These guns for hire

>>EA Montreal’s Army of Two pairs
mercenaries, kills terrorists
and sidesteps politics

MASKED AND DANGEROUS: PMC protagonists

by ERIK LEIJON

There’s a lot riding on the success of EA Montreal’s next-generation action shooter Army of Two, so the studio can be excused for taking a little more time to smooth out the rough edges. The war-based game, which stars two rough and tumble mercenaries and is set in the world of private military corporations, launches on March 7 for the Microsoft XBox 360 and Sony Playstation 3 consoles. It was originally supposed to hit stores in November during the ultra-competitive Christmas rush.

“In game development, the last four to six months make all the difference,” says Army of Two senior producer Reid Schneider. The game, which pits the two soldiers-for-hire against hordes of terrorists and suicide bombers in such wartime locales as Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, was essentially finished in November, but EA Montreal felt the potential improvements would mitigate the risk of moving the release date to the much quieter month of March.

Beyond Blackwater

Despite the current controversy surrounding private military contractors (PMCs)—especially after Blackwater Worldwide’s involvement in a shooting incident in Iraq late last year that left 17 civilians dead—Schneider chose the subject largely because he thought it would make a great game, and treats Army of Two simply as entertainment. He says if gamers are more interested in researching the topic after playing, then all the better.

Army of Two—which gets its name because it stresses co-operative play between the two mask-wearing protagonists—began pre-production in January 2006, and the conceptual phase dated back to the studio’s launch in February 2004, so what was another few months?

“[Players will notice] it’s really all in the details,” Schneider says of the late tinkering done by the team. “It’s a really smooth difficulty progression now, the guns feel the way they should and the artificial intelligence behaves appropriately.”

EA Montreal general manager Alain Tascan, who referred to the game as his “first next-gen baby,” is quick to point out the successes of the studio’s previous titles, NHL 07, Boogie and SSX Blur, but none of those titles compare to Army of Two in terms of development time, production costs and advance hype from media and fans. Although game studios tend not to reveal budget information, Tascan did say the costs for Army of Two were in the “tens of millions.”

Cooperation and customization

Two years before the mercenary profession captured mainstream attention, Schneider and his team thought it would be the ideal subject for a game based entirely around cooperative gameplay.

“As we did research on private military corporations, we were amazed about how the more layers we pulled back, the more interesting it got,” says Schneider. The team consulted with ex-Navy Seal and private soldier Woody Mister, who also served as a technical consultant for Ubisoft Montreal’s Splinter Cell series.

“He’s completely insane,” says Schneider. “He would come see us every few months and we would talk to him about what we were working on. He had some amazing stories about his experiences in Afghanistan, training people in the field. He would show us things that were just mind-blowing.”

Schneider and his team were especially intrigued by the more personal and creative aspects of the private military. Unlike the more square and uniform government forces, mercenaries often customize their guns to suit their personal tastes. As a result, there are over 30 weapons in the game, and with cash earned from completing missions, there are thousands of options for personalizing your virtual weapon collection. The main characters also wear unique hockey-style masks, which were based on actual ballistic mask designs.

The game is also receiving much attention for its innovative gameplay style, which forces gamers to work with their partner by adhering to the aggro-metre. The on-screen aggro-metre always tilts in the direction of one of the two characters, and whoever has more aggro on their side will be the focal point of enemy attacks. This can allow the other mercenary to flank around the distracted foes undetected.

This blending of real world conflicts in a stylized environment is nothing new in the video game industry, nor is the technical research done by Schneider and his team. So, despite the desire to accurately reflect how private military corporations operate, the team had no ambitions to make a strong political statement.

“We’re going to let players decide,” says Schneider. “We don’t want to preach about what’s right and what’s wrong.”