With a little help from your friends

It may shock some young grasshoppers out there to realize there was once a time without video games. Imagination was our game. Be it our backyard, a local playground or even a pillow-fort, anything and everything soon became a battlefield, a life-and-death struggle with enemies elusively flanking from all sides. And these games followed the same rule as everything else in life — it's always better with a friend.

Choose to play Army of Two: the 40th Day solo and you'll soon be wishing you had a buddy next to you. This game brings new depth to co-operative play. The game begins rather basically, with partners working together to open doors or to give each other a boost to higher ground. As the game progresses, you will be driven to combine efforts in everything from helping your injured partner to advanced tactical manoeuvres. And it's in these latter stages of co-operative play that the game truly shines, affecting everything you do, right down to your choice of weapon.

Each weapon in 40th Day has an “aggro” level, reflecting how much noise it will make. Defying your instincts, you will eventually want to carry a loud weapon, drawing your enemies' fire towards you so that your partner can move undetected and pick off enemies from behind. It's one of many tactics the game instils naturally that makes your own dynamic duo work better as a single unit than any other game I've played.

On top of the brilliantly executed co-operative play, 40th Day has an amazing pacing of ferocious action with tantalizing moments of morality and stealth seamlessly woven into the experience. Any time hostages are involved, you must decide whether to go in guns a-blazing or whether you'll take the higher road — both tactically and morally – to save the hostages and earn extra cash. Also, enemies will sometimes be guarding a cache of weapons. Use stealth to dispatch the bad dudes without them closing the cache and you'll be rewarded with weapon upgrades to add to what is already an impressive line. Similar to upgrading high-performance car parts in games like Grand Tourismo or Forza Motorsport, upgrading weapons in 40th Day adds depth to individualization and authenticity. It was an immersive experience making upgrades to my stock, barrel, grip, and scope to see how each would affect mobility, precision, and the aforementioned aggro factor. I found that I became more attached to my weapon than in any other shooter. My rifle was my baby — I built it and it became an extension of myself.

With its incredible melding of action and stealth as well as the co-operative, tactical and customization elements, 40th Day is a definite must-play. When all the pieces come together, you and your partner feel like a single unit, functioning as one mind. It's a well-paced action ride with just enough tactical and stealth options to lend a unique flavour.

A few hiccups in 40th Day's visual presentation keep it from rising to the ranks of video game immortality. While weaponry, uniforms and faces look impressively vivid and realistic, our muscle-bound protagonists often look like plastic. If you like buildings and backgrounds that become chunky cubes during explosions, this game delivers. Tragically, though music and sound are superb, the game's hit-and-miss visuals combined with the superfluous enemy AI disappoint on more than one occasion.

Still, no game has captured the co-operative imagination and interaction of playing gun games as a kid like Army of Two: the 40th Day. And the icing on the cake? I loved the fact that I could play rock-paper-scissors with my teammate.

When he's not teaching junior high, St. Albert Catholic High alumnus Derek Mitchell spends his free time attached to a video game console.