While Army Of Twos co-operative take on balls-out blasting feels fresh in a market dominated by Identikit rivals, EAs latest burst of pyrotechnics is shaken by niggling problems that undermine its novel approach.
Unlike the one-man-army campaigns of Master Chief, Turok and a hundred other tooled-up knuckleheads, AOT focuses firmly on two-player action, whether it be teaming up with another human player or fighting alongside a computer-controlled grunt. And while Halo players can choose to break ranks with AI-driven allies and butcher an alien army single-handedly, success in AOT comes from teaming up to lay down supporting fire while your partner storms an enemy base, dragging an injured cohort to safety, or sneaking into position behind adversaries while your friend draws hostile fire.
But while the games originality is laudable, when playing solo the stupid decisions made by your console-guided ally are often a source of frustration, especially when they ruin your battlefield strategies by steaming blindly into the middle of a firefight. Sadly, the games cruelly brief crusade will also disappoint lonesome players, making a AOT a title only worth considering if you have a real-world partner to share trigger duties.