Review: Army of Two: The 40th Day [PSP]

Wow, there's not going to be much of a review here.  This is the sequel to the first Army of Two, but ported over to the PSP.  Now that the obvious is out of the way, it's not a direct port, it's been shifted into a different catergory of shooter.  A top-down shooter, to be exact.  While in theory, everything sounds good, it falls apart about as quick as the game begins.

Score: C-

Pros:

The graphics are decent.  There's a good array of customizable weapons, which is a definite plus in the sea of negatives.  The premise of the game, a top-down shooter, is a fun style of play, despite the slow clunky nature of the game itself.  The game has an auto-aim, so you don't have to be EXACTLY lined up, a nice perk. 

Cons:

Taking cover to "flank" an enemy in this type of game is just kind of..  dumb.  It slows down the pace of an already slow game.  The AI is atrocious, some of the worst AI I have seen in a shooter in a long time.  Example: I'm running along, shooting everything that pops up, and I run into a "heavy".  I end up dying, and wait, where the hell did my partner go?!  I sat there the whole time "bleeding out", waiting for my partner to come help me up, which I ironically did for him less than 5 minutes prior to that.  The AI partner was nowhere on the screen.  I pressed every button possible to see if I could coax him over, but nope.  I'm willing to cut a little slack on that, because there is Ad Hoc play.  That's if you can find someone who has the game.  And it's not just the partner AI that is horrible, the opponent AI is just as bad.

Did I already say the game was slow?  I heard "top-down shooter", thought Smash TV, and my brain screams "SWEET!".  But the game's pacing is so incredibly slow.  You move through a screen, a few enemies pop up, you shoot them easily, and move about two screens down.  This was probably my biggest problem with the game.  Not to mention the dialogue and "story" are miserable as well.

Summary:

I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I recommended this game to people.  I'm sure there are people who will enjoy it, and I'm sure with a second person it is a little more bare-able.  And that's it's saving grace from a "D".  I had absolutely NO drive to play this game, and I played it much more than I would of if I wasn't reviewing the game.  Granted I didn't complete the game, but I feel I gave it a fair shake. 

-Sobær