Fist Bumping Determines Tone In Army Of Two

The original Army of Two received mixed critical reception but sold well enough to warrant a sequel – Army of Two: The 40th Day. Much of the reason audiences were divided (especially in Europe) can be attributed to the hit or miss humor – dual protagonists spouting meathead banter while fist bumping and air-guitaring their way to the finish line.

In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, EA Montreal’s Reid Schneider divulged that the player will now control how humor is integrated into Army of Two: The 40th Day.

“The way you interact with your partner and decisions you make – if you’re doing a lot of fist bumps – these influence the tone and dialogue of your character,” Schneider explained. “If you’re taking it on a more serious level than the game reacts seriously.”

“What we’re trying to do – we’ll find out in January if people think we’re successful or not – is that players can tell their experience by their play style,” he continued. “It’s really important for us tonally to appeal to the European audience because with the core audience in that territory, the game really turned them off so deeply that they couldn’t get to the game underneath.”

Choice is never a bad thing so we give EA Montreal props for finding a unique approach to fixing a problem that plagued their last game.

What about you – did the “Frat guy” humor in the original Army of Two get on your nerves? Or were fist bumps the ultimate sign of victory for you and your co-op pal?