Circuit Jerk

The first Army of Two could be generously be considered a fractured campaign dressed up as a meditation on the wide world of private military contracting. And having established that broader setting, The 40th Day is more comfortable exploring the specific personalities and decisions that characterize the mechanizations of guns for hire. It’s a tighter game, but one that still hopes dramatic tension and gameplay peaks will naturally flow if all the big pieces are in place.

Right out front, The 40th Day sharpens the franchise’s best idea: One player catching the enemies’ attentions by spraying bullets, thereby clearing a path for your buddy to sneak around back. It’s a surprisingly robust, even (and maybe especially) when tenuous plans fall apart, leaving you stranded half way across the map. If you’re worried about going it alone, the AI seems to snap to your ideas without pause unlike some weaker fleshbags I know who change the plan cuz they see some Cuck Norris garbage they’d rather be pulling off.

And there’s plenty of opportunity for that sort of awe-inspiring hero nonsense. The game has an uncanny knack of knowing when something’s kick ass and when it should probably just put you out of your misery. Flanking unseen to take out a half dozen fools with your silenced sidearm, jumping down into the middle of trouble from a higher perch to spin around with a minigun, going blow for blow with a drone who towers over you; it’s just one of those experiences in which the margins are perfect on the Normal setting. In fact, the whole concept is structured around diving into these impossible risk-reward scenarios, and it weaves beautifully into the story arc of Big Choices leading to Bigger Consequences.

Should you let some kid risk his neck to snag you a sniper rifle? I sure did, and though the game wags its finger at you, it doesn’t shut your shit down. It recognizes that while choices can come with consequences, a deeper experience is explored when that consequence isn’t a game over screen. In a sub-10-hour campaign, that’s a rare and delightful thing. There’s also some strange hostage-saving scenarios that encourage you to leave no one behind. It’s the Batman design philosophy of HOLD IT. NOW THIS IS SOME OTHER GAME, changing the way AI reacts and stealth feels to suit a new gameplay conceit. These parts weren’t necessarily for me, but your mileage may vary — especially if you’re a complete-ist, which I suspect is who it’s there for.

Alas, there’s a fundamental misunderstanding of the little things. The cover mechanic is greasy and indecisive, your cross hairs slip all over the screen and Salem and Rios can’t even pretend those massive guns are giving them any kick. It wouldn’t be such a big deal if literally all of the market for this game wasn’t JUST coming off of Modern Warfare 2. But there it is.

All of those things more or less settle out for the last third of the game, which is a masterpiece of the co-op form. After introducing a number of heavy classes (armored shotgun, grenadier, mini-gun tank), the game starts mixing and matching in meticulously crafted, multi-tiered kill boxes. You’ll be calling new plays on the fly with your buddy, yelping out “oh shit” together and generally bro-ing it up so hard, you’ll make yourself sick. Where in Gears you could slip into roles and feel things out through communal silence and suggestion, Army of Two keeps you guessing, and its a richer experience for the chaos.

And stick around for that last cut scene, where all your ne’er-do-welling comes together in one of the more purposeful binary decisions you’ll come across in a brain-dead video game. Well done, 40th Day. Bring it on, Kane & Lynch.

- Neil