Is there anything gayer than two bros decked out in military gear relying on each other to get over small walls, all while shooting down countless enemies? According to creative director Alex Hutchinson, no, not really.
Since its release, many gamers have pointed out the clear homoeroticism of EA’s underrated 2010 shooter. “Are they brothers or are they gay?” reads one blog post from that year, referring to the relationship between Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem.
Speaking to FRVR, The 40th Day creative director Alex Hutchinson—who recently released the brilliant co-op adventure Revenge of the Savage Planet—explained that the sequel obviously worked to play into the homoeroticism that saw the original game added to the list of “Most Offensive” games by a Christian investment firm in 2008.
Talking on an upcoming episode of our podcast, Hutchinson said: “I still think Army of Two is the gayest game ever made. And I think that’s great!”.
Following his work on Spore as a lead designer, Hutchinson became the creative director of the Army of Two sequel before joining Ubisoft to work as the creative director of Assassin’s Creed 3, the game that killed Desmond Miles.
Speaking of Army of Two’s definitely-just-friends protagonists, Hutchinson said: “I mean, it’s two men who love each other deeply and will do anything for each other, you know?”
The developer explained that the team even planned to let Rios and Salem kiss if players continued to use the new mechanic that let players send positive affirmations to each other during gameplay. Unfortunately, EA wouldn’t let that slide.
“We added positive and negative emotes so you can sort of goof around with your buddy as well,” he continued. “And if you keep pressing the positive emote in 40th Day, you know, first they sort of fist bump, then they slap each other’s back and then I wanted them to raise their masks and make out. And everyone’s like, ‘You can’t do that!’ And I’m like, ‘What else does anyone expect if they hammer the positive emote button a hundred times’, right?”
While EA wouldn’t let Rios and Salem kiss, Hutchinson did sneak one special animation into the game. “I got it to the point where if you do it like 70 times, they hug and then they hold it [for] an uncomfortable length of time and then they look awkward. So, that’s as close as I could get.”
While making two guys kiss in a AAA video game now would draw the ire of countless internet moaners, Hutchinson explained that “games are about player expression and, you know, we should let people express themselves”. After all, everyone was already convinced that Army of Two was as gay as gay could be, why not let them have that?
