You can never say enough about duct tape. Think about it - -it can fix anything, and even make you forget that it was broken in the first place. In the case of Army of Two, the bro-tastic third person shooter series from EA and Visceral Games (most famous for their work on the Dead Space series), the game's personality served as its duct tape. The game may have been filled with bugs and be a forgettable experience but you didn't notice because you were too busy shooting enemies back to back with your partner or celebrating your kills with your awesome air guitar skills.

With the newest game in the series, The Devil's Cartel; EA has ripped that symbolic duct tape right out, by taking a number of those memorable moments out of the experience. As a result, the latest chapter in the Army of Two series is a noticeably buggier, more underwhelming experience than it's predecessor. It may borrow everything out of the "how to make an action game" book, but it does so without even trying to rewrite the pages.

"...it's rather hard when the characters are this unlikeable."

With The Devil's Cartel, EA pushes previous series protagonists Salem and Rios to a supporting role in favor of newcomers Alpha and Bravo. Yep, that's their names. Of course, the anonymity of the characters is meant for the players to see themselves in the role, but it's rather hard when the characters are this unlikeable. Whereas Salem and Rios had a shred of likeability ( I know, that's saying a lot), Alpha and Bravo are by the book frat boy dude-bros with little personality or character traits rather than the fact that they like to shoot at those different than themselves. Of course, if you're going into an Army of Two game looking for a memorable game, you're in the wrong ballpark.

Alpha and Bravo may not have the same charisma as their predecessors, but EA has attempted to give them what can only be describes as witty banter to make them more likeable, but the only problem is that is does the exact opposite. When one of the characters made a comment that involved the words bullet cancer, I had to walk away. There are references to popular movies, game clichés (like red barrels always exploding) and even a few about current news stories but they all feel so forced and groan-worthy that you'll question whether you're better playing without sound.

All this aside there is quite a bit of fleeting fun to be had with The Devil's Cartel. The game is filled with over the top action set pieces that make great use of the Frostbite engine. Trying not to play spoiler, there were a few moments that were no less than thrilling, and watching the destruction I've caused was incredibly rewarding. This is all capped by the Overkill sequences, which find your squad in a bullet time slowdown style world with incredible firepower and accuracy.

"Enemy AI is equally disappointing..."

But, much of that fun is fleeting at best. EA and Visceral promised a lot with this new Army of Two - -and delivered on almost nothing. The game employs a cover system that is supposed to open up large fire-fights to much more strategy, but rather than slowly chip away with damage, they often just disappear into a cloud of dust. Enemy AI is equally disappointing, as they use no real strategy when trying to take you out and just charge at you with no regard for their lives or well being (for what it's worth though, team member AI is respectable).

By far the most disappointing though is how glitchy the entire experience is. One of my favorite parts of the game is the amount of customization you can apply to the game's masks and weapon systems, but numerous times when we played, a bug stopped us from seeing any of the customizable options? We were also met with a frustrating glitch that saw us not being able to move on from an area even when we've met all of the requirements; we just had to reload and start over.

Explosions? Check. Stereotypical characters yelling out even less inspired dialogue? You bet. Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel trots out nearly every trick in the action game and movie playbook, but does so with so little personality or originality that it's almost embarrassing. There is a good amount of fun to be had with Army of Two - but it's fleeting at best.