game could kindle a love of shooters for me, and since I was playing it with my significant other, it shouldn’t be too painful right? I was told that the game was pretty much one of those ‘shoot the terrorists to get out of dodge because we are badass mercenaries’ types, but with a twist that you had to work together to have any sort of success.

You play as either Tyson Rios or Elliot Salem, two roided out manly men with tattoos, scars and a strange Jason Voorhees fetish as they have pimped out hockey masks that enable them to see objectives, “tag” enemies (for shooting of course) and get vital information about where to go next. They are mercenaries who, along with Alice, their guide/Otacon who helps them with her 1337 computer skillz, run around causing general destruction and mayhem. The game begins on a routine mission in Shanghai that gets hiccupped due to an attack from various terrorist groups working together. Rios and Salem pretty much decide to screw that shit and go home, and you spend the rest of your time during the game blasting through different areas in Shanghai and massacring anything or anyone that gets in your way.

To the eventual escape helicopter, Rios and Salem have to work together and do it well. You and your partner need to be a cohesive unit, and I mean cohesive. There is an aggro system in place where if one player fires at the AI enough, the enemies will focus their firepower on that one player, leaving the other player free to snipe/bomb/take out the enemies as they see fit. This is absolutely essential as you will be outnumbered and outgunned 100% of the time. Frequently, waves of enemies will end with either a single or multiple powered up soldiers who use flamethrowers, chain guns or grenade launchers, making cooperation key as one person does the distracting and the other does the shooting of the gas tank, bomb bag etc. You and your partner also need to work together to just get around. Frequently you will come to an area where you need to give your partner a boost to get them over a fence or a tall wall for them to be able to open a door or pull you over. At times you two might even be separated, but your actions will indeed help each other. At one point in the game I ended up in one broken down building way across the street from my boyfriend. I could see that he was going to be ambushed as he made his way towards the lower levels, so I took out my handy dandy sniper rifle and got rid of the offending enemies like a good Frederick Zoller.

Along the way you collect cash that can be used to buy new guns (from upgraded machine guns to rocket launchers), extra ammo and even scopes. The degree of gun customization is intense, as you can change just about every part of the gun, producing differing effects each time when it came to accuracy, aggro, damage etc. However, I found that just using the standard guns that I could buy was enough to get by; I didn’t even bother with buying a silencer. I’m sure some people would love to spend hours upon hours customizing their weapons (even the designs on the guns themselves and your masks are customizable), but if I’m playing a shooter, I want to be shooting things, not fiddling with my trigger balance or deciding what awesome bird/skull/flame decal to slap on my killin’ mask.

At this point you might be thinking: This game sounds pretty good. Interesting CoOp, lots of customization and badass weaponry is right up my alley. Well dear readers, don’t get so hyped up yet, there are some major hiccups to this game that makes it frustrating enough to make you actually think about food poisoning as a better alternative.

Firstly, this game is not for the solo adventurer. It is apparently possible to play through this game with a computer controlled partner, but I’d advise anyone doing so to buy a few extra controllers because you’ll be breaking a few just with sheer unadulterated rage and frustration. I had the opportunity to play solo when my boyfriend went out to procure delicious French toast to celebrate my non poisoned stomach and boy did I regret it. You control your partner with the D-pad, telling him to take cover, follow you, hold position or regroup. However, if you don’t tell him what to do every 10 seconds, he will just follow you around like a bad smell on a convention goer. This can be frustrating when you are pinned down under fire from a large enemy group and you just want your partner to get aggro so you can take care of them, but he just fires for a few seconds before coming over to you to shmooze.

When you get hit enough times, you get ‘wounded’ and fall to the ground. You can’t do much from this position except drag yourself to cover and slowly bleed to death while calling to your partner in vain to help you. Your partner needs to get to you and hold down a button long enough to heal you with a syringe of liquid crack and Human Growth Hormone. Trying to get your computer controlled partner to come and help you is like pulling teeth, I found him actually running into walls a few times and was forced to watch him flail around as I pressed buttons in vain as my character slowly died. Some better computer AI would have been nice, as I found myself stopping the game and waiting for my boyfriend to return just to keep my blood pressure from rising anymore.

With a game that flaunts and relies on cooperative play, you had better either have the patience of a saint, or play with someone who knows the meaning of the word “cooperation.” Neither was a part of my gameplay experience. At first I held my tongue when my boyfriend would run helter skelter into a firefight (while a tiny voice in my mind would scream “LEEERROOOY JENNNKINS!”), promptly get riddled with bullets and would need me to go into the middle of the battle and attempt to heal him while he was not behind any cover at all. I would quickly die and we’d start the whole painful process over again. I would suggest that he stay back as we pick off enemies from afar, exchanging the aggro and sniping accordingly, but he would get impatient and I would oftentimes see his character run from cover only to get blown away three seconds later and need a heal. I can understand that in other games you can stand around with no cover and never get hit, but when you have aggro on you and are just smelling the roses in the middle of the battlefield while 12-15 soldiers and a chain gun try to turn you into swiss cheese, there’s a fair chance you’re going to die.

Another major annoyance that deals with reliance on your partner are the moral choices. At certain points in the game, you’ll have the opportunity to make a choice that will impact the rest of the game in some way. Sometimes you’ll come across a group of hostages that are being harassed by guards. Saving them gives you cash or even extra weapons in later levels, so you want to try and save them all. The best way to do so is to sneak up and grab the higher ranked officer, making the others surrender and having your partner tie them up. However, as I was stealthily moving forward, my boyfriend thought it faster if he snipe the guards. After sniping one guard, the others promptly killed the hostages, as I was not ready to snipe the others. As I’ve said before, communication is key.

At this point, I was getting a little angry, but the best was yet to come, the actual moral choices. We ended up in the only working hospital in Shanghai, and were sent by a doctor to go start the generator in the basement. As we made our way down, we ran into a little boy who was scavenging for medicine for his sick parents. He wanted to come with us, and thus the moral choice was born. Press A, he comes with us, press B, he stays alone. My boyfriend got the jump on me and pressed A, rationalizing that we would be able to protect him and he might be helpful. Indeed the boy was helpful, as he showed us where the generator was. We moved on and ended up in a sort of lecture room, with a bunch of enemies pinning us down. The boy spots a sniper rifle and yells that he can go get it for us while we were taking fire. Press A to tell him to get the weapon, press B to tell him to hide and forget it. Any person with half a brain knows what the right choice is, but surprise surprise my boyfriend presses A first and the boy gets shot as he grabs the rifle. Not only do you see the boy die, but you also get a clip of what happens with the boy’s sick parents afterwards. “Nice,” I said, “you’re in medical school and you killed a kid.”

“He was annoying,” he shrugged.

Frustration with my partner aside, even the best of Co-op players will be pulling their hair out. Even with strategy and aggro, frequently you end up firing wildly, hoping your ammo won’t run out before you kill someone. Targeting is spotty, frequently I found myself hitting a soldier in the head with my sniper rifle and only blowing off his helmet, leaving him completely unharmed. Thinking up an elaborate strategy is all well and good, but more often then not you’ll just end up taking cover and taking your time, trying not to get hit too much.

Graphics are gritty and dark, as you’d expect in a half blown up shanghai. At one point you have a level inside some kind of zoo, but it’s still dark, gritty and half exploded. As you near the later levels, the terrorists plaster Shanghai with red flyers full of propaganda, the only real splashes of bright color you’ll see (red in Shanghai? That’s creative). I’d say something about the soundtrack, but I don’t remember anything about it to be honest, other than explosions and the occasional grunt of “let’s do this thing!” or “I got your back bro” from your partner.

Personal annoyances with my CoOp partner aside, I wanted to like this game more than I actually did. It was fun, but the frustration factor was just too much for me when it came to shoddy AI and uneven play. These problems hold the game back from being truly enjoyable and innovative, and should developers want to make another game, I hope they learn that it truly takes two to tango, or in this case, kick ass.

Two killin’ masks out of five.