Salem and Rios gain access to spiffy new armor, evil-looking masks , and a huge selection of weapons. They take missions from Alice Murray, and as the game progresses, Rios starts connecting seemingly disparate events, and the Army of Two start unravelling a plot of War for Fun and Profit that threatens their lives and the fate of the free world. A major mechanic of this game is "Aggro", summed up as the amount of attention you currently have from your enemies. Bigger and flashier weapons garner more aggro, and therefore, more attention, allowing your partner to move around unnoticed, while smaller, quieter, and less noticeable weapons allow you to let your partner draw attention.
Aggro is represented by a meter on one side of the screen; players enter Super Mode by maintaining their place with the Aggrometer buried on one side until Overkill is activated. The sequel, Army of Two: The 40th Day , sees Salem and Rios travel to Shanghai, China for a seemingly simple contract and get caught up in a cataclysmic attack on the city. The game features numerous improvements, including massively expanded weapons customization, civilians to be rescued, moral choices and new co-op techniques like mock surrender.
In order to make the game a much more straightforward action game, the game removed most of the trademark gameplay mechanics like back-to-back shooting, co-op and AI interactions, and renamed the Aggro system.
This game provides examples of: Abandon Ship : Hilarious to anyone familiar with Naval vessels, but in The 40th Day , Salem and Rios are desparately looking for a lifeboat to escape the aircraft carrier at the end of the level Action Girl : Alice proves she knows how to handle a gun in The 40th Day. Action Survivor : The sequel will feature the protagonists trying to get away from a disastrous terrorist attack on Shanghai while they happen to be there on another mission. On the other hand, they aren't your normal bystanders.
All three games use a mix of real and fake names for their guns. Always Save the Girl : Rios opts to save a female cartel hostage in the first mission of the third game over Salem's objections. The M4 carbine and its automatic variant were not formally adopted by the United States Armed Forces at that time. Anti-Climax : There's no real buildup to the final boss of The 40th Day, and in fact, he's not even a boss fight, just a Sadistic Choice in human form.
