We tested this on a mid-range 2025 gaming PC (RTX 4060, Intel i5-14600K, 32GB RAM).
| Scenario | Resolution | Framerate (Xenia) | Framerate (Original 360) | Notes | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Main Menu | 1440p | 60 FPS | 30 FPS | Stable. | | Mission 1: "Down and Dirty" | 1440p | 45-55 FPS | 30 FPS | Minor stutter when breaching walls. | | Mission 4: "The Plaza" | 1440p | 35-40 FPS | 30 FPS | Heavy drop. Particle effects (fire/smoke) tank Vulkan performance. | | Mission 7: "Hacienda" | 1080p | 55-60 FPS | 30 FPS | Switch to 1080p to stabilize. |
Verdict: You need a strong CPU single-core performance. AMD X3D chips handle this game better than Intel due to the cache handling the UE3 texture streaming.
As of the latest Xenia master builds and the more optimized Xenia Canary branch, Army of TWO: The Devil’s Cartel is considered playable but not perfect.
What works well:
Known issues:
Unlike its predecessors (Army of Two and Army of Two: The 40th Day), The Devil’s Cartel was stuck in console limbo. It runs at 30 FPS on original Xbox 360 and PS3 hardware, with frequent screen tearing and sub-720p resolution.
Xenia offers three major advantages:
For co-op fans who miss the "Aggro" system and hilarious mask customization, Xenia is currently the only way to experience this game on a modern gaming PC.
Army of TWO: The Devil’s Cartel on Xenia is a solid throwback option for co-op fans willing to tolerate minor bugs. It’s not flawless—the occasional crash or visual glitch reminds you it’s emulated—but the core gameplay loop of aggressive, team-based shooting remains intact. If you have a powerful CPU and patience, it’s a blast to play through with a friend on PC.
Final rating on Xenia: ⭐⭐⭐☆ (3/5) – Playable and enjoyable, but keep your expectations tempered.
Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel (Xbox 360) emulator is currently difficult due to its engine and multi-file structure. While its predecessor, The 40th Day , is often cited as "plug and play" on Xenia, The Devil's Cartel remains less stable. Compatibility & Performance The "State-Intro" Barrier : Historical testing on the official Xenia compatibility tracker shows the game often crashes at the host or intro state. Frostbite 2 Engine
: This is the first game in the series to use the Frostbite 2 engine, which is notoriously difficult to emulate compared to the Unreal Engine 3 used in earlier titles. XEX Switching : The game's data is split across multiple
files; Xenia has historically struggled with switching between these files during gameplay. Graphical & Stability Issues : Even on other emulators like
(PS3), the game is known to have significant rendering issues and frequent crashes. Recommended Alternative: RPCS3 If you are determined to play this on PC, the RPCS3 emulator
is currently the more viable route. It is listed as "In-Game" (not fully "Playable"), meaning it can be played but expects: Graphical Glitches : Broken lighting and textures due to the Frostbite engine. Performance Needs
: High-end hardware is required to maintain a stable framerate, often reaching 4k at 30-60 FPS on enthusiast-grade rigs. Native Hardware
Because the game is not natively available on PC and is not part of the Xbox backward compatibility program, the most stable way to experience it remains on original PlayStation 3 for RPCS3 to improve its stability? 454109AB - Army of TWO: The Devil's Cartel #577 - GitHub
Running Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel on the Xenia (Xbox 360) emulator is a mixed experience due to technical limitations inherent to the Frostbite 2 engine and Xenia's current development state. Emulator Compatibility & Performance
Status: The game is generally classified as "Intro" or "In-game". While some users report being able to play it through, many encounter severe crashes or cannot get past the main menus.
Technical Obstacle: The Devil's Cartel uses multiple .xex files (executable files for Xbox 360). Xenia currently struggles with xex switching, which can prevent the game from loading subsequent chapters or missions correctly.
Hardware Requirements: To attempt running it, you typically need a high-end setup: CPU: 6 or more cores (e.g., Ryzen 5/i5 and above). GPU: NVIDIA GTX 980 Ti or later.
OS: Windows 11 x64 is recommended for the best results with Xenia Canary. Known Issues and Fixes
Graphical Glitches: Players often experience "green screen" artefacts, flickering lighting, or shimmering around the edges of the screen.
Patches: Community patches exist for Xenia Canary that attempt to disable dynamic lights or spotlights to improve stability and performance.
Framerate: The game is capped at 30 FPS by default. While there are 60 FPS mods, they can cause the game speed to double or lead to more frequent crashes unless the "Clock Scale" is also adjusted. Alternative: RPCS3 (PS3 Emulator)
For many, the RPCS3 emulator (PlayStation 3) currently offers a more stable experience for this specific title. 454109AB - Army of TWO: The Devil's Cartel #577 - GitHub
In Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel , "Xenia" primarily refers to the Xenia Xbox 360 Emulator, which players use to run the game on modern PCs. There is no major character or in-game faction named Xenia within the official story. Playing on Xenia Emulator
If you are looking to play or troubleshoot The Devil's Cartel on this platform:
Compatibility Status: The game is generally listed as having "Intro" or "Host Crash" states in official compatibility trackers. army of two the devil 39s cartel xenia
Performance: While some users have successfully showcased gameplay in 4K resolution using high-end hardware, technical hurdles remain. Known Issues:
Multiple .xex files: The game is composed of multiple executable files, and Xenia does not currently support seamless switching between them, which can cause crashes during specific transitions.
Limited Settings: The emulator is known for being user-friendly but offers few "tweakable" options beyond VSync. Actual Game Content
For context on the game itself, The Devil’s Cartel features:
Protagonists: New operatives Alpha and Bravo replace the original series leads, Salem and Rios.
Setting: A brutal drug war in Mexico against the "La Guadaña" (The Scythe) cartel. Key Features:
Frostbite 2 Engine: Introduced destructible environments not seen in previous titles.
Overkill Mode: A returning mechanic that grants players invincibility and massive firepower for a short duration.
Customization: Deep options for personalising masks and weapons to create a unique "persona" for your operative.
Are you having trouble running the game on the emulator, or were you looking for a specific character or lore element?
In Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel , " " does not refer to a character within the game's story; rather, it refers to the Xenia Emulator, a popular software used to play the Xbox 360 version of the game on PC.
While the game follows the operatives Alpha and Bravo as they battle the Mexican drug cartel "La Guadaña", here is a look into how the game performs and functions on the Xenia emulator. Emulation Performance on Xenia
Playability Status: The game is currently rated as "State-Gameplay" on the Xenia Compatibility List, meaning it can reach the actual gameplay loop but may face stability issues. Technical Challenges:
Multi-XEX Files: The game is composed of multiple .xex files, and Xenia occasionally struggles with "xex switching," which can cause crashes during transitions between different parts of the game.
Visual Glitches: Users often report an "overbright" or blooming image. This can sometimes be mitigated by using specific settings like readback_resolve = true in the emulator configuration.
Patches and Fixes: Community-made Xenia patches exist to disable certain graphical settings (like shadows or post-processing) to increase performance on high-end machines. Comparison: Xenia vs. RPCS3
Since The Devil's Cartel was never ported to PC, players choose between Xenia (Xbox 360) and RPCS3 (PlayStation 3).
Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel on Xenia: The Ultimate Emulation Guide
For years, PC gamers have been left out of the high-octane, tactical chaos of the Army of Two franchise. While the series was a staple for co-op fans on consoles, it never received an official PC port. Today, the Xenia emulator (an Xbox 360 emulator) and its experimental branch, Xenia Canary, offer the most promising way to experience Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel on modern hardware.
However, playing a Frostbite-engine game on an emulator is not without its hurdles. Below is a comprehensive look at the state of The Devil’s Cartel on Xenia, how to optimize it, and what to expect from the gameplay. 1. Current Compatibility Status
As of May 2026, Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel is generally categorized as "Ingame" on Xenia. This means that while the title can launch and reach active gameplay, it is not yet "Playable" in the sense of a seamless, start-to-finish experience without issues.
Engine Challenges: The game uses the Frostbite 2 engine, which is notoriously difficult for emulators to handle due to its complex lighting and physics systems.
Major Hurdles: Users often report issues with multiple .xex files (the Xbox executable format), which can complicate how Xenia switches between game segments or loads certain missions. 2. Essential Settings & Performance Fixes
To get the best possible performance on Xenia Canary, you will need a reasonably powerful PC—specifically a GTX 980Ti or better and a 6-core CPU. Unlike RPCS3 (PS3 emulator), which is CPU-heavy, Xenia relies more on your GPU. Recommended Xenia Configuration 454109AB - Army of TWO: The Devil's Cartel #577 - GitHub
, a popular open-source research project for running Xbox 360 games on modern PCs. If you are looking into this specific topic, you are likely encountering the technical side of the game rather than its lore. The Technical "Character": Army of Two on Xenia For many fans of the series, The Devil’s Cartel exists today primarily through emulation on
because the game was delisted from digital stores in October 2021.
: Currently, the game is famously difficult to run on Xenia. It is built on the Frostbite 2 engine (the same used for Battlefield 3
), which historically struggles with stability on emulators.
: Major roadblocks include "xex switching" issues and crashes during the intro state. The "Xenia Experience" : Players often search for " We tested this on a mid-range 2025 gaming
" alongside this game to find patches or configuration settings that might finally make the campaign playable from start to finish on PC Who are the Characters?
If you were looking for a specific female operative or protagonist, you might be thinking of:
I'll write a solid story centered on Xenia from Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel. I'll assume you want a standalone short story focusing on her character, motivations, and action—let me know if you'd prefer a different tone, length, or perspective.
Xenia Vostokova stalked the broken strip mall under a low, bruised sky. A wind kicked up torn flyers and the dust of a city that’d long ago forgotten anyone but itself. Her breath came in controlled pulls; the rifle across her back was slick with grime and the recent oil of maintenance, the old comfort of cold metal against palm and shoulder. She moved like a problem that had already been solved, economy of motion honed through months of making decisions that left no room for hesitation.
They called her many things on the radio—ghost, sniper, troublemaker—none of which mattered when she watched a man through the scope and counted the beats between his heartbeat and the timing of a shutter. Names stuck to others; Xenia had learned not to fall for them. She carried her past in small, precise packages: a faded photograph tucked into a zippered pouch, a watch with the glass cracked, the taste of salt and gun oil. Those keepsakes were anchors, not excuses.
Behind the mall, the cartel had set up a staging area—jeeps, fuel drums, laughter like static. Her informant had said the crew would move contraband through the docks at sundown. That meant Xenia had a single, shrinking window to get eyes on the plan and to feed the others the kind of leverage that forced choices. She wasn't doing this for medals. She wasn’t doing it for money. She was doing it to make decisions stick.
She slipped to a rooftop and flattened into a shadow, the city shifting around her in sliding panes of rust and neon. Through the scope, she cataloged faces—none familiar beyond the work-worn hollows and the certainty of men who thought their hands were their destiny. She picked out a target: a lieutenant in a black jacket with a faded tattoo of a scorpion coiling over his knuckles. He barked orders; a man like that always snapped his fingers to keep others in line. Xenia keyed a short message into her comms: “Scorpion marked. Supply trucks inbound in thirteen minutes.”
Echo answered with a soft, clipped response. The Brothers—her teammates—were already moving. The radio threaded their movements together, a braid of intention and timing. Xenia felt the efficiency of it like a second heartbeat. She hated big plans that depended on charity. This one depended on precision.
The trucks rolled through the main road in staggered formation. Xenia tracked them as they passed under the molting billboard advertising a long-defunct credit service—the irony flickered and died. She had no illusions that this would be clean. In her world, clean was temporary and earned in handfuls. Her job was to widen the margin of survival.
Her scope settled on a rear axle as the convoy slowed to a checkpoint manned by men with more bravado than discipline. She adjusted for wind, wind that had teeth tonight, and for the hollow in the road that would throw a bullet slightly left. The shot took half a breath. A single muffled pop; the rear truck shuddered, pulling the convoy into dangerous confusion. Men scrambled, curses and adrenaline braided together. From the rooftop, Xenia studied the reaction—essential data.
As the skirmish erupted, she moved. It was a short drop to a service alley, a tumble into the darkness of dumpsters and abandoned refrigerators. The alley smelled of diesel and old news. Her boots avoided the puddles; she imagined the splash might as well be ink she couldn’t smear. She needed closer access to the manifest the convoy carried, the ledger that turned shipments into names and numbers—names she could turn into leverage and numbers she could turn into targets.
Inside the convoy’s staging area, the lieutenant barked orders and projected control like a bellows. He didn't notice the woman in the shadow until she clicked a blade open against the back of his hand. The move was old-school confidence, one taught when silence and muscle had to be enough. He spun, surprise shaving his mouth. She moved like a thought: precise, short, and closing distance. Two strikes, one to the wrist, the other to the ribs; the man crumpled. She didn't hesitate to take his keys and his phone. She let the guiltless lightness of the theft sit like a coin in her palm. It was a necessary theft.
She rifled the phone in the cover of a crumbling doorway. Contacts. Schedules. A map. Her fingers paused on a video message labeled “Tonight—Midnight—Pier 9.” She smiled the barest fraction; the scale of the night's plan finally resolved into a clear line. The docks. She could almost imagine the cargo manifest falling open like a mouth and showing her teeth. She keyed the feed to Echo: “Pier 9. Midnight. Manifest shows heavy crates—likely arms, maybe phones with burner nets. One high-value crate labeled ‘Codename: Tempest.’”
"Copy," Echo said. "We're in position. You want us to take the crates or to flush the clients?"
Xenia's throat worked.
"Flush the clients," she said. "Tempest comes with chain of custody. I want it intact."
There was a pause long enough for a hawk. "Risk higher."
"Then make it surgical," she answered. "No explosions."
She tightened the strap on her pack and moved toward the docks in a weave of alleyways—old routes, safe steps. The city was quieter near the water, its heartbeat turned down, as if it were trying to sleep through the mess of men. The piers smelled of salt, rot, and fuel. Shipping containers stacked like small cities of rust. Floodlights stabbed the darkness and made hard angels on the water. She watched the men unload under the lights, muscles and motions tuned to the industry of illegal commerce.
Xenia took position on a catwalk above Pier 9, where the tide made small soft sounds against the pilings. The Brothers radioed their positions; they were set around the perimeter like a frame. Echo perched on a crane, a heavy rifle whispering in the gloom. Torque moved through the shadows below, a close-quarters specialist who could turn a corridor into a kill zone with nothing but his hands and patience. They didn't speak—too noisy—but they were a living map.
Temperature dropped. She checked her watch. Midnight slid over the horizon and settled like a verdict. The crew closed the crate labeled Tempest into the hold of a battered freighter. Men signed off on the manifest, stamping wrong lines with practiced hands. Xenia watched the men who carried the crate: two with heavy boots, one thin handler who moved like he wanted to be anywhere else, and a man at the stern who kept watching her catwalk with a curiosity that smelled of trouble. She marked the stern man as an unknown variable and made a note to eliminate it.
She dropped a noisemaker into a stack of crates—cheap, mechanical, a way to redirect attention. They'd come to investigate; they'd find nothing more than rattling metal and a hole to climb into. The men poured toward the sound, and Xenia slipped down a ladder to the dock.
On the dock, she moved like a question. The handler passed her within arm's reach; she brushed past and planted a tracking chip in his boot with a dancer's lightness. Torque detonated the distraction the way a surgeon uses a scalpel—clean and decisive. Bronze sparks; a flare of violence that looked theatrical from above. From the chaos, Xenia slipped into the hold, breathing slow, senses alert. The Tempest crate was two steps away.
Inside, the hold smelled of tar and the stiffness of newly crated things. She lifted the crate's lid with slow hands. Inside, foam cradled an array of devices wrapped in sealed polymer—satellite kommunikators, encrypted radios, one black box humming with a latent life. They were clean, ordered, equipment meant to turn noise into organized command. A note in the crate's lid made her lips thin: "For personal use only — Authorized: C.R." A sigil she didn't recognize. Curry? Reyes? Cartel initials often meant someone who thought they could be anonymous.
She thumbed open the case on the black box and found a small ledger—a stack of encrypted microchips and a chipped titanium card. The card had a serial and a logo: Tempest. The card hummed with a magnetic memory. She slipped it into a sleeve and felt lighter and heavier at once. Information had weight. It had teeth.
Alarms began to reverberate from the far side of the pier—someone had noticed the interference and rerouted security. Echo's voice crackled: "Two hostiles inbound—north approach. Torque, intercept."
This is where the plan split. She could have called for extraction, let Echo take the crate, and retreated into a safe pattern. But the crate mattered; the ledger inside it could link kingpins to suppliers. She had learned not to leave breadcrumbs. The world wanted her to leave breadcrumbs. She preferred blank pavement.
She moved toward the ladder, card pressed to her chest, and found herself face-to-face with the stern man, the one who had looked toward her catwalk. His eyes narrowed, and for a heartbeat the language between them was simply recognition—someone noticing someone who shouldn't be there. He lunged.
They fought with the simplicity of trained people who respected violence. He hit first with a dull punch; she took it and turned the momentum into a throw that left him coughing on the planks. He recovered and pulled a pistol—cheap, with a jam that sang under the pressure of a frantic finger. He fired. The bullet missed by inches and cracked the wood beside her foot. She took the pistol with a quick hand and shoved it aside, a small, intimate theft. He tried to stand; she did not let him. As of the latest Xenia master builds and
A siren flared. Footsteps multiplied. From the shadows, men closed in like a net. Xenia's radio was hot with the Brothers—Echo: "Two going past the north—run cover." Torque: "They're moving on your left. Exit in T-minus three."
She keyed them a short phrase: "Get Tempest to Torque. I’ll draw."
"Negative," Torque snapped. "You keep the ledger."
The decision landed between them. Torque's voice carried the weight of a man who'd chosen family over medals. Xenia weighed it for the span of a breath and then made the motion she'd learned to make when the world asked her to trade something that mattered for something that would not. She handed him the crate with a shove that was half trust, half command. Torque took it and melted into the night like an absence.
Xenia moved the other way—into noise, into teeth. They found her beautiful in the way predators admire a self-aware odds-taker. Bullets sliced the wood, each a punctuation mark. Her breathing tightened. She answered with small, precise strikes—knuckles to throat, palm to temple—variety over volume. She never let fear decide tempo; she let focus.
When the smoke cleared, when bodies were counted and the men that mattered either died or ran, Xenia sat on a crate and closed her eyes for a moment. The ledger thudded in her pack like a tiny heart. She allowed herself the habit of counting the losses and the wins in a ledger of her own: no one she trusted dead, Tempest secured, two of the convoy's lieutenants neutralized. It wasn't victory as the movies taught it; it was scored concrete in a life that rarely got to celebrate.
Echo's voice came soft: "Status?"
"Tempest gone to Torque. Ledger secured. I'm heading to meet point," she answered.
"Extraction inbound in ten."
Xenia watched the water take the lights and return them in small, fragmented mirrors. For a moment she thought of the photograph in her pack—faces she had carried—and how the ledger in her hands might give them names and addresses and, maybe, the possibility of revenge that took form in courtrooms or backroom trades. She wasn't sentimental about results; the world rarely rewarded sentiment. She was satisfied with the calculation.
On the way out, she paused at the edge of the pier and peered into the dark water. A single gull lifted from an overturned crate, its wings splintering into the cold. The city sighed and shifted. Somewhere, the chain of custody would run cold and lead to men who would wake and smell the absence of a piece they needed. Somewhere else, surgeons of law and men with other agendas would move in. That was not her business. Her business was the moment.
She stepped off the pier into a waiting van that smelled of diesel and old coffee. Torque was waiting—eyes tired but steady. Echo climbed in with a grin that tried to reach past the exhaustion; they were strangers who had built a language out of danger and kept each other whole with the economy of trust. They didn't talk much. Later they'd argue about tactics and burns. Later they'd laugh about near misses in a bar that tasted of old regrets and cheap beer.
For now, Xenia buckled in and let the van swallow them into the arteries of a city that never closed its eyes. The ledger hummed against her ribs—dangerous knowledge in a format that would get men to change their plans and make places safer, at the price of making other places more dangerous. She had traded the night for a shape she could present to the world. It was an imperfect exchange, and yet it was all she had to give.
She tuned out the city. She thought instead of small, careful things: the watch with the cracked glass, the photograph, the way a name could unmake a man. Outside, the rain started as a thin thread and then came harder, as if the sky were washing the city clean and forgetting where the dirt would settle. Xenia closed her eyes and heard the rain like a ledger closing. She had a list to hold, a plan to file, and a choice to make about what came next.
In the silence of the moving van, beneath the hum of the engine and the careful breathing of those who remained loyal enough to ride with her, she allowed herself a single thought, clear and lethal as the scope that had started the night: decisions were hers to make, and she would make them to keep what little the world had left her.
The city folded away. The rain erased footprints slowly. Around them, the machinery of the cartel would groan and repair and try to forget the missing crate and the men missing from its ledger. That was expected. The unexpected was the ledger itself—where it would point, and at whom. Xenia expected consequences; she always had. But consequences were a currency she could spend with accuracy.
When Torque asked, finally, "Want to know what's on it?" she glanced at him, and for the first time that night the ghost she kept in her voice softened just enough.
"Later," she said. "We survive first."
He nodded. The van turned down a street washed in neon and rain. The ledger lay quiet against her ribs, the promise of answers ticking in the dark.
Outside, the city did what it always did: it kept breathing and kept hiding the things people thought they'd buried. Xenia watched the skyline and began to plan the next decision.
Playing the full content of Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel on the Xenia (Xbox 360) emulator is currently limited due to technical compatibility issues. While users have successfully emulated other entries like Army of Two: The 40th Day , this specific title faces hurdles. Compatibility Status
Technical Blocks: The game is comprised of multiple .xex files, and Xenia does not currently support the "xex switching" required to transition between them during a full playthrough.
Crash Issues: Official Xenia Compatibility reports indicate the game often crashes shortly after the intro or remains in an "in-game" state without being fully playable from start to finish.
Engine Performance: Built on the Frostbite 2 engine, the game is more demanding and prone to graphical glitches on emulators compared to the Unreal Engine 3 used for previous entries. How to Access "Full Content"
If you are looking to experience the full story or "unlock" content, here are the available options:
Unlocking "Full Game" for XBLA Titles: For arcade games that appear as demos, you can often unlock the full version in Xenia by changing the license_mask from 0 to 1 in your xenia.config.toml file. However, as The Devil's Cartel is a retail disc title, this setting does not bypass its core compatibility crashes.
Alternative Emulation: Some users have had more success finishing the game using the RPCS3 (PS3) emulator, though it still requires high-end hardware and specific "patches" to disable dynamic lights for stable performance.
Walkthroughs: If emulation fails, you can view the complete campaign and all cutscenes through high-definition Full Game Walkthroughs or All Cutscenes Movies available on YouTube.
Total Playtime: If you manage to run the game, expect about 8 hours for the main story and up to 20.5 hours for 100% completion.