 A whole new duo. TWO has been hired to protect a Mexican politician. Unfortunately, a drug cartel has other plans. Now two rookie members have to find the politician and keep him safe from the deadly cartel. Grab a friend, it's time to save Mexico.
1. Gameplay
I love Army of Two. It isn’t the greatest game series ever made (not by a longshot), but it’s a very simple, fun to play cooperative shooter. It’s the kind of thing that two college friends can pick up and blast through while talking about movies. It’s a “bro game”.  Big explosions, bigger guns. From a pure gamplay standpoint, Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel is sufficient enough to keep those two friends interested for 8 to 10 hours. It has great weapon customization, interesting armors, customizable masks (players can even make their own), and a selection of weapons that will complement any playstyle. Unfortunately, the “selection” of characters, the voice acting, and the game’s story leave a lot to be desired. The original Army of Two games starred Salem and Rios. These guys were gruff and had somewhat predictable personalities, but they were interesting enough that no one could have denied that they had some substance. They were believable and relatable, something that many video game characters lack. The Devil’s Cartel stars two new characters, Alpha and Bravo, who lack any backstory and thus any real depth. The developers wanted to create something where the players felt like they were Alpha and Bravo, which to them meant removing backstory and simply having two empty shells that the players would fill.  This game on a screen is more three dimensional than their personalities. But what the developers seemed to fail to realize is that players need something to identify. Empty shells don’t cut it because the player doesn’t see anything of themselves. A player can look at a character like Jason Bourne and cherry pick the characteristics that they like or identify with and say “I’m just like Bourne!” But that doesn’t work with a character that has no personality, no backstory, no real dreams or aspirations. To make matters worse, this lack of any depth in any of the characters other than Fiona is coupled with absolutely horrific voice acting. I can normally get over this since it’s usually the fault of bad writing more than bad acting, but in The Devil’s Cartel it’s inexcusably awful. If you have watched the American “Whose Line is it Anyway?” you might remember Ryan Stiles’ (in)famous impression of John Wayne. One of Alpha’s lines was “Tossing a frag,” but the actor said it in a monotonous, uninterested way that perfectly captured that John Wayne imitation. I laughed so hard the first time that I heard it that it took me a good 20 minutes to figure out if it was computer or the actual actor, and that was after a 10 minute fit of laughter.  I, have, got, him, in, my, sights. I mention all of these issues (and omitted so many more) not because I hated the game but because I wanted so desperately to like it. I want to recommend this to my friends and find other people willing to try it out with me. But until this game falls under $20 I just can’t do it. It has a lot of redeeming qualities, but those aren’t enough to outweigh the blatantly obvious flaws.
The campaign for this game will take most players around 8 to 10 hours on normal. For a game without a multiplayer mode and without any decisions to give the game replayability, that’s pretty short. The only things that give this game replayability are the weapons, which the player can buy and get upgrades for using the money earned by playing missions, and the fact that this game is cooperative. The latter is significantly more important, since playing with different friends can lead to a very different experience, but even then the story remains exactly the same.
For the most part this game is pretty easy. As long as the player sticks to high-damage weapons, it’s fairly difficult to fail a level. Even if the player does go down, his partner can usually step in and heal the player before anyone dies. Every difficult situation can be conquered with good weapons, a good partner, and the invincibility granted by Overkill. 2. Parental Notices
As this is a third person shooter, violence will be a constant factor. Most of the weapons will have the same result when used against enemies. Assault rifles, submachine guns, and light machine guns will almost all cause a decent amount of blood.  Could be blood. Could also be tar. Headshots with powerful enough weapons will blow the enemy’s head clean off. This is most common with sniper rifles and shotguns, but can happen with some light machine guns as well. If a sniper rifle is powerful enough, it can also cause other body parts to be blown off as well. Arms, legs, and chunks of the enemy’s torso are all affected.  Ew. The player can also melee enemies up close. This involves using a knife to slice and stab enemies. There is no gore with these animations, but they can be extremely brutal.  One of my friends affectionately refers to this as the "prison shank". While normally dismemberment and gore are only present with high-powered weapons, it reaches absurd levels when the player activates overkill. This gives the player unlimited high powered explosive rounds that do not have to be reloaded for the duration of the overkill. As a result, blowing enemies’ body parts away becomes extremely common. This is made even more obvious if the player activates double overkill, causing a longer duration of explosive rounds and a slow motion effect that highlights the destruction.  Everything is cooler in slow motion. There are a few other scenes where violence becomes obvious as well. For example, in a couple of cutscenes the player watches as characters are executed with a pistol shot to the head.  Well, he's not coming back in the sequel.
Sexuality is not a factor in this game.
There are only two substances that are obvious within this game. The first is the healing hypo that the two main characters can use on each other. This is some sort of an epinephrine pen that can be used to instantly heal either character of any wounds. The nature of the substance is never specified.  Why don't hospitals have this magical substance? There is one level where the player must chase an antagonist through a drug lab. These labs will have an absurd amount of marijuana growing and hanging out to dry.  Anyone else see a purple haze? Later sections of the lab include chemistry equipment. Neither the player nor any of the other characters are ever seen using any illicit narcotics.  I was horrible in chemistry.
Gambling is not a factor in this game. 3. Other Factors
There are no modding tools available for this game.
There is one chapter that takes place in and around an abandoned church. Despite the exterior and parts of the interior still resembling the original purpose of the building, the game makes it clear that no religious ceremonies have taken place in the building for quite some time.  Is a church still a church if is not used for religious ceremonies? The area outside the church has a graveyard, mausoleum, and catacombs. Most of these have been decorated to fit Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), an annual celebration in Mexico. Many locations around the game include decorations for this celebration, which is vaguely religious but closer resembles pagan beliefs than those of Catholicism.  This would have made an awesome zombie section.
The enemies in this game are all hired by or members of the local drug cartels in Mexico. The player will see the police attempting to help the TWO operatives. However, they come across as completely inept, usually dying within the first few seconds of entering combat. This is starkly contrasted with the TWO operatives. Even when these characters die, it is usually only after going up against the strongest enemies.
While the player can find a cooperative partner online, it is much more likely that the player will play this game with a friend (either online or in offline splitscreen). As a result, the online community is not a factor in this game.
The main characters’ sheer mass and the bulkiness of their armor and weaponry prevents them from doing almost anything more strenuous than a slow jog and the occasional sprint. However, despite this, they still somehow manage to boost each other up cliffs, walls, and other tall objects. There are a few scenes where the player will shoot enemies from the side of a helicopter or from the back of a speeding truck. Most of these are fairly benign, as the player is never able to move during these sequences. However, at the end of one, the player has to jump from one truck onto the hood of another in order to plant C4.  C4 doesn't propel you forward like that. I know because of Mythbusters.
Magic is not a factor in this game.
Kidnapping Kidnapping is a recurring element over the course of the campaign. Initially the player is looking for a kidnapped girl, but end up finding her dead and trying to save a different kidnapped girl. Later the player is charged with protecting a Mexican politician who is trying to oppose the drug cartels, but he ends up being kidnapped multiple times. Execution
As mentioned before in the violence section, there are two cutscenes where the player will watch as other characters are executed with a pistol. These are fairly brief but they’re impossible to miss.
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