Impressions: Use the prosthetic leg!

After over a year of waiting I’m finally going to be able to play the sequel to Sega’s Condemned, Condemned 2: Bloodshot. When I played the first game I was totally stoked about the melee combat that it had to offer and the ability to just go up to a dude and do him in with a 2” x 4” was particularly satisfying. Therefore, after reading, watching and hearing a tone of good things about the sequel I can’t wait for its release this Friday (20th March over here in the UK).

I don’t know what I’m looking forward to the most, the fact that I’ll be able to spend another 15 hours of adrenalin fuelled madness killin’ deranged psychopaths again, or just that I’ll be playing a game on the 360 that doesn’t revolve around gun combat (although it is included). Whatever the case, I’m really hyped for it and I hope it delivers the goods. After the frankly nonsensical conclusion of the first game, I’m looking forward to seeing if anything gets explained. I know that the second game takes off right where the first one ended, with Ethan Thomas a now a drunken wreck, and on the trail of another killer. I’m pretty sure the narrative will take a fair few twists before the end of the game though, like any classic horror or mystery should, likely leaving room for a third game to make the trilogy (because lets face it, what else have Sega got left? They’ve got to make the money to make another crappy 3D Sonic game from somewhere...).

I guess what I’m really excited to see is just how much the game has changed over its predecessor. From what I’ve read, it’s the gameplay that’s changed the most, with additions to the combat and the investigative mechanics, but I don’t want to ruin Josh’s review (which will be on the site by Sunday) so I’ll keep clear of the specifics. Yeah, so hopefully all of the changes will improve and not detract from the gameplay of the first game that fans come to expect.

p.s. Should I even talk about the multiplayer..? I mean, come on! It’s like putting multiplayer into Bioshock, and we all know how crappy that would have turned out...

--Tom Rhodes, 360Stage Editor--

Review: Army of Two

Gameplay: 7
Sound: 7
Graphics: 8
Value: 6
Overall: 7.2

The Good:
· Co-operative mechanics differentiate the game from other shooters
· Slipknot fans will love customising their characters
· Plenty of guns to customise which starts to become addictive

The Bad:
· Cliché storyline that will annoy everyone but Americans
· Short campaign that clocks in at under five hours
· Online multiplayer is terrible

The market is flooded with shooters as everyone knows, but Army of Two isn’t just another Blacksite or Turok. Like a lot of games, Army of Two offers co-operative play, however what sets this game apart is having co-op as its own established mode.

Army of Two begins out with the two main characters, Tyson Rios, the bald, muscular leader of the two and Elliot Salem, the younger, laid back character. You start off, like a lot of shooters, in a training area where you are commanded by some stereotypical drill sergeant on fulfilling certain objectives.

The gameplay in Army of Two takes the shooting mechanics of Gears of War minus the chainsaws and the control scheme Kane and Lynch: Dead Men plus the masks. The game however pits original elements of it’s own to create a unique experience when played with a friend.

Another addition to Army of Two is the “Aggro” meter, if one player decides to go psycho and soak all the bullets the aggro meter will sink to his side leaving the other player almost invisible. There will be instances where if your aggressive self or partner goes psycho for a long period you can activate Overkill, the aggressive player can only walk but can rack up an insane amount of kills while the other player can move his stealthy self beating the enemies to death. Other features include step jump where one person boosts the other person to an unreachable location, the person who is been lifted up can blind fire and clear out enemies, then you have you’re riot shield where the two of you can hide behind a shield, one holds and the other shoots. There a plenty more which for the most part you’ll just say “Oh fuck not *insert co-operative tactic here* again”.

So I mentioned enemies, who are you up against? Guess. Go on. Guess… have you guessed yet? Yeah you’re right, terrorists… again. There’s even a part in the game where one of the enemy lieutenants shouts “Long Live Saddam”, not very acceptable I know, but hey, it’s developed by Canadians. The shooting feels satisfying enough for a while but then grows stale towards the ending levels, a switch of guns can vary the gameplay a little but it ultimately falls flat on its fat American face.

Graphically Army of Two can be the main highlight of the game, modifying weapons, buying new masks all looks good. The water in the game is up their with the best, the Aircraft Carrier mission is something nice to look at, however the level design is bland and you can’t really pick a favourite from Iraq, Afghanistan or even Miami. The main characters themselves, Rios and Salem do have the most detail compared to the game world; the weapon textures make the buildings look like original Xbox games.

Sound isn’t anything special either, the voice acting from the main characters are the highlight here, the voice acting doesn’t raise the bar in any way, but it fits and that’s what matters, the soundtrack varies from a single guitar riff and a stereotypical military soundtrack, nothing special, nothing too bad either.

The multiplayer sucks, it’s laggy, not fun with strangers or friends, the maps are bland, the objectives suck and it’s overall a useless feature, EA Montreal could have done with tweaking the campaign experience than include this crap.

You’ll finish Army of Two under five hours depending on how retarded your partner is, if you’re partner “doesn’t get it”; well expect playing some of the later levels a few times from the sometimes-poorly-placed checkpoints. The game does offer higher difficulty settings if you want to go back and get some Achievement points.

Overall if you’re looking for a fun above average shooter that you want to play with a friend then Army of Two may be worth a rental, however, if you’re looking for the next killer app that raises the bar for shooters alike, then you’d be better off washing you’re face with a sponge that has barbed wire around it.

--Josh Pollard, 360Stage Editor--

Podcast: Introduction #01

The first official podcast? Well, take a look... or a listen... and remember, if you don't get it, you're a dick.

--360Stage--