a single click. All you need is Adobe Reader.
For use with either a modern browser, or an RSS program.
Army of Two: The 40th Day Interview (pt. 2)
Army of Two: The 40th Day Producer Matt Turner tells us that his game is much like "Cloverfield minus the monster".
Written by David Scammell, 07 October 2009
What do Double Dragon and Army of Two: The 40th Day have in common? More than you might think! Read on for part 2 of our exclusive three part interview with The 40th Day's producer Matt Turner, as we reminisce about old-school co-op titles, and how the sequel to AoT will offer far more depth than that of the original.
GamerZines: Did you take any inspiration from other titles? The new enemy tagging feature seems similar to that seen in Rainbow Six and the upcoming Splinter Cell...
Matt Turner: Yeah, we took a lot of inspiration from other games. Obviously you do - you often think 'oh, I can do that better,' or 'we can do our own version of that'. Our enemy tagging is a little bit different, it happens as the game is playing and it's one of those things you can use if you want to or not. But from way back before Army of Two, Double Dragon and Contra were big inspirations. Those were like the original co-op games, right? So those definitely were our old-school inspirations.
We also had a lot of cinematic inspirations. To us, the idea of the disaster in the game is reminiscent of Cloverfield minus the monster. You have that sense of the world falling apart around you and you don't really know why but you're in the middle of it, so that's where that comes from. And then there's Bruce Willis in Die Hard and that tone, the gritty badass in the wrong place at the wrong time.
GZ: We noticed that the end of level summary displayed our 'player type', labelling us as either good or evil. Does that have any direct impact on the gameplay?
MT: Yeah, that's based on your morality, what you do and how you interact with your partner. So if you're whacking him on the back of the head or shooting him your partner relationship will change, which also changes the dialogue. And then if you are making negative morality choices like shooting civilians and killing everybody, you'll become evil or diabolical or whatever you want to be, and the opposite is true too. It has an effect on the characters themselves and the dialogue, and there are other things that will be affected as well, so it's a neat little thing that you can either track or not track.
P3Zine Issue 32
For our latest Army of Two coverage, click here to download P3Zine Issue 32 for free.Again it's one of those things we're trying to offer to players that they can follow if they want, or if they don't give a shit just go through and mow everybody down. It's just about offering that extra depth to the player.
GZ: You mentioned civilians there. Is their inclusion reserved for specific gameplay segments like hostage situations or will they be present within the actual gameworld and able to be caught in the crossfire?
MT: You will see civilians throughout the game. Obviously there'll be areas where they won't be because it doesn't make sense for them to be there, and there'll be places where there'll be more present. It's that idea that it is a populated city and you are going to run into civilians, and in various circumstances too - it's not just hostage situations. You can interact with them however you want to and that will obviously affect your morality, which I think adds a little more depth too. It's not just about running and shooting. If you want it to be it can be a little more tactical.
GZ: Rios and Salem are working for themselves in this game, but what are the other private military companies doing out there? We saw that it flashed 'Private' up on our GPS above an enemy's head; does that mean there'll be both private companies and the army to fight against?
MT: No, that's just what Rios and Salem call them. They don't know who they actually are, and that plays into the story as well. Depending on how much you want to find out about them you can go through and find collectibles and figure out who these guys are, or you can just ignore it.
GZ: Have you introduced any new co-op moves into The 40th Day?
MT: Yeah, absolutely. We kept all the classics; you've got the step-jump, the riot shield, the back to backs and a couple of other ones. You saw the hostage grab one, and there was the co-op mock surrender we showed at E3 where you can surrender and all the Aggro comes onto you while your partner flanks around. The tagging is obviously a fresh co-op move, and now when you're down you can crawl and shoot, and get dragged and healed too. So there's just a much broader spectrum of co-ops that you can do. And it's more organic; it's always there. It's not as linear as the first, so you always have the opportunity to choose whatever and who you're going to be. Do you want to be the guys who are going to mock surrender or the guys that go in guns blazing? You can really represent yourself as a player.
Army of Two coverage available in P3Zine Issue 32 - click here to download it for free!
»View more Army of Two features...
