Tag-teaming bad guys - Military Video Games, computer games, games, gaming - Navy Times

Tag-teaming bad guys

When we last left mercenaries Elliot Salem and Tyson Rios, they were killing their way through the Third World in the pay of a shady private security corporation in “Army of Two.”

In the sequel, “Army of Two: The 40th Day,” they’re still shooting a lot, only now they’ve gone into business for themselves.

How do you tell the difference between a corporate merc and a self-employed one? In this game, you can’t. The same goes for the difference between this sequel and its predecessor — if you liked the original, you’ll love “40th Day,” which incorporates all the strongest elements of its predecessor and softens, but does not eliminate, its weaknesses.

I should say upfront that it’s not really my brand of snuff, but if you belong to the loyal following for which “40th Day” was created, you’ll enjoy it.

Rios — the stone-faced Tango of this duo — and Salem, his surfer-pal Cash, are on what they believe will be another guns-for-hire assignment in Shanghai when “40th Day” opens, although, because this is an action game, it should not surprise you that things don’t go as planned.

When an unexpected event transpires, Rios and Salem must question what they thought they knew, trust their guts, and yadda, yadda, yadda.

As always, the solution to the problem lies conveniently in putting lots of rounds on target. “40th Day” continues “Army of Two’s” tandem-cover-and-fight system, in which you, the human player, collaborates with a computer-controlled buddy to advance through levels under fire. You rush enemies while your partner covers you, or he makes himself a target while you pick off your foes from behind obstacles.

That “40th Day” is a sequel means many players will be used to this combat style, which could be why it seemed easier to pick up than the original — or maybe programmers used their magic to make your nonhuman partner less of a dolt than he was before.

Fans may love it, but in my view, this is a cumbersome way to advance through a first-person shooter. I want to attack at my own speed, eliminating targets with quick movement and lots of firepower, not crouching behind an endless series of convenient desks and waiting for a computer dude to take his sweet time fighting the bad guys.

But if you ignore your buddy in “40th Day,” he gets lost or hurt and requires you to find him and heal him. If you get hurt, you writhe around until your friend heals you. When you get separated, you usually both die quickly.

As with the original “Army of Two,” these problems aren’t as bad when you play with a human colleague on the couch next to you, although if my tests are any indication, neither you nor your friend wants to be the guy hiding, taking fire, while the other gets to outflank the villains.

The biggest improvement in “40th Day” over the original is that its multiplayer mode has more snap and action than the last one. Players fight as two-man teams against other partnerships on several fine maps, and although it pays to stick together, you can separate much more productively than you could in the original.

Unfortunately, my tests of the multiplayer mode were marred by network and technical hiccups; my online partners’ voice-chat cut in and out, players lagged and, oddly, a few gamers had to play without partners.

The whole point of the game is the bromance of violence, so why aren’t the servers set to sustain even numbers of players and pair them up?

The game thinks players will be more interested in designing their characters’ steel masks and shoulder plates, which you can create online. However, if your kids are going to be playing this game, be advised: When I tested “40th Day,” the online menus already included a button for “report offensive mask,” and I saw designs on the game’s Web site that included Ku Klux Klan hoods, swastikas and planes crashing into the World Trade Center.

There are already so many eager young racists hurling slurs on multiplayer game-chats that the last thing gaming needs is another outlet for lowlifes.

Maybe “Army of Two” fans block these guys out, or maybe publisher Electronic Arts will step in and ban them, but I don’t plan on sticking around online to see what happens.

____________________