Some franchises are not long for this world and have the dignity to go quietly into that good night. Not so with Army of Two, though, as every couple of years it comes kicking and screaming back into the limelight, refusing to be relegated to the dust bin where it belongs. After two games which rest somewhere along the lines of “meh” according to critics, EA Games (more specifically Visceral Games Montreal) is bringing the co-op dude fest back for another go around.
Several job postings on EA’s website (as dug up by GameSpot) reveal that the Quebec, Canada, based studio is looking for a senior producer and an evironment artist (among other positions) to work on the Army of Two franchise, which is apparently a million seller. If you’re itching for more adventures from everybody’s favorite totally hetero dude-bros, then I guess you’re in luck. Given that these listing are on EA’s website, I’d expect to see something about Army of Two 3 very soon.
Cheap shots at the game’s protagonists aside, I actually liked the first Army of Two. While the characters were dumb and the co-op was poorly implemented, it was still a heck of a lot more fun than the sequel, which actually took several steps backwards in terms of gameplay. It still bothers me that they actually made the weapon tuning worse in Army of Two: The 40th Day.
If EA wants this franchise to be a long term success, and it looks like they do, they need to follow a few simple steps. Number one, get rid of the two main characters. Nobody liked them, so it’s not like they would be missed. Two, poach a game designer from Epic to make cover-based shooting that’s actually fun, and three, implement co-op so it actually matters during gameplay. With Visceral at the helm this might actually be OK, but I think I’ll pass on this for now.
I know that Army of Two isn’t all that popular here (or anywhere), but it always puzzles me why publishers keep trying to force under-performing IPs down our throats. Oh well, like the headline says, maybe the third time’s the charm.
Source – GameSpot
I think by now people know wether or not they are gonna enjoy it. I for one will get it, I knew the first two werent that great while I played them but it didnt stop me from having fun.
I feel like in the right circumstances the multiplayer could take off. Market it as “Call of Duty guns meet Gears of War gameplay… but with customizable masks!”
I really liked Army of Two 2 and never played the first game, so I’m going to say hooray. What I played felt like a so-bad-it’s-good grindhouse movie with unlikable characters, over the top things you can do with your weapons that don’t make much sense but made for a lot of fun, a lot of stupidity in the morality system and story, and the gameplay was really fun and it had a lot of charm that I don’t find in many other games anymore. Of course I’m defending so hard because I know it was pretty subpar, but it was still really enjoyable to me, damnit!
If they’re making a third game, really all I would want from it is the same thing that I got from the second game with a bit more variety, a bunch of more awesome customizable stuff, and maybe tone it down with the two characters. I found them pretty hilarious because of how horribly written they were for a while, but they soon got on my nerves. Also, nothing like that ridiculous part from the zoo in Army of Two 2 where you have a choice to shoot a tiger and (spoiler!) if you do the entire species goes extinct. My brother and I sat with our jaws wide open for about two minutes after that happened before cracking up for an uncountable amount of minutes afterwards. That was incredibly silly.