Q&A: EA Montreal on Army of Two

Army of Two is due out in the United States this week, with its Australian release following closely behind on March 13. We managed to catch up with Matt Turner, who is the assistant producer on Army of Two, and chat with him about why the game was delayed, swearing in video games, partner artificial intelligence, and the role of contractors in modern-day warfare.

GameSpot AU: Army of Two has had quite an extensive preordering campaign, even hosting a competition for would-be users to design a sniper rifle and submachine gun for the game. How important do you think it is to have a strong preorder campaign for a game to be successful?

Matt Turner: It is always a great bonus to the overall sales of a game, but in reality, if your game is good it will do well regardless of the preorder numbers. Preorders are a nice indication of the current buzz of a game as well as a great tool to get people talking about the game more.

GS AU: Why was Army of Two delayed so much?

MT: In October we were finished [with] AO2. But some of us on the dev team weren't totally satisfied with the end result. There were a bunch of little details that still needed some tuning. To the great relief of the dev team, the powers that be at EA granted us three extra months to polish our game. And that is precisely what we did. We took the time to perfect and refine certain features of the game that could only reach their potential through extensive focus testing and time...and to be honest, it really paid off.

GS AU: Similar to what TV and movies has gone through, swearing has become more and more common in games recently. Do you think it enhances the experience at all?

MT: Swearing is only good when it's relevant within the context of the story. Our story happens to follow two mercenaries. In reality, mercs are pretty rough customers, and we felt that to have our heroes talking like Disney characters would not have only greatly detracted from the feeling we were trying to communicate, it would have just sounded wrong. So we went for it all the way. And in our case it works and certainly enhances the rawness of the experience we are trying to convey.

GS AU: The armour that Salem and Rios wear is an interesting mix of Crysis meets Mad Max. How many different designs did you go through?

MT: Actually, all the designs for the armor came from the team way before EA had signed Crysis.

GS AU: Will users be able to customise the armour that Salem and Rios wear?

MT: They will have three different levels of body armour they can use: light, medium, and heavy. The players will also be able purchase cosmetic face masks to customize the look of their character.

GS AU: Can you explain to us exactly how the partner artificial intelligence works?

MT: We wanted to make our partner artificial intelligence (PAI) behave as closely to a real player as possible. So rather than giving the player a precise orders system (i.e., a cursor that indicates for the PAI to advance to a precise location), we thought it would be better to give more loose parameters that the PAI could then behave within. There are three basic commands: advance, hold position, and cover me. Within these three orders, there is an aggressive mode and a passive mode. When in aggressive mode, the PAI will execute his order with no regard for his personal health. When in passive mode, he will fire only when fired on or attack when he is threatened to fail his order.

There are two ways to exercise these commands. The first (and most common) is with the Partner Wheel (your D pad), which is represented by a dynamic icon in the lower right hand corner of your HUD. The second way (and maybe the coolest) is by plugging in your headset and using your voice to command him...that is fun.

What is also sweet about this is that he has been given some emotion. He talks back, gives you a high five when you kick butt, and slaps your head when you make a bonehead move. He is actually really fun to play with.

GS AU: Will we be seeing any downloadable content for Army of Two after it's released?

MT: I can't go into too much depth but we are planning to hit hard with the downloadable content right after launch. We have some awesome stuff on deck.

GS AU: What sort of achievements can gamers expect to see on the Xbox 360 version of the game?

MT: There is a nice variety of achievements from single-player campaign mode, to co-op, to versus. It is a shooter, so expect a lot of them to revolve around shooting things. And there's a couple of funny ones thrown in for good measure.

GS AU: How have you found it [to be] working on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game simultaneously?

MT: It has been quite easy. The gameplay has not suffered from one to the other, and we have even had fun implementing the strengths of each console...like the Sixaxis on PS3 and achievements on Xbox. Both teams were able to work together and solve problems in real time.

GS AU: The two contractors in Army of Two have a very different role to what contractors do in the real world. What are your thoughts on the use of contractors in war?

MT: Well, my personal opinion on the subject doesn't really matter. As far as the game goes, we thought that the topic was one of relevance in present-day society and people would be intrigued by the context. But that's where it stops. We thought that the PMC world would be a great backdrop for a fun shooter game and decided to leave it at that. If our game encourages people to go out and do research on the topic then great! But we are simply using it as a vessel for a fun piece of gaming.

GS AU: The game deals with a few political topics such as September 11. How did you go about bringing them up without offending people who've been affected by it?

MT: We were highly aware and sensitive to the reality of these subjects when we decided to write them in. So to respect those involved and the gravity of the events, we only used them as an indicator of time and context, kept all references low-key and created our own content rather than using actual archive footage. I think that what we ended up with was a very tasteful and relevant acknowledgement to something that we should never forget.