COD4 :D :D :D

Army of Two Review
--By Sphincter

First Impressions:
I went into this game thinking that I would be playing another Gears of War. I was happy when the game just started and didn’t feel that way. The opening cinematic was very cheesy but got the whole agro thing into my head. (If you have played WoW or any other MMO, then you already know what agro is... this is just an advanced version of it). Its not a hard concept to get your head around in the tutorial, but it doesn’t work that well, at least in the tutorial it didn’t.

Gameplay/Controls:
I play lots of Halo. We all have played lots of Halo, and we have gotten to know that fine, crisp feeling when you shoot someone in the head with a nice battle rifle shot. In this game, you really lack the feeling, and the general ability, to shoot anyone, anywhere with any accuracy. The aiming is off, by a lot. This is due to two things: 1) The aiming is at an angle, this makes it hard to hit targets when hiding behind cover (like a corner). 2) The aiming is designed for PC. This is an Xbox game, with PC mouse handling. No matter what sensitivity you put it on, you will never get it just right, there is no pad acceleration, like in many other shooters, that will make it easier to aim. In this game, once you start to aim in a direction, you stay aiming that way till you let off completely.

The Y button is the rip off of the A button from Gears. It will allow you to roll into cover (hardly works in the right direction) and jump over objects (which you usually cannot, or you jump over the wrong thing)

The teamwork aspect of the game was supposed to be the highlight of the game, which is mostly the agro system. This system is supposed to make the enemy shoot at the player that is causing the most havoc to the enemy. Well, this system works, to a point. After a while, you start to notice a lot of inconsistencies. I first noticed this when I had the M249 SAW equipped, pimped and decked out to the most agro you could (about 80% of the way), my friend has the Styer AUG with all the silencers and minimal agro you could. I would spray about 50 shots to get the enemies heads down, my friend would move up and shoot 2 shots, while I was firing, and he would then get all the agro, get shot at, and die. This happened way too many times to be a general bug, it was just not programmed right. It was a great idea, but EA messed it up.

The autosave... always a problem with games now. This game is no exception. Without the ability to save, you rely on the autosave, and it will not forgive you for messing up. When you die, prepare to go back... far... very far.

The gun customization is about the only cool thing going for the gameplay. It was a cool feature, but it was very bland and didn’t include that many upgrades. Sure it was cool to “pimp” your AK47, but where is my ACOG on my M4A2?

Graphics:
Nothing much to say here. Player models look good, but the textures on the walls and the rest of the world are lacking. They look like old engine tech. Reloading animation is the same for every gun and the cut scenes are lacking. They are almost not worth watching, but then again, you cannot skip them.

Sound:
Gun sounds are generic, lacking in atmospheric sounds and ambient noises. Music is decent, not the best soundtrack but it doesn’t ruin the mood, but neither does it set it.

The voice acting, it is terrible. There are a few funny lines, but for the most part, the game has bad voice actors.

Storyline:
With bad voice acting, comes a bad story. This was supposed to be a story of 2 men and their struggle with corruption and double crossing neighbours. You may have to hear the story, but I would rather just be killing everyone, because the story did not keep my attention. They also left out many of the side characters. You got introduced to them, then never saw them again.

Overall:
Not very happy with the game. It can be beaten in a day with a friend that is decently skilled in shooters. You will die a lot due to the strange damage system and the bad aiming, but you can beat it in a day. And with the bad story and not so good soundtrack, I am glad that I didn’t have to pay for my copy.

Presentation: 6/10 – Game was presented in a good manner, decent graphics and okay sounds, but they all got old after the first few minutes
Graphics: 7/10 – Good player models, but lacking in textures for walls and floors. A lot of clipping and AA problems. Filters also broke during some cut scenes.
Sound: 5/10 – Generic gun sounds (they all sound the same for the most part), lows aren’t low and highs aren’t high. Music is bland and doesn’t set a mood.
Gameplay: 4/10 – Bad controls, short campaign, stupid single player AI and stupid enemy AI
Lasting Appeal: 2/10 – You will beat it once, then never play it again
Overall: 5/10 – I would only recommend this game for a rent. Play it with a friend when you have a sleepover, then return it the next day. You will want to.

UBCS Gibbs wrote:Storyline:
With bad voice acting, comes a bad story. This was supposed to be a story of 2 men and their struggle with corruption and double crossing neighbours. You may have to hear the story, but I would rather just be killing everyone, because the story did not keep my attention. They also left out many of the side characters. You got introduced to them, then never saw them again.

UBCS Gibbs wrote:Halo 2 is still the best game on Earth.

I spent more hours on that game then most likely any of you have spent on all other games together.

5 hours a day on weekdays and 12 hours on weekends from release date (Nov. 9, 2004), until my high school graduation (March, 2007). Never had more fun or made as much money playing games as I did back then!!!

atlas wrote:As far as the AGRO not working... who are you going to shoot at the guy 100 yards away spraying with a cannon, or the guy 50yrds away shooting at you with a scoped rifle? AGRO only works if you are shooting. if you put your head down and stop shooting you are of no importance to the enemy.

XXX wrote:Hey Gibbs, I hate reviews by other people. It so much better to play the game yourself and decide if you like it then have someone tell you it sux.

XXX wrote:Hey Gibbs, I hate reviews by other people. It so much better to play the game yourself and decide if you like it then have someone tell you it sux.