The finale is here! I finally completed the Army of Two franchise. From a technical standpoint, I believe we ended on the best in the installment. Story wise, meh.
Spoilers are ahead for the entire Army of Two franchise!
Devil’s Cartel really changes a lot of stuff up. It’s almost like a soft reboot of the franchise. Instead of playing as Rios and Salem, this time around you’re playing as Alpha and Bravo. I’m not entirely sure why these guys have these nicknames. Everyone else uses their last names in the game. Maybe they were trying to make it seem like the player can be the character. If that’s the case, they only went half way with it.
The company that Rios and Salem created, T.W.O (Tactical Worldwide Operations) has become a huge operation. More recruits, bigger facility. It really has become a worldwide gig. This is where new recruits Alpha and Bravo come in. They go through training with Rios and Salem, but it goes wrong on the actual mission. Ultimately, Rios ends up losing his leg and Salem dies in an explosion. Fast forward five years, and we are down in Mexico. We are tasked with protecting a politician who is being targeted by the cartel. Things go bad, and Alpha and Bravo have to save Cordova, the politician, and get the hell out of the country.
Right out of the gate, controls are so much better than 40th Day. 40th Day was a half step into the Gears of War controls, and Devils Cartel steps it up to be just about as good as it. The crouch running, moving from cover to cover is smooth, and the gunplay feels a tad more direct. Nothing too crazy, but I noticed it as soon as I started the training.
They also seemed to have taken a big step back from the partner stuff. I think 40th Day did the same, but DC is even more apparent. The aggro system seems almost forgotten about entirely. I barely touched the controls on defending or assaulting for my partner. There are still the step jumps, as well as missions that separate players so they’re seeing two different things. A new addition is the Overkill mode, where filling up a meter gives you the ability to slow down time and unleash hell. Unlimited ammo and completely invincible. It almost felt like a cheat code in certain fights. Was also super useful when your back is up against the wall and you might not make it out of the fire fight. It’s a cool addition for sure, but pulls away from the realism side of stuff and makes it more gamified. Which I’m not complaining at all.
Customization gets a bit of a change as well. Less weapons to change up, but I really don’t see this as an issue. I didn’t use most of the weapons in 40th Day and there were a ton. Maybe in a multiplayer online mode it matters, but not for a relatively short single player experience. There are also a lot more masks this time around. No custom editor, but better curated masks are always nice. I ended up unlocked Isaac Clark’s engineer mask from Dead Space. Granted I only had it towards the final mission in the game, but it was still cool to have as an unlock.
Something I liked that they kept in this one was the static location. Running through streets and back alleys. Taking out enemies all in the same location felt like a more cohesive story. Speaking on the story, it’s fine. There’s nothing spectacular about it. It feels like they try to get you to care about Alpha and Bravo, but don’t actually give you enough time to figure out their dynamic. They’re almost like a copy of Rios and Salem, but less interesting. Even the minor characters like Fiona. It’s almost like a forced love interest for Bravo I think. But there’s no attachment. And she’s not around enough to make her feel like shes important.
Some spoilers now. Salem didn’t die. He lived through the explosion at the beginning. The Cartel somehow recruited him and he became El Diablo, Baustista’s right hand man. It’s an interesting twist, but really made me wonder. How did Salem switch up like this? They didn’t run and check the exploded vehicle for Salem, sure, but he was also leaving them all behind anyways. Something snaps in Salem, and I think it has something to do with the ending of 40th Day. Apparently, the canon ending to that game is Rios shooting Salem to save Shanghai. What an absolutely stupid thing for the story team to do. This makes no sense. I cannot believe Rios would shoot Salem like that. If he did, I wouldn’t believe Salem would still work with him. This is a big reason why I was a huge fan of the choice system in 40th Day. They all seemed to end up giving shitty results, no matter your intention.
I was surprised by this revelation for Salem. I didn’t really think it fit his personality as much. 40th Day made him seem like he had a lot of thoughts on morality, but then changes entirely in DC when rescuing hostages. I think it was poor writing for the character and was the only excuse they could use to do this soft reboot.
Finishing up the game, Salem point blank shoots Fiona in the head, killing her. He also gut shots Rios and leaves him for dead. The Fiona bit was kind of shocking. Like, damn. This character wasn’t really all that important overall, but they didn’t have to do her like that.
Something this franchise has always been terrible at is the final boss fights. AoT ended it with a fire fight with Clyde and a cut scene of Rios blowing up a helicopter. 40th Day ends with a fire fight, and then a cut scene with a choice that apparently doesn’t matter and kind of sucks all around. And the Devil’s Cartel wraps up the story with a horrible boss fight against Salem in a jeep. He just drives around in a circle with a turret on top. But you just hide behind the pillars and use Overkill until it explodes. None of the games have good endings.
So wrapping up Devil’s Cartel. Salem is captured and put away in prison. Alpha and Bravo say they will make sure Fiona has a proper funeral, take a long vacation, and then sign up for the next mission. Meanwhile, Salem is carving the name ‘ALICE’ into the wall in his cell. Oh yeah, Alice is apparently dead. I think we assumed this after the 40th Day story when he helicopter crashed into a building, but it was never expressly said. Now we have confirmation, but it was a throw away line during the fight with Salem. He says something along the lines of “Leaving Alice for dead also”.The other acknowledgment is the name in the cell. But why? Why would he write her name? Was she that important to him specifically? It never showed in the previous entries, but I know there is a comic book I should read. Maybe there are more answers there.
After watching the credits (I always sit through video game credits) we are actually greeted with a short scene. Someone shows up at Salem’s cell and opens it up. Salem smiles. What does this mean? Who knows! The game series never continued. Just left it on a horrible cliff hanger!
Overall, I loved playing Devil’s Cartel, and I love the Army of Two franchise. It has so many flaws, but they were very enjoyable to play through. I really wish the series would get some sort of reboot or sequel to Devil’s Cartel. I wouldn’t mind seeing some sort of team up with Salem and a small redemption arc or something. I think the series is probably dead though, unfortunately. The only game that is still available digitally is the first game. 40th Day and Devil’s Cartel both got delisted off online stores. Still unsure why this happened, but I’m glad I was able to find the physical copies.
I will stand by that these games are a worthwhile play. I had a good time playing them solo, and I just know with a co op buddy you would have an even better time.
The Tired Obsidian 