By James Booth
The last few months have been a busy time for video game sequels. On the larger consoles, like the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 was probably the biggest sequel to be released. Assassin's Creed and Uncharted are other franchises to see new additions.
"The AI of your partner ranks below that of a yeast culture."
Despite a rather lackluster response the first time around, Army of Two has joined the alumni of titles to see a sequel. Teaming up for further mayhem and destruction, Rios and Salem return in Army of Two: The 40th Day, shown in Figure A.
FIGURE A
The sequel, Army of Two: The 40th Day. (click for larger image)
The sequel
Army of Two: The 40th Day finds Rios and Salem fighting their way through a war-torn Shanghai in the aftermath of a coup by militant revolutionaries. Unfortunately, that's pretty much where the similarities between the PSP and console versions end. Whereas Army of Two on the PS3 is an over-the-shoulder third-person shooter, it is a top-down scroller on the PSP as shown in Figure B.
FIGURE B
40th Day is a scroller on the PSP. (click for larger image)
Basically, Salem and Rios have to fight their way out of Shanghai. Along the way you'll pick up an ally here and there. Side missions include objectives such as free this person, repair that item, defend this location, or destroy that item. Scattered throughout are the periodic bosses, like the one shown in Figure C.
FIGURE C
Bosses like this fellow can only be hit from behind. (click for larger image)
The story is advanced by means of dialogue and graphic novel-like cutscenes, like the ones in Figure D.
FIGURE D
Cutscenes in graphic novel-like format advance the story. (click for larger image)
While the dialogue segments act to advance the story and provide mission objectives, they really detract from play by forcing you to continually hit the button to advance the conversation.
Breaking up the scrolling action are the periodic decision-making dilemmas, like the one in Figure E.
FIGURE E
Decisions may affect your play, or not. (click for larger image)
How does it play?
How does 40th Day play? To be completely honest, quite atrociously. The environments and backgrounds are recycled more than in one of those old Hanna-Barbera cartoons. The AI of your partner ranks below that of a yeast culture. And the fun-factor is all but nonexistent.
Gameplay basically consists of moving from the street into a building, up to the roof, and back down to another street; all while blasting pretty much everything that moves. If any portion of the environment were destructible, such as cars on the street, it may have made up for the repetition a bit, but no such luck. And I can't tell you how many times my character needed a health boost, only to find my partner stuck behind an easily-negotiable obstacle. With the consistent level of repetition in both the background and action, there's simply nothing fun or unique about 40th Day on the PSP.
