Control 2 will be an “action RPG”, Remedy Entertainment has stated, but before you use telekinesis to throw things at the wall, they actually define the first game as a “focused action-adventure RPG” as well. I think that’s a technobabble way of saying “Metroidvania” without invoking intergalactic bounty hunters and vampire hunters.
The problem is that as soon as that’s reduced down to “action RPG” for a BlueSky post, it actually then invokes a very different mental image filled with Witchers and Viking assassins, where numbers pop off enemies as you fight them. Strictly speaking, there is an RPG character progression system as you gain abilities and then empower them, and there’s definitely action and a kind of adventuring, but these particular terms are now so broad as to be meaningless.
The thing is that “action RPG” is just being used as shorthand when filling out a table. Here’s a slide, alongside which CFO Santtu Kallionpää describes Control 2 as being in the “action-adventure role playing genre” – here at the 57 minute mark.
Later, when describing the main franchises, they’re shown as:
The most important thing to know is that Control 2 will be like Control. Less important is to define what Control was, but if I had to, I’d call it a third person shooter Metroidvania.
Giving a broad presentation for Capital Markets Day, Remedy gave an update on the overarching business, how their games have performed, the studio’s continuing ethos and an small insight into their future plans.
Alan Wake 2 has now sold 1.8 million copies, for example, while Control has now passed 4.5 million sold (though there’s 19 million players, thanks to PS Plus, Game Pass and other promotions. Both a key pillars in a connected Remedy universe, and alongside FBC Firebreak, provide three contrasting but complimentary genres.
Control, as we’ve already covered, is a Metroidvania that you could technically call a focused action-adventure RPG. Alongside that we have Alan Wake as a survival horror – this has morphed somewhat from the original game to Alan Wake 2, but the descriptor is now perfect and makes sense. Lastly there’s FBC Firebreak, which “session-based co-op shooter” describes pretty much perfectly.
Those are the three paths for Remedy’s self-publishing efforts, all using their in-house Northlight engine, which they see to be a real strength and distinguishing factor over adopting Unreal. The final avenue not really discussed is the Max Payne remake project, which is being kept separate as it will be published by Rockstar.
It was also announced that Control will receive a free update early next year, which will unlock previously-released content for all players, and Control Ultimate Edition will arrive for Mac on 12th February 2025.
Source: Remedy
