Army of New

Recently in the gaming industry, there has been a lot of talk about the new 360 and PS3 game, “Army of Two” (hereby called “AoT” throughout this article). For anyone unfamiliar with this game, it follows around two mercenaries–Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem, two ex-army guys–as they fight terrorists all over the world. The more missions they complete, the more cash they get, the better weapons they buy. Where the uniqueness comes from in AoT is in the “aggro” system it has, in which the game puts a higher emphasis on teamwork and ingenuity in co-op, rather than the simple “shoot, kill, wait” method many other games employ. At the same time, AoT relies heavily on the two-player co-op, as the one-player mode often results in much confusion and difficulties when it comes to the AI.

However as more and more press about AoT is garnered, a unique phenomenon seems to be sweeping across all sorts of game forums, websites and reviewers; the idea that this game is simply too violent. While criticism of videogame violence isn’t a new concept (in fact has been around for a while–just look at any news article about the 1976 game “Death Race”), for the most part it has come from outside the industry; politicians are always quick to point fingers at music, movies and videogames when it comes to witnessed violence. What’s unique and new for AoT however, is the fact that much of it’s criticism is coming from the inside. (more…)