March 28, 2011
Camaraderie –
Essner and I have played all the way through Army of Two: The 40th Day at this point. We beat it. We did it, bro.
It is a really terrible game.
It’s frustrating, really, as a game completely based on co-op with really, really stupid bro-action really could be a lot of fun, especially with the really robust and ridiculous weapon customization the game has. That’s why I really wanted to play it. However, they completely ruin it with several big mistakes, which I would love to go over with you right now, and thus will.
1. The Controls Are Ass.
When you look at something like Gears of War, and look at the number of things the A button does, it’s a very big list! However, Epic was smart enough to make sure that there’s only one possible thing the A button can do at any time. Though I’m sure it’s happened once or twice, I can’t really recall a time when I pressed A and something I didn’t want happened in Gears of War. If it happened, it didn’t leave an impression.
The list of things each button does in 40th Day is much longer, and the game is constantly doing the wrong thing. I can’t count the times I jumped out of cover instead of reviving Essner, or started a game of Rock Paper Scissors instead of reloading my gun. They tried to add so many completely useless little tidbits with nowhere to put them on the controller, and it makes the game feel more frustrating because of it. It got us killed fairly often. It was bullshit.
What really gets me, though, is that the D-Pad doesn’t really seem to be used for anything. They could have mapped things like switching to attachments, switching weapons, and things like that to the D-Pad. It would have made more sense, and be much quicker to use in combat. Instead, it does nothing. Excellent.
2. The Shouldering Mechanic Sucks Ass.
This is basically a control issue, but it is such a big issue that it really needs to be it’s own entry. Most 3rd person shooters will automatically and dynamically switch which shoulder you have your gun against when it needs to for you to get a clear shot. This makes it easy to do the shot you want. However, the makers of 40th Day decided they wanted to give you an extra level of control by letting you switch shouldering by clicking in the right stick. Now, more control isn’t bad, perse. I could see situations where you might disagree with how the game thinks you want to hold your gun, and thus would want to switch it yourself. However, this is an edge case, and not really applicable 90% of the time. In practice, this shouldering mechanic just makes you have to fumble with it in order to get a view of the battlefield, and makes it near impossible to quickly make a shot in a dire situation. You end up fighting the controls, not the enemies, and that’s a problem.
3. The Bosses Are Ill-Conceived.
I will put up with a lot of bullshit as far as video game bosses are concerned. But 40th Day takes place in something similar to the real world. The idea that firing 6 grenade launcher rounds and hitting a man in the face will not injure him is stupid. This is especially true when the “solution” to killing him involves blowing up a bag of grenades attached to his ass. I really don’t care how “heavy” the armor is. It’s a really stupid design. Sure, have the shortcut to make the boss easier, but the idea that I can hit a boss point-blank with explosives over and over again to no effect is just ridiculous.
4. They Don’t Understand The Concept Of Checkpoints.
Most chapters in this game have 1 to 2 checkpoints. Chapters are very long. Often, you will end up having to redo a firefight before trying a boss again, and again, and again. Oh, right, I already wrote about this. It’s still true, and didn’t change the entire way through the game.
I’d mention the story as well, which is completely nonsensical and random, but that’s less of an issue to me. It’s a shooter. Who gives a shit about the story? Not me, certainly! Let’s just say that it is not good, and the story ends with a guy holding a dead man’s switch… only he isn’t actually pressing the button, meaning it’s not activated, though he’s pretending it is. Fantastic.
I had fun playing through the game because I played through it with Essner, and we insulted it the entire time. Also, as I mentioned, the batshit insane weapon customization system is a ton of fun to fuck around with, and is the highlight of the game. I wish it had appeared in a game that wasn’t ass. Still, I can’t really recommend 40th Day in any way. It is a bad game. There are better co-op shooters out there. Play those.