Play it with a friend. Seriously. Army of Two: The 40th Day may allow you to take it on with an AI partner, but to do so would be doing the game a disservice, and result in a poorer experience for yourself.

EA Montreal built the game from the ground up as a two man operation, and whilst it’s serviceable when you’re on your own, it’s only really in co-op that the game begins to shine. Commands can be given to an AI partner, but that can never compare to screaming into a headset, or better yet to the person sitting next to you, to flank the heavy who can only be taken down from behind.

That said The 40th Day is a definite step up from its predecessor. Where Army of Two was slow to start, this time around we get straight into the action. The aggro system returns, but has been streamlined. Gone is the Overkill feature, which initially feels like a step back, but the aim is to be a little less bombastic. Even if your partner is drawing aggro, you might still find yourself being shot at, which makes a whole lot more sense than in the last outing, where groups of enemies would frequently ignore someone dashing past to focus on his partner halfway across the room.

The only time that enemies will totally focus on one player is during a Mock Surrender. At certain points in the game, the player is given the option to ‘surrender’ to the enemy, who will order you to the floor. During this brief window, your partner will be given the opportunity to take out the enemy, as well as giving you the chance to line up a headshot before whipping out a sidearm. It’s not essential, but it’s a nice addition which breaks things up a bit.

Another new feature is the morality moments. At certain points the players are presented with a choice, which on the face of it seem to be obviously ‘good’ or ‘bad’, but may have unintended consequences. It’s not exactly the ‘shades of grey’ choices some like Yahtzee have asked for, but when choosing between saving an orphan or murdering a kitten, perhaps consider that the orphan might one day murder the president. A decision to stop a woman from being raped has some particularly, shall we say ‘interesting’, consequences.

Outside of these decisions though, morality still comes into play, with several points allowing you the chance to save hostages. This is entirely optional, but if you choose to do so, rewards come initially in the form of cash and weapon parts, but also towards the end of the game, providing your morality is high enough, they’ll return to come to your aid. How you save them is best done by locating the ranking enemy officer and grabbing him, prompting the rest to surrender. Going in all guns blazing isn’t recommended - civilians generally don’t last long in a fire-fight.

The game isn’t without its problems though. The weapon upgrade is now available at any time, and whilst it’s much improved, failure to make a checkpoint without dying will see all upgrades you made disappear. Handy when you find out you made the wrong choice, but usually just frustrating as upgrading can be a time consuming process. Worst of all, despite many other options, there really is little reason to swap out the AK47 the game gives you at the start, as it’s by far the best weapon in the game.

The campaign is somewhat short, and despite confining the action to Shanghai, the levels are never as interesting as they promise – the zoo level aside. Although being inside a building as it comes down offers a slight detour from the norm, there is nothing to rival Gears of War's level set inside a giant worm.

All in all, Army of Two: The 40th Day is a worthy sequel, which defiantly improves on the original. If it can lose the design by committee approach, the critical acclaim it seeks will be found. It’s a very competent shooter, but EA Montreal needs to have some confidence in Salem and Rios. Army of Two could be exceptional. For now, we’ll have to make do with just pretty damn good.