So many great games have released over these past few weeks that I haven’t given myself time to write some game reviews up, and same goes for game articles (been having to just copy and paste from other gaming sites).

Today marks the day of a game review, being as I’m now wore out from shoveling up snow from my private street and driveway and I need some relaxing time, so its a good day to sit back and write up a review.

I’m going to take you back to January 12, 2010. Do you remember that date? You don’t? Are you sure? Its the day the sequel to Army of Two released. I knew you would remember that day. Army of Two: The 40th Day is a third-person shooter video game that is developed by EA Montreal and published by Electronic Arts for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Portable.

Army of Two: The 40th Day focuses on two-player cooperative play and employs a cover system, just as the original Army of Two did. It features Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem yet again as combatant partners who, with the assistance of their handler Alice Murray, must fight to survive and prevail over invading forces that have engulfed Shanghai, China in a devastating terrorist attack using their own private company called Trans World Operations (TWO). They are engaged in a routine mission in Shanghai when things go very bad. A group of PMCs work together to attack the city, causing mayhem, destruction and threatening Rios and Salem’s survival.

Army of Two: The 40th Day returns you to the world behind the eyes of either Rios or Salem. This time the two are taking time off in Shanghai, China when all of a sudden terrorist attacks and blows up tons and tons of building in Shanghai.

The developers of Army of Two: The 40th Day bring back the customization of your weapons, including a lot of extra stuff we didn’t have in the first Army of Two game. This also marks the return of the Mask customization. By logging into the Army of Two: The 40th Day website, the player can create custom designs that appear on their masks in both single and multiplayer. You have to go to EA’s Army of Two website to make a mask then upload it to your gamertag. If mask customization isn’t your thing, you can also upload someone elses mask creation and add it into your game. The developers also brought back the Aggro system (we couldn’t make it through an Army of Two game without the this could we? I didn’t think so) that allows two players to tactically control the target of their enemy’s attacks. However, we can’t forget about a few new features that were added to make Army of Two: The 40th Day a tad different from the first game. One new feature in particular would have to be the morality moments.

Morality moments — players are forced to make these types of decisions that affect the story of the game. At pre-determined points in the game players will be presented with a choice, for example whether they should steal weapons from a mall security armory or vacate the premises. The decision is not a vote between two players. but instead either player must decide while the other player is forced to accept the ramifications of that decisions regardless of what their preference was. The outcome and presentation of these morality moments takes the form of comic panels, which actually are not that bad and changes up the game style a bit. It reminds me a bit like that Mirror’s Edge game where the gameplay was normal style graphics, while the story and movie clips were animated like a comic.

Another thing that you can do to better improve the Army of Two series is to shoot through certain objects, such as wooden walls and crumbling mortar can now be penetrated by bullets. Besides that, there is one other feature that I really like to mess around with, and that is either rescuing or letting civilian NPCs die by the players choice.  Of course if you rescue these civilian, you will be respectfully reward for your efforts, rather it be of money or weapon upgrades. Speaking of weapon upgrades, always be on a look out when exploring the town of Shanghai because weapon upgrade sheets are scattered through out Shanghai, China waiting to be found by you. As a side note, there’s always rock, paper, scissors if you feel the need to stop from the shooting and killing terrorists with your partner.

Now moving on to the Multiplayer section of the game. Army of Two: The 40th Day maintains its focus on co-op play by requiring that players play in a partnership. Partners are a source for ammunition and are able to revive their fallen team mate. There are a total of four multiplayer game modes: Co-op Deathmatch pits teams of two against other partnerships. Control awards points to teams for capturing and defending randomly spawned points. Warzone has players battle over various objectives. Extraction is a game mode where teams of four fight waves of increasingly powerful enemies in order to clear the map for extraction.

I especially like the extraction game mode as its a good way to work together to survive and if you’re a fan of Gears of War or Halo: ODST, then you’d also enjoy Extraction.

As for how the graphics holds up, it does indeed hold up pretty well. I didn’t really notice a difference from the first game to the second game, graphics wise. Although I was pretty impress none-the-less. The sounds were also a plus in my book, but like a few other games, it wasn’t top of the line.

I believe overall this game deserves a 7 out of 10.

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Now coming up in the next upcoming days, Mass Effect 2 review.

Here is what Crypto 140 thought of the game:

Crypto here giving my review of Army of Two: The 40th day. I really found the game to be very enjoyable. I was playing with ufcmike1 (Michael Young) and myself in story mode and multiplayer and it was fun. The story was enjoyable and very fun weather alone [with A.I.] or with a buddy — A buddy in metal armor who can kick ass. With a smart A.I. or a smart buddy, many different styles of game play are available and full of fun. Such as the mission where you can go to the other building and make a path, or give the other guy some cover, that was fun. And the karma moments and what follows was a nice touch, making you feel good inside, or make you feel like satan’s worst nightmare. I really like the gun customization. The pimp texture to my gun made me think, “I’m so rich, I have a gun of gold, and now killing you makes me more rich. Maybe your death can give me a platinum gun.” Crypto out.

I believe overall this game deserves a 8 out of 10.

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This article was written by Michael Young