 Someone has to make the tough decisions. Rios and Salem are in Shanghai for a quick, easy job when all hell breaks loose. Now they have to figure out what terrorist group decided to take aim at the city and put an end to it so that they can get back home safely.
1. Gameplay
Every time I get a chance with my friends I talk about how games need to implement three things more often. They need to have more customization, more cooperation, and more decisions. Army of Two: The 40th day features all three and yet in some key was I think it is a total failure. Unfortunately, TFD falls into one of the worst traps when including decisions in a video game. It makes all of the decisions totally pointless.  That isn’t to say that the decisions don’t affect the overall outcome of the story. The decisions are given a decent amount of weight and the player is shown the results of the decision. But, with a single exception, every single decision results in a negative consequence. For example, early on you’re working with another operative. You’re given an order to kill him, upon which the game gives the player the choice to kill the operative or not. The good choice, obviously, is to let the operative live. If you choose to kill the operative, you get negative morality points and the operative stays dead. If you choose to let the operative live, he escapes to an island where a dude in a scuba suit comes out of the ocean and shoots him dead. And this example isn’t an isolated incident. Almost all of the decisions the player makes will result in some sort of negative action.  You can actually make a species of tiger go extinct. Really. And this severely scars what would otherwise be an awesome game. It’s fully split-screen cooperative, it has an unparalleled level of weapon and armor customization, the levels are different enough to remain interesting and the story isn’t a total trainwreck (which, for a game like this, is high praise). But the decisions make the entire game seem completely pointless. Why would I make any decision when I know that both will end up hurting people? Still, if you can get over that, this game is well made and is a ton of fun to play with friends. If you have a partner to play with, definitely pick this up. If you don’t, I’d be careful. The partner AI isn’t nearly as helpful as a real person.
The 40th day was decently long. Even after the player completes the game once, there is definite replayability with the choices (despite the fact that there are very few that are actually “good”). The game also includes a multiplayer mode. There are some horde-type levels that the player can try, but the lack of any remaining community makes this fairly pointless. Fortunately, the campaign is what this game is all about, so the multiplayer is irrelevant.
The first time I went through, some of the level designs were difficult to figure out, once the player figures it’s manageable. There is enough weapon variety that a player can find something that works for any situation and playstyle. The lack of situations where the sniper rifle and rocket launcher are useful was disappointing, but the assault rifles turned machine guns make up for it. The partner AI isn’t entirely reliable. The commands that the player can give are extremely basic and it isn’t always clear if the AI is actually following them. However, it was sufficient enough most of the time that the game was playable. 2. Parental Notices
As this is a shooter, violence is a constant element. While the gunplay will be broken up by the occasional cutscene and conversation, most of the hours that the player will put forth will be spent shooting wave after wave of enemies. Normal hits will react in a quick spurt of blood that disappears almost as soon as it appears.  That blood seems to be much closer than the enemy. Sometimes blood can show up on nearby walls or floors, but it isn’t usually noticeable.  The blood at the bottom right is on the wall. The rest is from an enemy. The player can attach bayonets onto most assault rifles. These allow the player to instantly kill an opponent via a melee attack. These attacks involve the player driving the bayonet into the enemy’s neck or head. There is no blood associated with these attacks.  Screwdriver through the neck will do it every time. If the player attaches a bayonet onto a shotgun, there is an animation where the player skewers an enemy up through the bottom of the chin, hoists him up into the air, and then kind of shoots him off the end of the bayonet. There is no additional blood or gore for this animation and the game does not instruct the player in how to do this. It is extremely likely that the player will go through the entire game without ever discovering it.  I think he'd be dead from just this. The violence in the graphic novel cutscenes is significantly greater than those in the actual gameplay. There will be a few times when the game displays acts of violence and include blood and gore.  A fire inside. Most of the pictures in the cutscene are benign and drawn simply to tell the story. However, those that do include violence are very memorable.  His head seems so flat!
There is one scene where the game implies that a character says he needs some “alone time” with a woman who was clearly beaten. However, the game never explicitly states that he is going to rape her and both decisions that the player makes about the situation lead to her getting away.  Hint: She's actually an assassin.
There is one potential decision where a child has to give some sort of medication to thugs who have taken his parents hostage. After giving them the medication, the child kills the thugs.  Drugs are bad.
Gambling is not a factor in this game. 3. Other Factors
There are no modding tools available for this game.
There are very rare instances of religious symbols included in the game. The only specific one that I could find was a cross on a grave in the results of one of the decisions the player could make.  Not really an endorsement of a religion.
While the terrorists clearly violate the laws of Shanghai, neither the local law enforcement nor the country’s military ever seem to take any action against the terrorists’ efforts. Therefore, anti-law is not a factor in this game.
Despite my attempts to play online, I never found anyone else playing. As a result, the online community is not a factor in this game.
Extreme sports are not a factor in this game.
Magic is not a factor in this game.
Assassinations There are a number of times when assasinations come up over the course of the game. Early on, the player has the choice of assassinating one of his “co-workers” for some extra cash as part of a major decision.  Why don't you run? There is another time when the player can help a woman escape from another of the “co-workers”. If the player lets her go, she ends up assassinating two men and nearly killing a baby before she is also killed.  Who assassinates babies?
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