Army of Two (Xbox 360)

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EA's added polish to Army of Two - but will it be enough?

As a video game critic, when you see terrible games sell well it can be a touch disheartening. But then certain things happen which remind you that, actually, there is a point to all this video game journalism lark after all. One of those certain things happened late last year when, after getting absolutely slaughtered in the game press, EA took the decision to wield the axe and re-do whole swathes of new upcoming terrorist-killing third-person action game Army of Two. One-nil to us game hacks then. But has it been worth it? We parachuted our way into EA's UK offices to find out what changes have been made and why Gears of War fans should be interested.

Army of Two sees private military contractors (or, in layman's terms, double hard Rambo types) Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem take on global terrorism all on their own. There's little more to the somewhat predictable story - Salem is an ex jail bird who's got a bit of an attitude, Rios is a tough military vet who's more considered. They bicker, swear and generally blow stuff up. Now, with that fluff out of the way, on to the game's changes.

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Rather disappointingly, the tampon healing mini-game which had been in Amy of Two has been removed, replaced with a drag into cover while shooting non-mini game which sounds a lot less exciting. Although the idea of using tampons to heal wounds sounds crazy, military expert and VideoGamer.com video dude Nick says it's actually how it works IN REAL LIFE. So, we're officially sad the tampons have kicked the bucket.

There's a good reason for it of course. EA tells us that while the mini-game was fun the first couple of times, it quickly became annoying and removed the player from the in the line of fire action. So the team took the game's already implemented drag mechanic and used that instead, allowing you to shoot while you're being healed by your mate and keeping you in the game to boot. We suppose it's for the best, but we did have a minute's silence here in the office for the poor tampons.

The tampon healing mini-game has been scrapped, replaced with a drag and shoot in-game feature.

EA has re-lit the entire game, which is great, since you can now see what the hell is going on. The HUD has been cleaned up significantly, with less clutter and inconsequential rubbish getting in the way of you killing the crap out of everything. The menus have been made slicker, the targeting reticule has been altered to reflect the weapon you have equipped (smaller and more accurate for the handgun, bigger and less accurate for the machine gun) and the boss battles have been redesigned so they pose more of a challenge and actually require tactics. This is all basic game design stuff - nothing here is revolutionising the action genre - basic next-gen polish we all expect on the Xbox 360 and PS3 these days. But that doesn't stop its implementation being more than welcome.

Also welcome is the MMO-style aggro system, which EA has implemented to help Army of Two stand out from that other third-person action game which has sold millions and also features cover and co-op gameplay (three guesses). Here, you need to work together with your mate to flank the enemy, as you'd expect, but to do that you need to gain the attention of the enemy so they stay focused directly on you, allowing your mate to sneak about and shoot them in the back.

It works like this - both you and your mate are pinned down by five or so terrorists. You know that if you pop your head out of your quickly disintegrating cover, even for a few seconds, you'll be chopped down quicker than a terrorist trying to set fire to Glasgow airport. So what you do is blind fire for a bit, building up your aggro (displayed on a meter at the top of the screen). Once you've pissed off the bad guys enough, your mate will turn transparent, meaning he can sneak about without having to worry about bullets shaking hands with his brain. Once your mate is in a perfect flanking position, bang! They're dead. And off you both trot, no doubt delighted with how smart you've been.

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