Get ready for a lot of explosions, shootings, and dialogue that can stunt the growth of a weed with Army Of Two: The 40th Day. This game follows the mercenary exploits of Salem and Rios, two beefed-up “private contractors” at work in the Far East. Sent in to execute a fairly routine contract, the boys get the shock of their lives as the entire city of Shanghai is suddenly decimated before them (and us — which looks kinda cool). Buildings are brought down via multiple explosions. Planes fall from the skies above (and into the buildings, too). People die en masse. Yes, Chicken Little, the sky really is falling!
Of course, in a video game, things need to move quickly. Fortunately for us, paper propaganda falls from the skies bearing the likeness of the man who has done this (some militaristic maniac) — otherwise, Salem and Rios might not know who to go after. And so, immediately following our first mission, players must trek their way through what’s left of Shanghai to confront the bad guy (who we do not see until the very end — which leaves his credibility as “the bad guy” somewhat depleted).
While I enjoy a shoot-em-up as much as the next guy does, I must confess that I didn‘t find Army Of Two: The 40th Day to be a very good game. Interactivity is limited (there’s practically no room for players to wander about to look for goodies), boss characters are relatively easy to beat once you get the hang of it, and the gameplay is often infuriating. There were several times where the camera view would run into a wall despite my best efforts to make it do just the opposite — which was particularly irritating when there were goons literally standing behind me.
Having never checked out the original Army Of Two, I can’t say the new features that EA Montreal included in Army Of Two: The 40th Day were that big of an improvement. One of the new options is weapons customization. Players can switch out silencers, scopes, clips, etc. in order to create the most bad-ass version of their firearm as possible. This is nice — very nice. And, with there being no gun stores open in the area, users can go to the menu to equip their arsenal and buy new weapons there. Saving civilians (who have been taken hostage by the bad guys) may also result in a new weapon (or part).
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