Control Is Less Static And Predefined Than Previous Remedy Games, Says Director

Remedy Entertainment have talked in the past about how their upcoming Control is very different from games they’ve put out in the past, and based on everything that we’ve seen of it so far, that definitely seems to be true. Recently, while speaking with Game Informer, game director Mikael Kasurinen went into a little more detail about just how that is the case.

Essentially, thanks to a Metroidvania approach to level design, a new system for artificial intelligence, and a combination of in-game abilities, Control promises to be a lot more open ended than previous Remedy titles, which have, in Kasurinen’s words, typically been a lot more static and scripted. 

“Previous Remedy games tended to be quite linear,” said Kasurinen. “Here, we have shifted our goal so that we have more complex scenarios with our different abilities and you choose the way you want to fight.”

Kasurinen first spoke about the game’s intertwining level design in detail, speaking about how exactly it goes for a Metroidvania approach as opposed to previous Remedy titles’ linear progression. “Through the main campaign, you upgrade your security clearance through this world,” he said. “And to do that you can actually unlock more different kind of doors and gateways. Early in the game, you will face certain doors you can’t access yet. As you go through the campaign and through the world, you get a higher clearance and you can go back to these areas that you had to skip initially. On top of that, we have also areas that are limited by the ability you have, for instance, levitation.”

Abilities, of course, change the way you approach combat as well, with encounters offering players a lot more freedom in how they choose to take on enemies. “It means that the combination of what abilities you have, how you have upgraded them, what weapon mods and character mods you have actually affects the way you fight your way through these scenarios,” said Kasurinen.

“We have basically a sandbox environment and looking at previous games they were more linear,” he continued. “Let’s say more static, more predefined. We scripted every single enemy where they appeared and how and so on. In this game it’s all procedural. The enemies are spawned by a system and all of these things can support this world that is open-ended.”

Recently, details for Control on microtransactions, DLC, and a lot more were also revealed- read all about it through here. Control launches this Summer for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC.