System: Sony PlayStation 3

Also available for: Microsoft Xbox 360

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Reviewer’s rating: **

ESRB rating: Mature

Game type: Co-op shooter

Kind of like: “Gears of War” in co-op mode

Best feature: When injured, you get dragged off by your mate to a safe location while you provide cover fire — a big improvement on the “heal teammate” button used in most squad-based shooters.

Worst feature: The forced cooperation is tiring.

The bottom line: Don’t judge a game by its cover. “Army of Two” may look like a hardcore, tactical shooter, but under the hood it’s really an arcade-style shoot-’em-up game.

Instead of a single protagonist, the game has two: Salem and Rios, Army Rangers (or are they mercenaries?) who do just about everything together.

The big innovation is the “aggro” system. The more Salem or Rios shoots his weapon, the more enemies focus on him. This allows the lesser-seen teammate to sneak up behind enemies and kill them.

It’s a nice idea, but as an attempt to revolutionize cooperative gameplay, “Army of Two” fails. Too often it forces tactical cooperation when it would’ve been better to let the player decide when and how to best use his teammate.

“Back-to-back” mode slows everything down, offering unlimited ammo and health for an arbitrary amount of time.

On the PS3, “Army” renders beautifully, with smooth scrolling even in heavy-fire situations.

The AI in the game is quite poor. “Army” is probably meant to shine in multiplayer mode, but it was difficult to get matches on the PS3.