TITLE : Army of Two: The 40th Day Preview - PS3

The first Army of Two received average review scores when it released early last year, met with a controversy delay and mixed opinions on how good the game actually was. "A few successful elements set Army of Two apart from similar attempts at two-man teamwork," according to GamePro reviewer Cameron Lewis. The ability to tear off car doors as a riot shield while your cohort trailed in tail and let loose on an assault rifle, clear rooms back-to-back in staged slo-mo sequences, and snipe enemies from the sky while your buddy guided the parachute descent were unique staples that set Army of Two apart from Gears of War and Halo 3. However, clumsy partner A.I., a finicky cover system, obtuse controls, and a weak versus mode ultimately flawed Army of Two.

Army of Two: The 40th Day addresses all of the above issues plus more and expands upon the successful elements that made the first Army of Two a fun cooperative experience. Everything that sucked about the first game or didn't work or wasn't executed to its fullest potential has been re-evaluated, reworked, and now delivers a better cooperative shooter experience. The controls, for example, in the first Army of Two were almost the complete opposite of cooperative king Gears of War, and are now more mainstream with many of the commands a single button press away.

Bombastic Disaster

Enough with the technical jargon and minuscule details that plagued the first game, Army of Two: TFD looks explosive with new cooperative tactics, heart-pounding action, and crisp graphics that shine with high-resolution textures, gear that realistically wobbles and sways on the characters when they move, and massive environments that showcase the city of Shanghai mere minutes after a "Hollywood bombastic" disaster.

"We want to put the players in the middle of a disaster scenario," says the developers, one that happened five minutes ago, not years before. "We want you to play through a scene where there's a disaster occurring all around you and you're still in control." To do this, burning embers litter the screen, fires rage, and smoke smolders from distant buildings shortly after disaster strikes. Unfortunately, the developers wouldn't go too far into the storyline details, but we do know that Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem are sent into Shanghai on a routine mercenaries operation when things take a turn for the worst as another private military organization infiltrates the area.

The first of what will be many disasters we saw took place in a high-rise section of Shanghai city atop a skyscraper. Rios and Salem stood atop the tall building and we witnessed an entire adjacent building come crumbling down around them. Fighter jets came whizzing in, "buzzing the tower," and took out another handful of buildings in the not-too-distant horizon, and it looked amazing. It felt as though you could be looking anywhere onscreen and witness some sort of epic destruction, making you feel as though you are actually in the middle of a disaster scenario. You know how most games take control of the camera and force you to focus on this one explosion the developers spent a lot of time on? Well, Army of Two: TFD appears to have so many epic moments happening at once that it doesn't matter where you look.

At the end of the scene, a rogue kamikaze fighter jet crashes into the same building Rios and Salem are standing on and the two are separated by a massive, gaping chasm in the rooftop. This is just one example of how EA Montreal is trying to elaborate on the cooperative experience, and how important the number two is. Rios is trapped on a slab of concrete and the building is about to come down. He snipes at the remaining enemies as Salem makes his way towards a large radio tower that can be knocked over to create a bridge for Rios to cross.