In a number of reviews thus far, alot of writers have found themselves caught up in the 'politics' that are tangled within this games otherwise forgettable plot. I, personally, couldn't care less about any supposed inefficiencies of the United States military leaders, heck - if you asked me what the difference of 'left wing' and 'right wing' was, I simply could not tell you. All I could muster from Army of Two by way of political messages is that we're meant to believe the U.S. military is a bungled faction whilst private contractors are worth the paper gold they're paid; executing even the direst operations with perfection and precision. But enough with the politics, as there is a game here somewhere beneath the light-weight anti-military propaganda, believe it or not.

Army of Two follows the sequential journey of Elliot Salem and Tyson Rios. It's a scattered affair as proceedings kick off in Somalia in the early nineties as our protagonists are U.S. Army Rangers in a losing war, from here we see them join the ranks of Security and Strategy Corporation, who throughout the timeline merge with Black Mountain Industries to become the most prominent private militant contractors going around. During the next decade succeeding the opening Somalia operation, we see Salem and Rios do what America does best; they take to their enemies armed to the teeth, clad in impenetrable shrapnel wearing groovy masks. Yeah, that is the rough idea of Army of Two, slowly picking off opposing nations in a white rage whilst dressed in your best suit of armour. However, naturally, to ensure some excitement, there are the same ole' plot turns that bring around expected deceptions and all of that jazz.

The campaign in its entirety is rather short, as it consists of six missions in all that are each an hour, or so, long. The locales throughout Army of Two are ripped straight from headlines of yesterday; the game even makes use of the World Trade Centre terrorist attack as a launching pad into your onslaught of Afghanistan. You'll also encounter operations located in Iraq and China, and even in Miami - where you'll go mass genocide on your fellow countrymen. All in all, Army of Two feels far too brief, and can easily be knocked off in an afternoon. Higher difficulties may prompt a return to the battlefield, as the jump in difficulty is rather unexpected so you, along with your buddy, should find a worthy challenge second time around [especially on Professional].

Really, Army of Two is fortunate its selling point wasn't its 'compelling, engaging narrative'. It's rather popular for its emphasis on co-operative gameplay, where you as either Salem or Rios with 'partner artificial intelligence' or another live player. In all honesty, Army of Two is at its best when played with a mate, as you're not obligated to navigate your artificial partner through tactical phases, and you'd only assume your mate actually has any sense at all. Cause it's a sad fact that your artificial buddy is lacking a few screws upstairs, as he's often outwitted by foreign fodder. Not only does he often find himself running circles around the enemy, literally, he often misses opportunity to fulfil co-op prompts such as when you use the action button on a nearby door - he'll either disregard your direction altogether, or run around aimlessly just to frustrate you and leave you open to receive a clip of lead to the back.

The primary aspect of the co-op gameplay that was executed well is Aggro. It's a tactical strategy where if either you, or your buddy, open fire upon the enemy, they'll attract attention to themselves, effectively allowing the other to advance unnoticed scoring stealth kills. Upon gaining enough Aggro, you're able to tap into 'Overkill', where you either become something resembling a brick shithouse (if you were under fire), or a transparent operative. This made portions of Army of Two into a tactical third-person shooter, as opposed to the run-and-gun, spray-and-pray bloodbath that had been advertised. 'Overkill' wasn't without bother, though. Whoever had the idea to map the 'Overkill' and 'Feign Death' features to the same button needs to be 'taken care of'. There were too many times I was steamrolling a crowd of foreigners screaming in a tongue I can't fathom, only to find myself roll onto my back with stiff legs like a dog instead of tapping into the beast of 'Overkill'. Truly upsetting.

While your patience may be limited in Army of Two, one thing you should never be short of is guns n' ammo! At any time you can carry three firearms on your person. You choose a gun from three categories. Your primary will be your main outlet of pain, as you choose from a scattered array of assault rifles, and machine guns. Secondary is more shaped around pistols and sub-machine guns, while special firearms include sniper rifles and Stinger missile launchers - however, ammo for these is extremely scarce, so you can not be liberal in use. The customization of your arsenal is a fine inclusion in Army of Two, as you can exchange stocks, barrels and add suppressors to nearly anything you can get your hands on - the talking point, though, is the ability to 'pimp' your firearms for a small fee of ten grand. While it would be assumed that such an absurd feature would be purely cosmetic, it does stem deeper than that, as 'pimping' your weapon allows it to harness more Aggro, presumably from the damaged egos of dirt eating terrorists who can't afford such blinged out weaponry themselves.

Army of Two is a game with its issues, this is very apparent. Its lacklustre partner intelligence, and I haven't even mentioned the abysmal hovercraft handling yet (maybe you'll discover this yourself). But one issue that simply can't be overlooked, or forgiven, was EA's decision to region-lock the online functions. It's a case that has had us at XBW up in arms as we struggle to comprehend what thought process must have been present when the decision was made. For those unaware about region-locking, it's a plague that has left us Australians only able to play online with Brits and Europeans; cutting us off from the world surrounding.

It not only makes finding a game nearly impossible, but as you're most likely to find a game in Britain, it makes the game unplayable due to lag. Normally, being the xenophobic lot that the rest of the world thinks we are, NOT being automatically "match-maked” into yank filled games would be a bonus, but if you have a friend with an imported 360 and you want to play co-op with him, you'll be fat out of luck. If you do get lucky (or have a PAL 360 owning friend that actually plans to get this game), however, you'll find an admirable distraction from the single-player game, as the objective-based online games are a lot of fun.

Problems luckily don't expand on into the visual presentation, as Army of Two is offered up as a fine enough looking game. I mean, it doesn't revolutionize the genre in anyway, but as it runs off of the Unreal Engine, so it's expected to meet a standard; which it does. The environments look up to par whilst being set up to accommodate for the game's cover-based style of play, with conveniently placed barricades of sandbags laying in wait.

You'll encounter a lot of the same enemies in each region, which is a bit of a shame, but all of the unique protagonists look great in motion. Army of Two's audio is great when coupled with the dynamic personalities of the protagonists, Salem being a money craved, shoot first - ask questions later hard-arse, and Rios a towering wall of steroid abuse who constantly voices his conspiracies regarding the duos missions - it does allow for some tongue-in-cheek banter that is consistent (for good or bad) throughout the short campaign.