According to Electronic Arts, North America thought that everything inArmy of Twowas fine and dandy, while Europeans found the experience ridiculous and tasteless. While EA’s Mark Reid says that you’re able to’t please everyone, he’s certainly hoping thatArmy of Two‘s upcoming sequel will bridge the cultural gap a little more.
“We had this whole market in the US that thought the tone was cool, but in Europe everyone thought it was ridiculous and tasteless and a bunch of frat guys running around,”said the EA Montreal EP. “One of the things we learned was that we’re never going to be able to please both. So the way you interact with your partner and decisions you make — if you’re doing a lot of fist bumps — these influence the tone and the dialogue of your character. If your taking it on a more serious level then the game reacts seriously.”
Reid adds that he needs Europeans to likeArmy of Two‘s characters because otherwise they won’t get into the game, making an interesting point about game characters versus movie characters: “It’s really important for us tonally to appeal to the European audience because with the core audience in that territory, the game really turned them off so deeply that they couldn’t get to the game underneath.
“In a movie you’re distanced from those characters and you’re watching them, but in a game you are those characters and if they say something you find bothersome it rips you right out of the experience. We wanted to change the overall dialogue but also let the player tell their own a story a little bit more.”
I’m still yet to try outArmy of Two, but I must resolve this beforeThe 40th Dayis released. After all, I just recently started playingKane & Lynch, so the least I could do is give EA’s game a chance.
