The choices you make throughout the game aren't just to give you something to ponder about in the thirty seconds or so you get to decide, they affect the game and can get you access to some special hardware or a load of cash that you won't otherwise be able to access. The outcome of these actions also effect situations later on so you'd better be sure which side you're going to be gunning for, the good, or the bar; truthfully, even if you do the right thing then you learn through the story interludes that it wasn't necessarily the best thing you could have done. This is something that comes through hindsight though and a good enough reason to play through the game again should you become curious as to how things could have been different.
There are plenty of times where you're going to need to work together in The 40th Day, at different points you may come across a wall or a gate that you need to help your partner over, you'll also go back to back with your partner as you fend off enemies that are approaching from all directions, and you can also draw an attackers fire towards you instead of your partner. It's the same system from the previous game and is one that you can use to your advantage quite a bit, its premise is that you or your partner can draw the heat away from the other and allow them to flank the enemy practically unnoticed, giving you quite an edge over the AI. If things are getting a little too hot to handle then the character with all the attention can fake his own death, however, this instantly transfers all the attention to the other player who might well have been out of sight up until that point good communication is key.
Should things really go wrong and one of the pair becomes injured then all is not lost, the other can steam their way in and pull off a rescue, although this is sometimes easier said than done, especially when the player was injured in a hail of bullets. The rescuer has a certain amount of time to get to the injured player, should they safely make it then they can drag their partner to cover to ensure that they have enough time to heal them sufficiently, downed teammates can also use a one handed weapon as they are being dragged into safety should the need arise.
Making your way through Shanghai you'll begin to notice a couple of things, the first being that all the graphics aren't varied, it's very similar and there isn't a great deal to differentiate one from place from another. The enemies you come up against are are all pretty much the same as well which is disappointing, sure they have different weapons but for the most part they're the same old soldiers with the same old tactics. For the most part however the graphics more than do their job.
Should you tire of the campaign mode then you can take the game online; thankfully this time round EA have provided dedicated servers for the game as opposed to the pier to pier approach used in the first Army of Two. As you might expect the co-op theme is brought over into the online modes as well and all modes require you to play in partnership with another, this can be a friend, or, should you have no friends, then you'll be assigned one on entering a new match. The usual suspects are all there with regards to gameplay; there is the almost standard Team Deathmatch, Control, which is a capture and defend mode, Warzone, in which you have to complete objectives, and the Extraction mode, which differs in that it has teams of four battle over an area to secure there extraction. The multiplayer is a joy to play in all modes now that the game has some decent servers backing it up, the only minor issue is that when a level is loading the voice communication can become somewhat intermittent, not a huge problem considering it's a loading screen but certainly worth a mention.
The whole co-op side of the experience is definitely something that has been worked upon and vastly improved since the original release, you definitely feel as though you're part of a team when playing and there is little to no room for those who just want to wander off and do their own thing, there is only one way that approach is going to end and the chances are that it won't be pretty.
The 40th Day is certainly nothing original when it boils down to the pure mechanics, sure it has its fair share of problems, one particular annoyance can sometimes be the camera moving behind your characters head during a battle, something the flick of the analogue stick will sort out but something that can become annoying if it happens a few times in a row, overall however, the game is a joy to play. It's the summer action flick of the gaming world; it's just begging to be picked up so you can have a pain free thrill ride. EA set out to improve upon their first title and that's something they can certainly claim they accomplished, it's not something that is going to please everyone but providing brains are disengaged and left at the door it's worth a bet that most are going to have some fun with this one.
