Review by: Jeff McAllister

Army of Two: The 40th Day brings the self-entitled duo, Salem and Rios, back with the same co-op gameplay from the original with the benefit of needed tweaks and fixes and shiny new features that make this sequel a significantly better game.

As you begin the game, Salem and Rios find themselves smack dab in the middle of the crumbling cityscape of Shanghai as a mysterious warlord known as Jonah has begun his 40th day initiative, a plan that will demolish the city to its core so that he can rebuild it as his own empire. The city is overrun with scores of his soldiers and destruction abounds as planes crash into buildings, skyscrapers topple at an alarming frequency and basically all hell breaks loose.

While the first game was more like a buddy movie that featured a bromance between two guys in metal masks, this time around things have taken on a much darker tone and although the camaraderie is still there, including both the humorous banter back and forth along with the fist bumps, it doesn’t hit you over the head or seem forced like it did the first run through.

The Combat Agro feature returns and is the main tactic when you find yourself in a firefight. During each of the game’s seven chapters, you will certainly find yourself in more than a few stand offs with just you, your partner and a swarm of enemies. When Salem and Rios encounter a group of bad guys, whichever player does damage will start to fill his agro-meter at the top of the screen. As the enemies turn their focus on the player drawing the heat, the other player can flank around to the side or rear and take out the remaining targets unseen and unnoticed. This is a definite must have tactic once you start to encounter the Heavies later on in the game.

The sequel sports several improvements. Where the original game had horrible aiming controls, The 40th Day controls much better and feels more polished. When playing by yourself and using the computer AI as your partner instead of a friend online, it behaves much better and will come to your rescue should you need it and not spin in circles or ignore you as in the past. When playing solo, you can use simple controls to tell your AI teammate how to act and each time I issued an order the AI followed it to a tee. When the AI found itself in some trouble, it would do what it could to overcome it and then return to its instructed stance.

There are many new additions to the sequel, most of which bring a new depth to the gameplay as well as the storytelling. There are now instances where Salem and Rios will come across hostages and they can choose to save them…or not. They can mock a surrender and then use a quick draw attack that slows down time and gives you time to fire shots off or you can sneak up behind the enemies and tie them up, also relieving the hostages of their dreadful situation. If you aren’t quick enough, there are times that hostages will get snuffed and it really does make you feel like a heel for not reacting quickly enough or for bumbling the operation. Whether you save them or not determines what actions happen later on in the game.