We had a chance to speak with Matt Turner, Assistant Producer on Army of Two about all things related to EA’s newest coop shooter. From how they came up with the coop concepts to the game’s multiplayer aspects, check out everything we discussed.

[Loot Ninja] This game glorifies the challenging and sheer fun factor of co-op campaign play. Will these missions be strictly run and gun or will the two players have to work as the ultimate team in order to achieve their objective?

[Matt Turner] Rambo’s are not welcome in AO2! It’s really a tactical shooter and the players must use the aggro system to progress through the levels. If you try to run and gun you are going to pay the price…with death! We really wanted to emphasize the coop feel of the game to the point where it becomes a necessity and I think we achieved that.

[Loot Ninja] For local co-op play, how will the screens be divided? We have seen both horizontal and vertical designations. How does Army of Two plan on approaching this?

[Matt Turner] The screen will be split horizontally. Because of the over the shoulder view and the broad expanse of the maps, vertical split screen took too much away from the experience.

[Loot Ninja] Since there will be two of you at all times, are their interactable vehicles in the game that both players can enjoy?

[Matt Turner] Yes there certainly are. In the campaign mode there is a hovercraft that one player drives and the other guns. It’s a really fun vehicle to rip around the rivers of China in. In the versus mode we were able to include a tank and jeep that are the same format as the hovercraft. There are a few other things that wouldn’t be considered vehicles but are coop conveyances…:). There is a coop parachute mode as well as a coop riot shield.

[Loot Ninja] The game is largely focused on co-op. Will there be enough content to satisfy the solo gamer as well?

[Matt Turner] Absolutely. Although the game was designed to play in coop, we have created a partner AI that is both satisfying and effective. We really wanted to create an AI that behaved as much like a real person as possible. We gave him emotions and made him self sufficient enough that he can handle himself in a big firefight. You can order him but rather than giving him precise orders you give him loose directives in which he can operate giving him a far more organic feel.

[Loot Ninja] If and when during the course of the campaign, one of the Army of Two falls in combat, is the mission failed or does the surviving teammate attempt to complete the level as well?

[Matt Turner] Well no. And here is why. When one of the players goes down he is immobilized. His partner then has to try and get to him before he bleeds out. When he eventually does get to him he has to drag his partner to safe location and heal him. The player who is downed can still shoot, pull aggro and kill baddies. But if the downed player’s partner can’t get to him in time or goes down himself, it’s a restart from checkpoint.

[Loot Ninja] For online play, will the teams be divided into pairs or will the Army of Two aspect be abandoned for the sake of large multiplayer matches?

[Matt Turner] It is called Army of Two. We designed our multiplayer to be team based. It’s two versus two in objective based combat. The teams compete to complete objectives and the team that does first is rewarded with cash. The team that finishes with the most money wins the match. The players are also paid when they kill their opponents or NPCs but far less than if they were to complete an objective.

[Loot Ninja] What system was used as the lead development platform? Are there any differences we can expect to see between the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game?

[Matt Turner] We led with Xbox 360 simply because we had more experience with it. As far as the game goes the only difference is system features. For example we were able to implement the Six Axis with PS3 and we have a deep achievements system on Xbox Live. As far as the gameplay and graphics go they’re identical.

We want to thank Matt Turner for taking time to sit down and speak with us. If you haven’t played Army of Two yet, definitely give it shot.