Co-Optimus: In regards to the “organic co-op”, what is it that you specifically learned from the first game that helped shape its development for this game?
Matt: It was a matter of designing the [enemy] encounters to a point that made them more open to that kind of freedom for the players. Obviously, in certain circumstances there are moves that are much better suited to use [in that situation] and if use a particular move you’ll probably have higher success rate, but you can still use the other ones if you want. But we also placed incentives into certain areas to do certain moves to encourage players to use the co-op playbook more instead of just running and gunning. You can still “run and gun” the entire game if you want to, but there are certain places in the game where if you do the hostage grab properly, or the co-op snipe properly, you’ll get a reward for it. So you can do that and use the moves where they have to be used, or you can be crazy and do whatever you want but you may not be rewarded like you would otherwise.
Co-Optimus: What kind of rewards?
Matt: There are certain parts of the game where if you execute something in a certain way, you get a gun, for example. You kill an enemy, you get their gun and you can only get it there; no where else. We wanted to offer the kind of re-playability to the players that would allow them to play however they want one way, get rewarded for it, and then play through an entirely different way and get rewarded for that, too.
Matt spent quite a bit of time talking with us about Army of Two: The 40th Day, including giving us some details about a morality system that will be in place throughout the game, but we’re quickly running out of space here and we haven’t any provided our impressions of the game. However, we will be posting the rest of that interview early next week, so check back here to hear more about the 40th Day.