For years, the Army of Two franchise sat in a weird purgatory for PC gamers. While the first two games (Army of Two and The 40th Day) eventually made their way to PC, the final entry, The Devil’s Cartel, never left the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It remained trapped on aging hardware, notorious for its "bro-op" action and the baffling decision to hide classic characters Salem and Rios behind unlockables.
With the Xbox 360 emulator Xenia, that exclusivity wall has finally been breached. But does the game run like a well-oiled mercenary operation, or is it a buggy mess that leaves you counting your losses? Here is the current state of The Devil's Cartel on Xenia.
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. | army of two the devil 39s cartel xenia
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.
This is the most requested feature. The Devil’s Cartel is a co-op game, but Xenia does not yet support Xbox Live emulation (as of 2026). However, System Link works.
Method:
Warning: Desyncs are common during cutscenes. Save frequently using save states.
Army of TWO: The Devil’s Cartel, released in 2013 by Visceral Games, is the third and final mainline entry in the co-op-focused third-person shooter series. It ditches the mercenary-for-hire global scale of previous games for a brutal, gritty narrative set in Mexico, where players control new characters Alpha and Bravo as they take on a vicious drug cartel.
With the Xbox 360 version now over a decade old, PC gamers looking to revisit (or discover) this title often turn to Xenia, the open-source Xbox 360 emulator. Here’s what you need to know about running The Devil’s Cartel on Xenia. For years, the Army of Two franchise sat
Navigate to xenia.config.toml and open it with Notepad. These are the critical lines for this specific title:
gpu = "vulkan" # DirectX 12 has texture flickering; Vulkan is stable.
vsync = false # Uncaps framerate, but may cause physics speed-ups.
draw_resolution_scale_x = 2
draw_resolution_scale_y = 2 # 720p -> 1440p internal render.
query_occlusion_fake = true # REQUIRED: Fixes the "black screen after cutscene" bug.
protect_zero = false
The "Black Screen" Bug: Without query_occlusion_fake = true, the game will load the main menu, play audio, but display a completely black screen. This is due to how Xenia handles AMD's occlusion querying.
Taking down Xenia and progressing through "Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel" requires skill, strategy, and teamwork. Don't be discouraged by failure - use it as a learning opportunity to improve your gameplay and that of your co-op partner. Happy gaming! This is the most requested feature