Thanks to recent games like Rainbow Six: Vegas, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter and Gears of War, co-op gaming continues to push its popularity forward to more and more titles. That’s where Army of Two steps in, taking co-op games to the next level where its entire gameplay revolves around playing with another character whether it is a live person or AI.

The game follows two Army Rangers turned military contractors, named Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem. The two work for a private military contractor called SSC (Security and Strategy Corporation) and are basically mercenaries for hire. With the help of Alice Murray, their mission coordinator, the two travel across the globe to various locales where their special type of enforcement is needed, such as war torn Somalia, US Army bases in Iraq and ravaged villages in China.

Right off the bat you learn that playing together, whether it is with a real life partner in either the public or private co-op campaign or with a PAI – a computer controlled partner – it is essential to play together and teamwork is an absolute necessity to make it anywhere in the game. If you are playing the single player campaign with a PAI partner, you are able to control him with a variety of commands that will tell him to regroup or advance and to be aggressive or not. It’s simple in its design, but effective throughout the game and does exactly what it is designed to do. Although the AI partner may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer at times, for the most part it works quite well.

Army of Two brings a well known term from MMO games called “Aggro” in to the shooter genre and is a large factor of how you play the game. When Rios or Salem fire on enemies, they draw the aggro (the focus or attention from each enemy) and start to fill their AggroMeter. As it fills, the more enemies are drawn to that player, leaving the other player to run around unnoticed - in theory that’s how it supposed to work. For the most part it does, but there are times when enemies decide to attack the non-aggro player, even when out of sight. Also enemies have a tendency, with or without the lure of aggro, to hide behind cover for an unbelievably long time if they feel your icy crosshair of death on them.

The aiming in the game, which being a shooter is a crucial part of the core gameplay mechanics, is dreadful at best. The control of your weapons is so “floaty” and trying to keep a bead on an enemy can be quite difficult at times, especially if that enemy is running. Trying to turn your weapon to shoot a moving enemy is maddening since the enemies actually run faster than you can turn your body and sadly tweaking the sensitivity does little to remedy the problem.

In addition to your primary and secondary weapons – a wide selection that can be bought with the cash you earn from completing various objectives during missions - you are able to perform melee attacks. These attacks usually result in slamming an enemy into the ground or giving him a good old fashioned crack in the cranium. Melee attacks are hit and miss however, as you can be standing right in front of an enemy and you will still shoot at him instead of swinging at him, which leaves you open for an enemy attack of his own and when he does, the enemy somehow has the incredible strength to take down your heavily armored body with just a swift kick to the junk. Having your game come to an embarrassing end because your character wouldn’t throw a punch when needed happens all too often.

As much as the game can infuriate and baffle you with its up and down gameplay, it definitely has its redeeming qualities. The graphics are top notch and the only slow downs experienced were due to the EA servers and not the actual game itself. The game also features some of the best water effects around. Take a look off the aircraft carrier and the heaving waves are a sight to behold. The character interaction between Salem and Rios is priceless as the conversations are humorous and the comical actions they perform will have you laughing out loud. Being able to give a high-five or play air guitar with your partner when you are happy, or slap him upside the head when you aren’t is a nice touch.