For this latest Army of Two instalment, you no longer play as series veterans Salem and Rios, so in come the inspiringly named duo, Alpha and Bravo. Alpha and Bravo have just been recruited by Tactical Worldwide Operations (TWO) and they join Salem and Rios on a mission to rescue hostages from the pesky Cartel. The shit soon hits the fan and after only rescuing one hostage (Fiona) Salem is left behind and presumed dead.
The Devils Cartel then moves forward five years after the botched hostage rescue attempt and Alpha and Bravo are hired as protection by a Mexican politician ‘Mayor Cordova’, who is hell bent on bringing down a Cartel group (La Guadana) and their ruthless leader Estaban Bautista. But as per usual events take a sudden turn for the worst and they are attacked by the Cartel, but amongst all the havoc Mayor Cordova flees the scene and concerned for his safety (and their pay cheque), Alpha and Bravo search for Cordova, to bring him home in one piece so that he can continue to fight the good fight and bring down one of Mexico’s most deadly Cartels.
It’s been a while since I last played through Army of Two: 40th Day, now this could be my memory playing tricks on me, but I’m sure that The Devils Cartel looks no better than a game that is more than three years old. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen games that visually look much worse, but coming from a game that runs on the Frostbite 2 engine and is on a console that has reached its peak, I just expected much better from such a big company like EA. At times the destructible environments look impressive, but that’s only when the game is literally falling to pieces. The levels are quite uninspiring and lack any kind of real imagination.
There’s not a great deal to say about The Devils Cartels gameplay, other than it’s a double edged sword. The gameplay is simplistic and it’s pretty much the same process throughout, run, gun, kill anything that moves and attempt to blow up anything that is left standing. In some ways this method works very well, it’s almost like the Popcorn movie equivalent to the video gaming world. But then almost the exact same argument can be turned from a positive into a negative. So if you’re not able to accept The Devils Cartel for what it is, which is a very simplistic shooter, you will likely find the gameplay mechanics very tiresome before the game has even approached the halfway point of the campaign. But if you like no brainer kind of games (and at times we all need that kind of game), then you should be able to find The Devils Cartel an enjoyable experience, especially if (like me) you are a fan of the two original games.
As with the previous Army of Two, there are a heap of customisation options available to you, from clothing, masks, weapon add-ons etc. You will be able to purchase all of the in-game goodies by earning the in-game cash, which works similar to the XP system. Killing a certain amount of enemies, via a number of different ways, completing a mission in a certain amount of time, etc etc. will earn you your much needed cash. But not all items will be available to purchase from the start, because as you progress further into the game, you will rank up, and the higher rank you are the better goodies you will unlock along the way. Like most XP systems, it makes the gameplay that little more addictive, as you want to earn just that one extra level up or unlock an item that you’ve had your eye on for some time. The XP system keeps you wanting to play more and to fight on, which is a good job really, as the gameplay can get very repetitive.
In all fairness to The Devils Cartel, it runs smoothly enough with hardly any hiccups, but there are some technical glitches that you will come across from time to time. Such as shooting an enemy in the face at point blank range with a shotgun and for them just to stand there looking at you unfazed. Similar issues happened throughout my playthrough where I’d unload a full magazine from an AK-47, only for my enemy to remain standing like a jacked up T-100. I swear some of these enemies are related to the Terminator or Robocop! I also found an issue with the cover system, many times I would hit the cover button and I would get no response whatsoever. This got very frustrating at times, especially from a game that relies on the cover system so heavily.
But there is a weapon in the fight against the seemingly invincible T-100 generic enemy, and that’s The Devil Cartel’s gimmick called ‘Overkill’. Basically Overkill is a special ability that you can activate after kicking enough asses and taking enough names. When your Overkill gauge is full, press ‘LB’ and you will now become the seemingly invincible one, as you take down the enemy with considerable ease and finesse. Your partner can also activate the Overkill for you, usually when an area would be coming to an end with only a couple of enemies left over, which can be an annoying waste.
Basically in a nutshell, Overkill makes The Devils Cartel a little easier, which trust me is not really needed, because during my playthrough on the normal difficulty setting, I only ever died a few times and that was during the very last battle. This is a tad unacceptable, because even on a normal difficulty setting, most of us want a decent challenge. Though some credit has to go to the accompanying A.I, as almost every time I was down, the A.I would be there in seconds to revive me, which is more than I can say for some games that have you rely on A.I.
The banter between Alpha and Bravo is one of the few saving graces in The Devils Cartel; one of my pet hates within a video game is when the same dialogue is used over and over again (especially following many deaths), thankfully this does not happen too often and in most cases the dialogue is kept fresh. The banter between the two main characters and Fiona a little later on into the game, all adds towards the much needed bromance factor, which is something that this and previous instalments rely so heavily on. There is a lot of fire power and even more explosions in The Devils Cartel and it’s also unlikely that you will ever get bored of the therapeutic sound of a shotgun firing and reloading, or even better still, a building getting blown to bits.
Army of Two: The Devils Cartel, despite its technical flaws is a reasonably enjoyable game when playing in singleplayer, but as with the previous games, the real enjoyment comes in the form of two player co-op. But even still, at best, it’s unlikely that you would want to finish this game more than twice, once in singleplayer and the other in co-op. If you’re a completion addict then it will take you about two playthrough’s to unlock all the weapons, add-ons, outfits and masks, and of course you have a total of 50 achievements/trophies for all you hunters out there.
The Devils Cartel is a strange one, it’s not the most visually impressive game that you are going to see, the gameplay is far from original and it has a lot of technical glitches, but there’s something very enjoyable about this game. At first, playing as Alpha and Bravo was somewhat of a turn off, because I imagine the majority of fans will be crying out to play as Rios and Salem (as was I). However, once the story starts to unfold, it makes sense to play as the new duo, sadly the story doesn’t really start to pick up until halfway through the game. So it’s one of those games that you need to be patient with to get the full enjoyment, unfortunately though, as soon as the pace really starts to pick up, it ends. It almost reminds of that movie that takes ages for the plot to unwind and then by the time it picks up, the movie is coming to an end.
In a nutshell, Army of Two: The Devils Cartel is a decent singleplayer game, but its turned up several notches if you can get a friend to join you for some action packed, explosive co-op. Luckily for me, I rented The Devils Cartel and I would have felt slightly aggrieved if I had paid full price for this game. Nevertheless, if you see this game in the bargain bucket for around £15/$15 and you can convince a friend to buy it too, then you will have a lot of fun playing through this game together, as it’s all about the bromance!