Army of Two (video game)
Army of Two is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by Electronic Arts and released on March 6, 2008 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles. The game is centered upon two mercenaries fighting through war, political turmoil, and a conspiracy from 1993 to 2009. Focusing on cooperative strategies, Army of Twos main feature is the necessity to use coordinated teamwork to accomplish the game's goals. While the game is meant to be played with another human as a partner, a "Partner Artificial Intelligence" (PAI) is also included and programmed to follow the player's strategies. Dependence on a partner (whether human or PAI) is so pronounced that most objectives are impossible to complete without it. Army of Two is one of the first games released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles that feature region-locked online play. EA claims that the region-locking is to prevent network lag caused by players from multiple regions, and to prevent the Asian region console owners from playing the U.S. and European version of the game, as the Asian version has been censored to meet certain requirements (notably, the shooting of already dead bodies in the game). Electronic Arts shut down the online multiplayer servers for the game on August 11, 2011. Critics praised its cooperative gameplay but criticized its artificial intelligence and difficulty. Army of Two debuted in positive sales at release. A sequel titled Army of Two: The 40th Day was released in 2010. Gameplay Gear The player can upgrade their armor to make it better and stronger but these cannot be purchased and are unlocked as the player progresses through campaign mode. The players start with Basic body armor, upgrade to Medium after completing the Afghanistan mission, and are granted Heavy body armor after the Aircraft Carrier mission. Players can also unlock and purchase new face masks that the main characters wear. Customization The game allows weapon customization, bought with money earned as the game progresses. Such elements as new barrels, stocks, forend-mounted vertical grips, and extra-large magazines and ammo drums that can be swapped out to give the weapon a unique look and superior statistics. Other modifications include suppressors, a gun-shield, an underslung grenade launcher, or an underslung 12-gauge shotgun. A firing range feature was proposed that would allow the player to test out their newly customized weapon; however, it was removed as it did not meet the developers' standards. Vehicles The original game boasted three different drivable vehicles: a jeep, a main battle tank, and a hovercraft. Gameplay was designed so that one player would drive and the other would fire a secondary weapon like a ring-mounted XM312 heavy machine gun (jeep and hovercraft) or a 120 mm cannon (the tank). The jeep and tank were removed from the final product due to "pacing issues" and the hovercraft was used only in the China and Miami levels. Online multiplayer Multiplayer (or "Versus" mode) allows up to four players, with two on each team (similar to the