Could you imagine a world where privatized military personnel are the norm and countries no longer have national armies? Army of Two willingly takes you into that world and shows you the harsh reality of what it could potentially cause. It also showcases at what lengths some individuals may go to in order to make it happen. EA’s latest installment into the Third-Person shooter genre is not only a unique one, but a troubling conspiracy theory waiting to happen.

The entire concept of the game’s story is that these two guys, Rios and Salem, are Army Rangers tired of getting paid very little money to wage war in scenarios that they may not agree with. So they decide to be discharged and join the private sector of life and make big money doing something they love…killing people. The main objective throughout the story is that the privatized military is trying to have a bill passed that will eventually dissolve the national army and make them the norm, creating a ton of cash for the private sector as a result. Now, Salem has no problem with this, the guy loves money; however, Rios starts thinking outside of the box and that’s when the game becomes intriguing.

Army of Two features several ways to play each game mode and while the game is primarily designed for co-op tactics with two humans, it still plays well with an AI partner. The single-player mode will start off by letting you choose which of the two mercenaries you’d like to be, Rios or Salem. Depending on who you pick, the AI will obviously control the other man in this duo of death. While guns are a very important part of your overall arsenal, teamwork is an even more essential aspect of the game. You’ll have to rely on your partner not only to watch your back, but to heal you, flank enemies and to even step up beside you with a sniper rifle while the two of you take down a couple of guards simultaneously.

While the partner AI does have its flaws, like dragging your injured body about a mile before healing you despite the entire area being littered with bad guys, he’ll also do the majority of things you tell him to do with ease. Commands can be assigned via the directional pad. You’ll be able to click once in any direction to turn a command into passive mode or click it a second time to turn it red which is the aggressive indicator. There are three commands in total that you’ll be able to issue to the AI; advance, hold position and regroup. On top of this, you can hit down on the pad and it’ll give you a small security window screen that shows you what your partner is seeing.

If you expect to just run and gun your way home, you’ll be left dead in the middle of a warzone you probably shouldn’t be found in. Here are the simple summaries of what each command will do. Passive regroup will have your teammate follow you with very little gunfire, while having him follow you in aggressive mode will cause him to take down some bad guys along the way. If you’re asking him to advance, he’ll do so without being noticed or, if you wish, he'll take the aggressive and try and kill everything in his way. However, if you ask him to just sit tight and do nothing, he’ll do that too. Fortunately, if you’d like for him to just hold position and just fire away to gain the enemies attention, that’s also an option. By having him use this last tactic, you'll, you’ll be able to have the “AGGRO” meter slide in his direction. This means that most of the bad guys are focused on what he is doing, giving you the ability to flank them almost invisibly.

AGGRO is a huge part of the game and your strategy. Some enemies are very heavily armored in the front, thus a teammate can draw attention while the other sneaks behind to take him down. While this does sound a bit simplistic, it is actually very well implemented and works beautifully. If you ... (continued on next page)