This is what brought our attention to the first Army of Two game. It was awesome! Simply put! It never got much love from reviewers, but it was a great action game that embodied everything about classic action shooters, both in games and film. It was two men, Salem and Rios, former army rangers, now mercenaries. Two guys clad in crazy amounts of body armor with a weapon selection no game could rival. You could even customize all the weapons in crazy ways. The game had a general feeling of two badass dudes fighting their way through anything. Best friends that let no army stop them from completing the mission. And trust me, you will often feel like you have whole armies shooting at you. The game was rough in areas, sure. But the general badassery was unmistakable.
Then came Army of Two: The 40th day. You start off the same two guys, now working for their own PMC. You know pretty much nothing about your first objective, the one you are seemingly paid to do. Before I go too much into the game's story, it should be noted just how much better the game feels and looks this time around. The graphics are smoother, more complex, and grittier, but still arent anything special, simply better. The sound is sharper as well. Even the look of the characters is more mature. Less cartoonish, more realistic and gritty. That includes their armor, which is still impressive but easily cut in half from the original game. Salem and Rios no longer look, and more importantly, feel like two walking tanks. As where in the first game, the characters are sluggish, loaded down by shit loads of armor, and could turn around about as fast a tank. This time around the characters are faster and more agile, but still no ninjas. The aiming system is amazing, even if in a bad way. Its now so easy to aim accurately both at close range and afar that it becomes easy to rack up mind blowing kill numbers, which you will have to do to earn the "The Beast" trophy. That takes a hefty 6,666 kills to earn, which still takes you 6-7 plays to get. Though you're weapon selection isnt as vast in the 40th day, you instead get more ways to customize them. And all your money and weapons carry over into new games. I now have weapons so customized you'll have trouble telling what the hell they started as. The new parts range from new barrels, stocks, ans sights, to ghetto bayonets, soda can suppressors (along with a great selection of actual suppressors), and gun mounted shields. 40th day is better in every way. But what hurts the game quite a lot is how the feel of the game changed. And it changed big-time.
WARNING, SPOILERS; Where in the original it felt like an badass action movie about brotherhood and killing lots of bad guys, something like "The Expendables." The sequel is all about terrorism, moral ambiguity, selfishness, and generally feeling like crap. That mysterious first mission I talked about? Well you have been paid to plant beacons all around town, with no idea of what they are for, or even who the people paying you are planning. You dont even know this till about the second time you play the game. So right from the get go it calls into question just what Salem and Rios are all about. Did they even for a second think about what these beacons might be for? And if they did, are they ok with what they know might go down? The whole game is based around a former PMC turned terrorist leader in a very "apocalypse now" kind of way. The deranged leader, Jonah, has decided humanity is no longer worth protecting and has decided to take over the whole fucking city of Shanghai. After the beacons are planted and before the game truly begins, you are given a choice. Yes, 40th day has a morality system, much closer to GTA IV than to something like Mass Effect. Well the first mission is done with the assistance of a fellow merc, an Aussie who worked with you before in the PMC that seemingly wanted you dead after years of work. In this choice you are asked to take him out as a secondary mission. So what do you do? Take out this comrade in arms for a bunch of cash, or spare him, warn him about the hit, and tell him to get out of town. If you go with the obvious choice and spare him than you are presented with a comic book style cut scene showing you the result of your choice. Turns out despite your warning, he still gets taken out while on an island vacation. Shit like this fallows you through the game. Every single fucking choice gets worse and worse. It no longer seems that any choice you make is good. If you make a morally good idea, the comic book cut scene shows something horrible still happening in the future. If you go with the morally wrong choice, you feel like a scum bag due to the choices given. In fact, there is only one choice in the whole fucking game that doesnt have something terrible happen. About half way threw the game you have fought your way through the Shanghai Zoo and are presented with one of the many moral choice moments. The shady zoo keeper requests you to kill a white siberian tiger. If you didnt already know, these amazing animals are very endangered and nearly extinct. So right away its a horrible thing to ask. If you spare the beast than the comic book cut scene actually becomes funny for once. The tiger escapes some how and takes refuge inside an unlocked car. Well turns out that car belongs to a thug robbing a near by store at gun point. He jumps right in his car without a second thought, and as hes starting it up, the tiger sits up, he sees it in his rear view mirror, and the thug is taken out in that special way tigers tend to do.
With that said, I guess its time to tell you about the ending, the horrible, punch in the face ending. As I said, all the moral choices but the tiger have made you expect terrible things. Everyone around you but your partner has seemingly died. Salem has decided he wants to personally take out terrorist leader Jonah, and the final chapter is all about Salem and Rios fighting their way to Jonah's hide out in an effort to kill him. Not out of some sort of heroism or sense of duty, but to get revenge on Jonah for the death of a close friend. That right there should say something to you about these two character. Their motivation to kill a terrorists leader responsible for the death of thousands, and with still millions of hostages, is a strictly personal vendetta. So, after several massive fire fights the final confrontation comes not with an amazing single shot through the head from a sniper rifle, or a shotgun blast to the chest, but another fucking cut scene. Here you find Jonah waiting for you with one hell of a choice that even after the whole game still shocked me. Because this crazy nut job has lost faith in humanity he wants you to show him a sign of sacrifice in order for him to release his prisoners. If not, than he will give the order for all his hostages, apparently 7 million, will be executed. This sign of sacrifice he wants? He wants you to fucking kill your best friend and partner in front of him! He gives you 10 seconds and says if you dont kill Rios right there and than he will execute all the hostages. What the fuck do you do!? Do you kill Jonah right there and than at the expense of possibly millions of hostages, or do you kill Rios. Your best friend, a man who you have fought side by side with for 20 years, a man you have trusted your life with in combat. Something no one who has not been in combat can understand. So ya. thats your final fucking choice. Kill your best friend, or let millions die. You get to kill Jonah in any case, so its all about your best friend or millions of innocent people.
