army of two: devil's cartel
Developer: Visceral Games
Publisher: EA
Release Date: 29/03/2013
Format: PS3/XBOX360
High fives, fist bumps, casual chatter, bad one liners and umm....sharing parachutes. Army of Two’s brand of third person shooting isn’t one to shy away from a close association to homophobia. Yet the second game proved that the pair of Salem and Rios can be just as serious as they are silly. The Devil’s Cartel swaps out the personalities of Salem and Rios, for the generic duo of Alpha and Bravo. By name alone, this twosome is bland and they refuse to be anything more memorable than degenerate guns for hire, spraying AO2 cologne on itself. But despite this, The Devil’s Cartel still proves to be a fun way to spend a weekend with a friend.
As members of an elite squad of trained mercenaries, Alpha and Bravo are out to protect a politician named Cordova in Mexico. What ends up happening, is the limo Cordova travelled in gets destroyed by a gang of Cartel clientele, and he makes a run for it. Along the way you buddy up with old hands Salem and Rios, who are put into secondary NPC roles this time around. A young lady is also thrown into the mix, bringing in the theme of retribution, though her motives are purely fixed on her goal, and takes little interest in anything else. Alpha and Bravo’s individualities are watered down. One wants to start a family, whilst the other wants a fishing boat. There’s no clever build to their characters, making their smutty innuendo irrelevant and tedious. The story is generally throwaway, though there is an unexpected twist later on that Army of Two fans may find shocking. But what you get is devoid of heart, with the only sentiments being felt by Salem and Rios.
If there’s one thing Alpha and Bravo know, it’s how to keep shooting Cartels in the face. That’s more often than not everything you do in this third person shooter. You take cover, pop out and shoot, run, throw grenades, go in for a melee kill- you get the picture. Yet what you do is undeniably polished and well executed. Cover works well, functioning in a quasi- Rainbow 6 style, which is a little awkward, but works very well, ensuring you snap to cover quickly.
Publisher: EA
Release Date: 29/03/2013
Format: PS3/XBOX360
High fives, fist bumps, casual chatter, bad one liners and umm....sharing parachutes. Army of Two’s brand of third person shooting isn’t one to shy away from a close association to homophobia. Yet the second game proved that the pair of Salem and Rios can be just as serious as they are silly. The Devil’s Cartel swaps out the personalities of Salem and Rios, for the generic duo of Alpha and Bravo. By name alone, this twosome is bland and they refuse to be anything more memorable than degenerate guns for hire, spraying AO2 cologne on itself. But despite this, The Devil’s Cartel still proves to be a fun way to spend a weekend with a friend.
As members of an elite squad of trained mercenaries, Alpha and Bravo are out to protect a politician named Cordova in Mexico. What ends up happening, is the limo Cordova travelled in gets destroyed by a gang of Cartel clientele, and he makes a run for it. Along the way you buddy up with old hands Salem and Rios, who are put into secondary NPC roles this time around. A young lady is also thrown into the mix, bringing in the theme of retribution, though her motives are purely fixed on her goal, and takes little interest in anything else. Alpha and Bravo’s individualities are watered down. One wants to start a family, whilst the other wants a fishing boat. There’s no clever build to their characters, making their smutty innuendo irrelevant and tedious. The story is generally throwaway, though there is an unexpected twist later on that Army of Two fans may find shocking. But what you get is devoid of heart, with the only sentiments being felt by Salem and Rios.
If there’s one thing Alpha and Bravo know, it’s how to keep shooting Cartels in the face. That’s more often than not everything you do in this third person shooter. You take cover, pop out and shoot, run, throw grenades, go in for a melee kill- you get the picture. Yet what you do is undeniably polished and well executed. Cover works well, functioning in a quasi- Rainbow 6 style, which is a little awkward, but works very well, ensuring you snap to cover quickly.
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The stop and pop mentality is also engaging, with the ability to rip limbs from under the squads of cartels, giving a satisfying and brutal edge to the combat. The straightforwardly named "Overkill” mechanic allows you a limited amount of time to wreak havoc whilst invulnerable. To use it, you simply fill up a blue meter to the maximum then hit the right shoulder button. You’ll be thankful of this feature when you and your partner are down in heated bouts.
Partner commands are a subtle addition this time out. You can control your AI partner to protect you or keep up with the onslaught. They do an efficient job of looking out for you, and don’t often give you hassle by dropping to the floor, but there are some weird bugs that crop up. For instance, your partner may not recognise the prompt to breach an area. One notable error occurred after the final boss, when a cutscene triggered after which the game booted itself back to the game over screen, apparently because the partner had dropped the ball before the cutscene arose. Another issue is that you’re forced to wait until your partner stops talking before you can move onto the next area. Checkpoints are oddly distributed too, popping up after as much as 5 minutes of gameplay. All this adds up to create a seemingly unpolished shooter, one that needed more tuning under the hood.
One notable regularity in the Devil’s Cartel, are nondescript slow motion room breaches. You know, the ones seen in an FPS that also brandished “The Cartel” namesake. When your AI partner can muster the mental sinew to breach a door with you in toe, you take out groups of cartel in slow motion. These happen a few times throughout the campaign, and are no less boring to partake in. You will also do your fair share of defending, whether from droves of Cartel, or ensuring your AI (or human) buddy doesn’t snuff it. There are also slower, slightly more methodical sniper sections which slow down the ballistics somewhat.
Your time with The Devil’s Cartel will be significantly improved, provided that you have another human mind curtailing the AI frustrations with. What you get, is a more dynamic experience. For instance there are times in the game where you get a branching choice. For instance you can provide chopper support, whilst your partner works on the ground. It’s a subtle element, but it really enforces the dynamic of teamwork, which enriches the Army of Two experience.
Partner commands are a subtle addition this time out. You can control your AI partner to protect you or keep up with the onslaught. They do an efficient job of looking out for you, and don’t often give you hassle by dropping to the floor, but there are some weird bugs that crop up. For instance, your partner may not recognise the prompt to breach an area. One notable error occurred after the final boss, when a cutscene triggered after which the game booted itself back to the game over screen, apparently because the partner had dropped the ball before the cutscene arose. Another issue is that you’re forced to wait until your partner stops talking before you can move onto the next area. Checkpoints are oddly distributed too, popping up after as much as 5 minutes of gameplay. All this adds up to create a seemingly unpolished shooter, one that needed more tuning under the hood.
One notable regularity in the Devil’s Cartel, are nondescript slow motion room breaches. You know, the ones seen in an FPS that also brandished “The Cartel” namesake. When your AI partner can muster the mental sinew to breach a door with you in toe, you take out groups of cartel in slow motion. These happen a few times throughout the campaign, and are no less boring to partake in. You will also do your fair share of defending, whether from droves of Cartel, or ensuring your AI (or human) buddy doesn’t snuff it. There are also slower, slightly more methodical sniper sections which slow down the ballistics somewhat.
Your time with The Devil’s Cartel will be significantly improved, provided that you have another human mind curtailing the AI frustrations with. What you get, is a more dynamic experience. For instance there are times in the game where you get a branching choice. For instance you can provide chopper support, whilst your partner works on the ground. It’s a subtle element, but it really enforces the dynamic of teamwork, which enriches the Army of Two experience.
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There are setpiece moments sprinkled into the Cartel, but they are rather laughable, and serve to pad out the experience with some earnest effort.
One particularly humdrum on rails vehicle section has you constantly firing
at a heavily armoured truck, even though you’ve sucked but an inch of its life away. There’s also a painfully stilted and rigid on rails section, where you shoot whilst sliding down a rapidly collapsing building.
There is a kill economy at work, as you rack up bodies, you will accumulate points for a certain style of kill. For instance a melee kill will net you 25 points because of its riskier, more unique style of kill. However the game does a poor job in distinguishing and explaining how each of these kinds of kills work. What may count as a surprise attack one instant maybe just a plain old kill the next. As you amass money, you will rank up, of which there are 25 levels. You will gain access to weapons and abilities as you level up, though the rewards aren’t put to any meaningful use, because there are no modes to accommodate them. At least there is extensive character and weapon customisation, but hardly any of it seems worth toying with.
The Devil’s Cartel offers compelling and balletic thrills due to the power of the Frostbite engine. Tearing the environments and enemies apart is a thrilling necessity, and is handled very well. The same can’t be said of the voice acting or script though. Alpha and
Bravo are your typical grizzly action men, and their lines of dialogue do little to draw you in on the co-operative aspects the game employs. Rios and Salem’s appearances give the mediocrity of the voice acting, a slightly gnarled boost. The environments themselves draw on a narrow pool of cartel subculture including drugs dens and desolate graveyards and mines.
Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel works best as a co-op shooter designed to be played with another human partner. The thrills of this popcorn third person kill-fest are endearing. But the Devil’s Cartel isn’t a very convincing sequel. It abandons the personality filled Rios and Salem for two generic meatheads. Furthermore, the bugs and its formulaic approach to third person shooter gameplay are displeasing. But if all you want are weekend thrills with a buddy, with great environmental destruction heralded by the Frostbite engine, then take this for a spin, just be prepared to look back afterwards.
James Davie 7/10
There is a kill economy at work, as you rack up bodies, you will accumulate points for a certain style of kill. For instance a melee kill will net you 25 points because of its riskier, more unique style of kill. However the game does a poor job in distinguishing and explaining how each of these kinds of kills work. What may count as a surprise attack one instant maybe just a plain old kill the next. As you amass money, you will rank up, of which there are 25 levels. You will gain access to weapons and abilities as you level up, though the rewards aren’t put to any meaningful use, because there are no modes to accommodate them. At least there is extensive character and weapon customisation, but hardly any of it seems worth toying with.
The Devil’s Cartel offers compelling and balletic thrills due to the power of the Frostbite engine. Tearing the environments and enemies apart is a thrilling necessity, and is handled very well. The same can’t be said of the voice acting or script though. Alpha and
Bravo are your typical grizzly action men, and their lines of dialogue do little to draw you in on the co-operative aspects the game employs. Rios and Salem’s appearances give the mediocrity of the voice acting, a slightly gnarled boost. The environments themselves draw on a narrow pool of cartel subculture including drugs dens and desolate graveyards and mines.
Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel works best as a co-op shooter designed to be played with another human partner. The thrills of this popcorn third person kill-fest are endearing. But the Devil’s Cartel isn’t a very convincing sequel. It abandons the personality filled Rios and Salem for two generic meatheads. Furthermore, the bugs and its formulaic approach to third person shooter gameplay are displeasing. But if all you want are weekend thrills with a buddy, with great environmental destruction heralded by the Frostbite engine, then take this for a spin, just be prepared to look back afterwards.
James Davie 7/10
