"This is what video games are for," shooting never mind the consequences, like destroying environmental and architectural assets as well as legions of hostile drug gang members.
To be sure, non-stop shooting and effective destruction provide quite some remorseless fun in Army of TWO: The Devil's Cartel, but the repeated action itself would easily wear thin weren't it framed by a solid plot (by Jay Turner) that remotely recalls Peter Milligan's graphic “Across the Border” novel. It likewise is a Mexican drug cartel--La Guadaña ("The Scythe")--which dominates the story and intimidates the inhabitants of La Puerta whose Mayor Cordova plans to bring it down, and with this, hope back to its citizens. Of course, integrity is not necessarily an asset in these political spheres so Cordova soon sees his intentions aborted and his convoy attacked by cartel RPGs, in spite of having hired the pugnacious mercs Alpha and Bravo of the T.W.O. (Trans World Operations) for his protection.
If it might have been for gameplay reasons that those latter two replace Elliot Salem and Tyson Rios starring the first two releases of the Army of TWO series, it appears also narratively justified: five years earlier when about introducing the two new recruits during a rescue operation, Salem presumably gets killed, and Rios mutilated. Thence the only hostage to survive, Fiona, vitally helps fighting La Guadaña now with the corrupt leader of which, Esteban Bautista, she has also some personal accounts to settle.
Having Alpha and Bravo substitute Tyson and Rios, and fast-paced shooting action various of the former emblematic co-op features makes the game notably lose personality, a loss to be counterbalanced perhaps by means of the yet familiar mask and weapon customization permitting players to put themselves into the new mercs' roles. But as a franchise its protagonists, the job of a mercenary does sometimes transcend borders with them switching sides when the circumstances make it seem appropriate. So Salem is not dead as turns out but now seeks his revenge with the T.W.O. and its operatives, his former pal Rios included, and with late Alice Murray and now Fiona still having their emotional impact on their ever-strained relation.
While the graphical quality as such is rather modest albeit the Frostbite 2 engine allowing for striking visual effects, cut scenes as well as set-piece actions give the game still cinematic quality when having to eliminate dozens of enemy cars by means of a truck or helicopter-mounted machine gun. Well-placed explosive red barrels make it easy to blow up groups of mobsters and even an entire bridge with its human cargo, while other less frequent details like the inner city's firework effects have above all a slightly disorienting fun function here. Yet as so often in the game, the ubiquitous cartel draftees seem almost being drugged themselves for not even considering to be taken down by a driving car and accompanying bullet flow.
Choosing either the upper or the lower path, to rescue the hostage or to protect Rios, to take the MMG or to let the partner shoot suggests a certain liberty of action as regards both levels and story. Yet beyond scripted situations there is few need to recur to co-op actions familiar from the former games, which are now reduced to step jumps, mutual revivals, and simultaneous overkills spectacularly slowing down time like a bullet cam, whereas moral co-op choices have been left out altogether. While it is still possible to assign minor cosmetic tasks to the partner in order to breach a door or take a riot shield, other essential co-op elements like Hostage Grab, Back to Back, Co-op Snipe, or Mock Surrender are not available anymore or lack efficiency, as for instance, using Aggro to draw the enemy's attention to either yourself or the partner leaving the other free to stealthily sneak behind.
For enemy AI is weak and predictable and shooting easy when playing medium difficulty, any tactical thinking, even weapon upgrades become almost unnecessary, as more as one hardly ever runs out of ammunition: with the exception of the tougher “brutes” every expendable cartel thug leaves behind twice as much bullets as needed for killing him, so that even after tens of minutes of permanent shooting one might still have 600 left for each weapon. Yet the customization of one's armory and outfit in the pause menu has still its place in the game, permitting one to carry three different--Primary, Secondary, Sidehand--of the usual Assault, MG, Shotgun, Sniper rifles, and to change between successively unlocked “tactical” gears, tattoos, and customizable masks. Those latter are perhaps still the most iconic aspect of the Army of TWO franchise and in EA fashion include also allusions to Dead Space and Battlefield, among a variety of grinning skulls, while weapon customization now does comprise not any uncommon funky parts, like formerly Soda Can Silencer or Screwdriver Suppressor.
Whereas shooting is the game's main action, it is not that the developers hadn't made an effort to vary the killing as such: besides normal kills and melee there is overkill, multi kill, environment kill, partner's kill, plus backstab, flank, surprise effects, all counting differently in the stats and payouts one gets at the end of each of the campaign's fifty sub missions, permitting to unlock new weapons and gears while leveling up. It is certainly useful here to refer to the Two Profile in the Main menu for individual Gameplay stats regarding kills and combos, as well as the online Leaderboards (which list both Missions/Money), though the message pop-up “You are not on the leaderboard” might be rather disturbing at times.
Also the more elaborated cover system is to add dynamics to the repetitive “breach into” and “clean off” situations yet unfortunately doesn't work as fluid as it should so that frequently one might slight in, stick to, or switch cover in an unrequested manner, while vaulting over when meaning to stay behind, thus exposing oneself to massive enemy attacks. But anyway, neither Alpha nor Bravo are dying easily in this game since the friendly AI works sufficiently well to not let the partner's occasional reanimations fail, except when the script puts the two in separate parts where it is impossible to come to help. Otherwise the CPU buddy may periodically lag behind when having to proceed to the next mission area, leaving one waiting in front of some invisible wall marked by an exclamation sign, minor gameplay problems mitigated when playing with a human co-op partner either on split screen or online.
The different environments of the ten story chapters tellingly named Last Resort, Salvation, Narco Hell, or Confrontation, positively contribute to making the action feel not too stale and déjàvu by nicely varying between Mexican folklore, countryside, and graffitied slums, without the habitual tubes and ladders.
Alas, all this effort does not help avoiding the well-intentioned Mayor being killed and the impression of a rather uninspired by-the-numbers shooter--a pity given it is the sequel of a challenging co-op action game by the makers of the great Dead Space series.
And neither the music (Brian Tyler) nor anyone of the unconvincing voice cast--Zack Ward (Alpha), Emerson Brooks (Bravo), not even Big Boi & B.o.B. (playable in an extra mission when pre-ordering the game)--stand out of the generic soundtrack that by far doesn't match the game's visual spectacularity.
At the end in-between the Credits one gets a glimpse on Salem-El Diablo smiling in his cell at the prospect of something new, another next-gen sequel perhaps which might hopefully put its accent again onto true co-op rather than cover-based shooting action, starring Alpha and Bravo or yet another couple of mercenary T.W.O. recruits.