Thursday 11 May 2006
Set in the Middle East a year in the future, Army of Two sees America’s heavy military losses force a situation where corporate armies send mercenaries to the frontlines. You could call it terrifyingly prophetic, but after our behind closed doors sneak peek we’d prefer to call it a stonkingly exciting, visually superb action blast.

Army of Two is a two-man, third person shooter with an emphasis on teamwork and we got a chance to see how the single-player element will handle this double-teaming action.

The demo began with both characters parachuting from their deployment aircraft over Afghanistan. Your AI buddy steers, while you scope out the ground below. We saw how - by using Microsoft’s brand new wireless headset affixed - you’ll be able to call out ‘Left’ or ‘Right’ and the AI will react accordingly.

Above: Each and every weapon can be modified to an absurd degree

This voice-activation works even better on the ground. Once landed, our EA guide shouted "go back to back!" and the second mercenary backed up to the main character to create a deadly 360 degrees of firepower.

Even more impressive is the ability of the AI to remember your tactical decisions. Later on in the demo, Mr EA suggested to his team-mate that they perform a joint sniping movement to take out two targets. When told to "go on my mark", however, the AI soldier refused, reminding EA’s man that he’d “screwed it up last time”.

And the communication doesn’t stop there - the particularly vocal AI merc threatened to execute our guide’s character when he aimed at a cowering civilian, growling “that’s why people hate Americans” once our man with the pad had lowered his weapon.

EA making innovative, exciting, next-gen games? It’s here, it’s Army of Two and we can’t wait to see more of it.