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Your AI partner will even approach situations differently depending on how you have dealt with similar circumstances in the past. If you have struggled, for example, he will take charge of the situation and force you to relinquish the lead. At one pont in the demo, when the two mercs both had their sniper rifles out, one sought to initiate a countdown so they could fire simultaneously. He said "On my mark," to which his partner replied "No, on my mark," giving the impression that the first player had screwed up a similar situation in the past. This should contribute to Army of Two's replay value. Instead of one scripted dialogue, for example, your partner may respond differently to you in a second, more-efficient play through the game.

Another aspect of Army of Two that should allow it to distinguish itself from its competition is the massive amount of weapon customization. While the choice of weapons appears to entail a fairly standard array of pistols, shotguns, and machine guns, there are a wide variety of customization options available. For the right price, players can add different scopes, silencers, flashlights, grenade launchers, laser sights, magazines, barrels and more. You can even add gold or chrome trim!

Army of Two runs on the Inertia engine. It was created by EA Montreal for the purpose and has, thus far, created some strikingly detailed visuals. The characters look great, especially their ballistic face masks and extensive body armor. The textures, both on the character models and in the environment, are rendered realitically, and the cut scenes look the way next-gen cut scenes should. One particularly impressive sequence was when the two mercs approached an aircraft carrier aboard a smaller ship. Water always serves as a benchmark for in-game graphics and Army of Two's depiction of water is one of the most realisitc I have seen. Large waves are topped by whitecaps and your boat rolls realisitcally with the ocean's movement.

Whether Army of Two is an enormous success or a flash in the pan, EA deserves some Kudos for going out on a limb and making an innovative game. In the end, its success may depend on the strength of its AI. If your partner is a liability (I'm looking at you, Dom!) Army of Two will languish on store shelves. If its AI is well executed, Army of Two will, almost certainly, line EA's pockets for years to come and foster a wide array of imitators! Since EA Montreal has paid an enormous amount of attention to AI, Army of Two's future looks promising.