Remedy Entertainment has been hard at work on their next big ambitious title Control. With the likes of Alan Wake and Max Payne already in their portfolio, it will be interesting to see how things play out when their next game arrives later this year. That said, the studio is definitely looking to change things up with the upcoming adventure, especially as a heavy focus will be placed on the exploration aspect. The devs are seemingly placing their faith in that, as they feel the perfect 30-second loop strategy of yesteryear is no longer enough to captivate an audience.
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In the most recent issue of the Official Xbox Magazine, an interview with Control director Mikael Kasurinen was published, during which he stated that while that strategy worked well in the past, especially with Halo, it’s just not enough anymore. “You look back on our previous games, Alan Wake had a flashlight, and that’s all he did; with Quantum Break we went a step further with the time mechanics… but there was also a little bit of a limit to how far we could go,” he said. “Essentially, there are no limits in Control – we don’t say that it’s just time, or it’s just light and shadows, we open up possibilities.
“Which allows us to manoeuvre and find what’s fun without being limited by the context we set ourselves. We like strong themes. ‘Okay, this is all about bullet time or this is all about light,’ it helps us to have a focus on the game, which is always healthy and good, but it maybe also comes from a different age and time. It was a common philosophy in the early ’00s: perfect that 30-second loop. Like what Halo did, perfect that one loop, make headshots feel good, and then you repeat that endlessly. It was a common strategy, and it was a good strategy, but I don’t think that’s enough anymore.”
The director went on to say how you have to have other aspects as well. It’s all about multiple layers. “You have to have that, but then you have to have other layers to the experience – progression, strong characters, an interesting world to explore,” he said. “Even when they don’t play the game we want people to think about it, ‘Okay what will I do when I get back in the evening and return to playing Control? Will I tackle a side-mission?’ It’s a different age, I think. Our philosophy looking at game design needs to change as well, so it can’t be just fight with light, it needs to be more than that and that’s what we are doing with Control.”
Control is set to arrive on August 27th for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. For more information on the upcoming game, check out some of our previous coverage.
What do you think about all of this? Are you expecting quite the experience from Control? Do you agree with the director that there needs to be more to a game? Sound off in the comment section below, or feel free to hit me up over on Twitter @anarkE7!
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