Review Score:

Salem and Rios are back and this time the platonic pair find themselves stuck in Shanghai when the proverbial crap has hit the fan. The entire city crumbles around the duo and the simple goal of getting out of dodge quickly spirals into large scale fire fights and unexpected moral dilemma’s. Rios or Salem, the choice is yours. Just make sure after you pick one, you find a friend to pick the other. Although the game does feature a command for initiating a game of rock-paper-scissors at anytime (in the middle of chaotic gun fight perhaps), do the fist bumps and aggro meters really make this game a must buy? Or should Salem and Rios figure this one out without your help?

The Story So Far..

Being a hired gun isn’t the world easiest job, and this time Salem and Rios have really drawn the short end of the stick on what seemed like a slam dunk job. When a easy job turns complicated, Salem and Rios are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Spanning only a few days, the pair must survive long enough to escape from Shanghai and find out who is behind all the destruction. The game isn’t exactly Hemingway material, but it does a good enough job of letting you know who you are shooting at and why..most of the time. You might not be all that interested in where you are headed, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the ride their. Two grizzled mercenaries with big guns and even bigger armor shoot everything that moves…while wearing fancy hockey masks. Don’t expect award winning story telling and you won’t be disappointed.

How Is The Gameplay?

It plays pretty much exactly how you think it would. Over the shoulder shooting with cover to cover mechanics straight out of the Gears of War play book. It’s not terribly innovative, but it does a good job of providing nice clean controls that help you navigate the world easily, aside from some issues with making your character take cover as oppose to leaping over it. With a couple new additions to the controls and some improved AI in your buddy, as well as the enemies, the game manages to fix most of the pressing issues people had with the first game. Not to say the AI will blow you away, but it’s definitely competent. Aggro is back in a big way in The 40th Day, making flanking one of the most effective strategies in the game. Most mini-bosses can be easily beaten as long as you have a teammate to distract him as you sneak around back and shoot the exploding backpacks or gas tanks. If you choose to tackle the game alone, prepare to do a fair bit of partner managing which can sometimes feel like a drag.

Salem and Rios

Luckily the controls for teammate orders are simple enough and pretty effective. If you’ve played the first game or Gears of War, you will pick this game up almost instantly. Prepare to mow through the game in around 5 hours or so, which feels like a pretty good length. Much longer and the tricks the game pulls might have become tired. You can only save some many hostages before it gets old.

One of the best parts of the game is the level of customization you have over the characters and their weapons. Score money for completing objectives and rescuing hostages to spend on new guns and all sorts of upgrades. Deck out your weapons in all sorts of ugly color schemes (tiger stripes, rainbow puzzle pieces) and attach scopes and silencers to help increase or decrease weapons stats. The game features plenty of different weapons and unlocking all the attachments for them would be a serious commitment to playing the game.

Not everything is the game is simply an improvement, some features are completely new. The 40th Day takes some time to engage the player with moral choices that have you picking one of two options to a problem. Do I kill this person and take his stuff, or do I let him go? Either way you choose to handle yourself, you will be treated to a comic book style cut scene showing the ramifications of your choice.  Some of the most interesting stuff in the game is entirely contained in these small choice segments. It’s a nice addition that helps add some much needed character depth, it’s a shame the first player to make a choice speaks for both of you.

The Multiplayer

It is an absolute shame that the multiplayer made such a bad impression on me. Lag and wacky grenade spamming turned me off almost instantly. Even with just five thousand people online, every match I entered was rendered unplayable due to lag. I’m sure the problem isn’t global, but it sure did a fine job of ruining it for me personally. What little I did get to enjoy in between lag attacks seemed to be pretty fun.

Shooting Blind

The game takes after Killzone 2 in its mid-game mode switching which keeps the action going and spices things up. Grab a buddy and give it a shot, but I wouldn’t say it’s the games strong point.

Closing Remarks

Ubisoft has managed to deliver on pretty much everything I was expecting in Army of Two The 40th Day. The new addition of a morality system feels like a natural fit for the series and I hope this is a trend that will be even further expanded upon in the next game. Although it is another game with Nolan North as a main character, the voice acting in the game does a fine job of defining it’s characters and showcasing their reactions to the story. The game shows some of it’s legs with the much improved multiplayer and the ability for gamers to log onto the EA site and create custom masks, ala Skate 2, to help set their character apart online. It’s a nice addition to the series, but if anything customization and the morality system could stand to be pushed even further. I can’t say for certain that you must play this game, but you probably can determine for yourself by now if you are interested. Expect explosions early and often, a story that does just enough to explain the gun fights, lots of bullets and some good ol’ fashion co-op fun.