Army of Two Developer Wants To Make Old School Fun

[Karloff]

Army of Two Developer Wants To Make Old School Fun

Greg Rizzer of Visceral wants to make Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel a Michael Bay kind of game.

"Even if it's a game that's violent in content," says Greg Rizzer of Visceral Games Montreal, "we still as gamers need to be able to appreciate a Michael Bay-esque type of experience." Which is why the developers of Army of Two want to take the franchise back to old-school fun; taking things too seriously is the last thing the developers want.

The fratboy tone is a little muted this time out in The Devil's Cartel, says Rizzer, but the aesthetic is still over the top. "To me, when you look at video games and you see the reaction of people who are playing it and are like, 'whoa!'," says Rizzer, "that's the reaction you're supposed to get from when you were a kid and used to go to the arcade and see the first boss battle after playing Ghouls 'n Ghost or whatever." That's what Rizzer's hoping players of Army of Two will get out of its co-op shooter.

"In that sense it is old school," says Rizzer, arguing that the best thing about old school was that you didn't need to know millions of different things; you just had to be amazed by the on-screen action. Visceral's hoping that it's latest game, Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/trailers/6598-Army-of-Two-The-Devils-Cartel-Lethal-Cartel-Trailer], will deliver on that promise.

"We're good at what we do," says Rizzer. "We know what works for us and we're just going to continue to deliver on that."

Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel is due March 28th for PS3, and Xbox 360.

Source: Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-02-28-army-of-two-dev-we-forget-games-are-meant-to-be-fun]


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[Phoenix8541]

My number one rule for successful game development is always capitalize on what your good at and if it ain't broke don't fix it. Make changes on a different franchise title but if a game is successful chances are people want it to remain familiar it's just human nature.

 

[Erttheking]

The word "fratboy" gets thrown around WAY too fucking much when it comes to video games.

 

[Terminate421]

Well then here is your problem, your making a micheal bay-esque game in a micheal bay-esque FILLED market. We have enough of those, use your talent on a little imagination, folks. At least Epic realizes that Gears of War would be boring with ordinary guns.

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

Well then here is your problem, your making a micheal bay-esque game in a micheal bay-esque FILLED market. We have enough of those, use your talent on a little imagination, folks. At least Epic realizes that Gears of War would be boring with ordinary guns.

You beat me to it.
"we still as gamers need to be able to appreciate a Michael Bay-esque type of experience."
The game market is already drowning in gratuitous explosions, lens flare, & narrative voids (& I mean drowning literally, considering the collective stock value of publishers these days)

The word "fratboy" gets thrown around WAY too fucking much when it comes to video games.

The protagonists are iconic for mass-murder & fist-bumping. No disrespect, but it's pretty much a game for Bro's

 

[deathbydeath]

Michael Bay isn't over the top; it's under the top. I was legitimately excited by the most recent AoT trailer, and that was easily because I liked the idea of a developer making a game as intentionally campy and over-the-top as it looked like. Imitating Michael Bay, however, is not the right way to do that. Warhammer is over the top. Quentin Tarantino is over the top. The Matrix is over the top. Michael Bay is a scrub with a military hardware fetish. Learn the difference.

EDIT: Also Shank. I mean Shank 1, Shank 2 sucked.

 

[Slash2x]

Please do not make Army of Two suck, Please do not make Army of Two suck,Please do not make Army of Two suck,Please do not make Army of Two suck.


I liked the first game.... If I was playing with my wife as the other player, AI partner was RETARDED. We were looking forward to the next game in the series.

Spoiler

Shooting your spouse at the end of the second game is a good way to end up on the couch.....

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

I think the difference between Army of Two and most other games that fall in the "lots of explosions and military fetishism"-genre is that Army of Two is aware of what it is and keeps it campy and over the top on purpose. When playing AoT and 40th Day I was constantly getting the feeling that the game developers had always intentionally ramped up the level of "awesome" just another notch (this is especially obvious if you look at the weapon customization options). It was as if they wanted me to feel as if I as in a cheesy 80's action movie about two BFFs broing it up and destroying stuff. Games like Medal of Honor, Modern Warfare etc. are filled with the same kind of content as AoT but they don't seem nearly as aware of what they are doing. They are ramping it up in almost the same way as AoT but they are keeping a completely straight face about it, as if they actually want me to sit there and think that what's going on is cool and that war and special forces are awesome.

That the AoT-developers want to make it feel like "Michael Bay" shows that they at least understand both how unintentionally over the top Michael Bay is and that you can't take that kind of action too seriously without getting farcical.