Remedy Entertainment has had a difficult couple of years, with its Microsoft exclusive games like Alan Wake and Quantum Break not doing as well as it hoped. However, things may be about to change with upcoming game Control, which was initially revealed at last month’s E3 2018. It will be Remedy’s first original and fully-owned IP since the original Max Payne games from the early 2000s, and there looks to be something unique when it comes to the Control gameplay offering.
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Remedy Entertainment CEO Tero Virtala spoke about why Control will be different compared to Quantum Break and Alan Wake. Although those games weren’t successful enough to warrant sequels, Virtala believes that Control “represents a new step for Remedy,” which will be the first game to come out of the company’s new strategy of branching into shorter games and multiple projects.
Instead of the narrative story-driven nature of Remedy’s previous games, Virtala reassures that there will be more focus on gameplay in Control. It will feature faster combat and wider open levels, as well as a Metroidvania-like structure where players can revisit areas to uncover secrets. He also said: “We say that if when a player sees our game, intuitively he or she is not able to compare it immediately with another game, then we have succeeded.”
However, the game will still feature familiar gameplay elements like gunplay, loadouts, and supernatural abilities. He continued: “If players look at our game they will see features they see in other games, but we hope that the entity somehow sparks the imagination of the players and creates interest, and looks somehow fresh and different.”
The story/narrative will still be heavily-focused as well, with a higher possibility of sequels in the future. This is especially so due to the fact that Control will be Remedy’s first multiplatform game in years, releasing on the PS4, Xbox One and PC sometime in 2019. That almost guarantees better sales for the developer this time around. Virtala said: “Now when we have in our hands an IP that we own then definitely we want to bring it to as wide an audience as possible, so it made sense. [Multi-platform] was a natural next step for us.”
While we await the Control release date, you should check out the E3 2018 trailer below.
