While cover systems are a fine component of any third person shooter, it’s presented in a very confusing way here, having you go between spots by pointing the analog stick at the desired location and pressing A. It may be more excusable if it weren’t for the poor cover system requiring each area to have an excess of random blocks to crouch behind. Besides a few set pieces, the game stays the same throughout the seven hour experience. The game simply goes from one corridor to another, stopping for five or ten minutes as you take out wave after wave of enemies. The boring environments are only accentuated by the repetitive gameplay. In an area where you’re avoiding a gigantic truck of death, for instance, instead of putting tons of skulls around it or making it breath fire (something actually “over the top” like the game has incorrectly been labeled to be), it just looks like a big mass of metal. Enemies are little more than generic renders and even the action set pieces don’t seem like they belong in what is (used to be?) a AAA series. There are some neat areas, like a shootout setting off fireworks in a Day of the Dead celebration or old churches, but the majority of it is brown, boring corridors. While the mysterious and tradition-soaked streets of Mexico are the perfect setting for an action game, especially in light of the current conflicts there, little is done with it here. Unfortunately, the setting fares no better. I mean, really, how hard is it to match the writing of Savages? It’s a shame because the story had the potential to be intriguing, and if the game drafted some decent writers, we could have a fun story in the vein of Crank or at least Savages. Almost every joke falls flat and are akin to something a middle schooler would write.
Instead of Alpha and Bravo making humorous quips throughout, they have banter like “You know I got a girl back home.” to which Bravo replies, “What’s his name?” and frequently talk about boats for some reason. Most of the story is instead the standard rescue action plotline we’ve seen countless times before. Yes, the trailers show missiles going though vans, sliding down hotels into pools and trains slamming into stuff, but that consists of only a few surprisingly straightforward minutes of the game. The jist of the game is easy to understand: dudes with crazy masks = good, cartel = bad, but nothing else is fleshed out to the point that anybody should care.īefore you go accusing me for not liking over the top humor, know that The Devil’s Cartel is fairly devoid of it.
And that’s a big problem with the game: a disjointed narrative light on sense, but heavy on convoluted plot points. Then to save some random girl named Fiona. operatives are launched in to batt - er, actually a tutorial five years in the past. Suddenly, the convoy is attacked and the T.W.O. The game opens with the two new operatives barreling down the streets of Rio protecting a good-natured politician named Cordova who plans to clean up streets. Luckily, the two do play an important role in the story, but are never playable - and the story is not very good, so it’s a bit of a wash.
Army of two masks metal series#
While Rio and Salem were far from iconic video game characters, it’s odd to shift it to two unknowns when fans of the series likely wanted to continue in their footsteps. Five years and and a closed development studio later, however, The Devil’s Cartel marks the third entry in the series, but it’s going to take more than changing the setting and main characters’ names to drum up the interest needed for its ultimate success.įor whatever reason, The Devil’s Cartel shifts the protagonists from Rio and Salem to the oh-so-cleverly titled Alpha and Bravo. While it was released the same day as the game with enough buzz you’d think it was a beehive, BioShock Infinite, perhaps that speaks even more to EA’s indifference about the series for selecting such a release date.
Case in point: The Devil’s Cartel, a game that sort of just snuck into retail unannounced with little hoopla or marketing. Army of Two is sort of an odd duck series as even though it’s a recognized name, sells well and has spawned multiple games, it never seems to get much attention when a new entry rolls around.
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