Remedy Games' Control Content Roadmap Updated

[Raevenlord]

Control is one of the best non-surprising surprises of this year's gaming scene. Remedy's tale of science fiction and paranatural objects and events is joined with a strong narrative, some of the best environments and art direction we've seen this side of 2019, and strong gunplay to boot. That Remedy isn't finished with exploring the world of Control is a given, and now we have some idea of how things will (para)naturally pan out.

First off, a free content drop coming later this year is a Photo Mode and a new game mode, dubbed Expeditions, which will shore-up endgame content for players who want to get engrossed, without end, in the gameplay of Control. There will also be two paid expansions for the game. The Foundation drops in 2020 with new story missions, enemies, and game mechanics, and will explore the nature of The Oldest House. The second Expansion, AWE (Altered World Event in the games' lingo) will explore the Investigations Sector of the Oldest House and the Federal Bureau of Control. This last one is the most intriguing, and could (tinfoil hat galore) mean a mesh of Control and Alan Wake. We know from Control's lore that the events depicted in Alan Wake are considered an Altered World Event in the game, and that they occur in the same universe. Also, the teaser image recreates the legendary Alan Wake cover art. Perhaps we'll find closure to Alan Wake outside the game proper? I'll be here to see, definitely. Finishing off, the Expansion pass will reportedly be set at a $24.99 pricing, which means individual expansions could go for $14.99 each.



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[BArms]

TIL Control comes out mid-2020.

 

[metalfiber]

Good, I'll have to rehash Alan Wake and Alan Wake's American Nightmare again.

 

[jeremyshaw]

TIL Control comes out mid-2020.

It does. I am not spending any of my money on EGS. GOG or bust, for me.

 

[Valantar]

Tinfoil hat time:

"AWE" = "(the) Alan Wake Expansion"?

Yes, I read the post, I know it has another canonical meaning, but still ... it fits.

Still, I suppose it's good to know this game will still be somewhat fresh when I have the hardware necessary to run it at a reasonable resolution and quality some time next year.

 

[ShurikN]

Roadmap for a 10hr singleplayer game... what a time to be alive.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Roadmap for a 10hr singleplayer game... what a time to be alive.

Hell there is so much to explore I am always finding new areas. I left 10 hours behind long ago, so I’m not sure where you got 10 from.

Anyway, I’m going to be looking forward to more Control adventures! It’s definitely one of the more original games that has been out in awhile.

 

[ShurikN]

Hell there is so much to explore I am always finding new areas. I left 10 hours behind long ago, so I’m not sure where you got 10 from.

The developers said it's 10-15 hours to complete

 

[oxidized]

The developers said it's 10-15 hours to complete

It's pretty short, and the story is pretty weak and confusing, seems like there's too much left unexplained and it seems like there's something missing, gameplay wise it's pretty good actually, could be better but, it's already good, the problem with it is the story and the characters.

 

[Vayra86]

TIL Control comes out mid-2020.

Yeah a roadmap for this type of game... Ill watch from a distance and get the actually complete product in the future.

Taking it a step too far for my liking, this spoonfeeding of content.

Hell there is so much to explore I am always finding new areas. I left 10 hours behind long ago, so I’m not sure where you got 10 from.

Anyway, I’m going to be looking forward to more Control adventures! It’s definitely one of the more original games that has been out in awhile.

Still is a game lacking content if 15 hours is what youll get. Not everyone likes peeking behind every corner in the game...

You dont call every map marker in AC games actual content either, I do hope....

 

[Valantar]

Yeah a roadmap for this type of game... Ill watch from a distance and get the actually complete product in the future.

Taking it a step too far for my liking, this spoonfeeding of content.



Still is a game lacking content if 15 hours is what youll get. Not everyone likes peeking behind every corner in the game...

You dont call every map marker in AC games actual content either, I do hope....

While I mostly agree with what you're saying, 15 hours of high quality content for a full price game is perfectly fine. Period. The last thing the games industry needs is even more focus on stuffing games full of meaningless busywork, which is an inevitable outcome if the audience demands that every game have massive playtimes. The AC series is possibly the prime example of this, but the trend of every damn game being open world just shows how prevalent this is. While I absolutely love long, sprawling RPGs that can last for hundreds of hours (where exploration in itself can be of value) I see nothing wrong whatsoever with paying $60 for a well written and directed 8-10 hour game either. The latter can often be a (far) superior experience precisely because it's tightly controlled and all the chaff is cut away. Trying to quantify the value of a game as hours/$ is an incredibly dumb idea that is all too prevalent among gamers.


So: 15 hour games are perfectly fine. Content roadmaps for single player games are... a bit silly. IMO story DLC is itself a bit silly - if the content is good enough, include it in the main campaign. If it isn't, it isn't good enough to be DLC either. Game makers need to learn to edit themselves.

 

[Vayra86]

While I mostly agree with what you're saying, 15 hours of high quality content for a full price game is perfectly fine. Period. The last thing the games industry needs is even more focus on stuffing games full of meaningless busywork, which is an inevitable outcome if the audience demands that every game have massive playtimes. The AC series is possibly the prime example of this, but the trend of every damn game being open world just shows how prevalent this is. While I absolutely love long, sprawling RPGs that can last for hundreds of hours (where exploration in itself can be of value) I see nothing wrong whatsoever with paying $60 for a well written and directed 8-10 hour game either. The latter can often be a (far) superior experience precisely because it's tightly controlled and all the chaff is cut away. Trying to quantify the value of a game as hours/$ is an incredibly dumb idea that is all too prevalent among gamers.


So: 15 hour games are perfectly fine. Content roadmaps for single player games are... a bit silly. IMO story DLC is itself a bit silly - if the content is good enough, include it in the main campaign. If it isn't, it isn't good enough to be DLC either. Game makers need to learn to edit themselves.

Fully agree with that, dont get me wrong... that roadmap stuff just rubs me the wrong way. Condensed high quality games are fine. But they are also short lived, and the absolute worst candidate for post release dlc. I would much rather see a full package right away at a higher price. This feels a bit like the episodic bullshit Squeenix pulled with Hitman.

Its the combination of short game while presenting cliffhangers, yuck

 

[rtwjunkie]

Yeah a roadmap for this type of game... Ill watch from a distance and get the actually complete product in the future.

Taking it a step too far for my liking, this spoonfeeding of content.



Still is a game lacking content if 15 hours is what youll get. Not everyone likes peeking behind every corner in the game...

You dont call every map marker in AC games actual content either, I do hope....

It’s not incomplete. Everything in the future is extra. You fully complete the game. My only point was the game isn’t 10 hours. It’s right at about 20 for me. That’s a perfectly fine number for a full priced game that is well-written and has excellent gameplay. I’m totally with @Valantar on that point about quality not equalling hours.

I will pay full price or close to it for fewer hours, down to 7 or 8 if it meets my desire for high quality entertainment. So no, 15 hours does not mean it is lacking in content. This game in no way suffers from lack of quality content.

 

[metalfiber]

I can put a good 5hrs into a game a day and it took more than 3 days for me to complete the game...Of coarse, one of those days was comprised of committing suicide.

 

[64K]

My opinion on the length of a game is that it's better to have 8 to 10 hours of quality content than 20 hours with grinding and being sent back and forth across a map to do silly fetch quests to advance the game further. This has happened because gamers complained about games being too short for their $60 years ago so Developers didn't add more quality content. They just added more grinding and boring quests and levels.

 

[Vayra86]

It’s not incomplete. Everything in the future is extra. You fully complete the game. My only point was the game isn’t 10 hours. It’s right at about 20 for me. That’s a perfectly fine number for a full priced game that is well-written and has excellent gameplay. I’m totally with @Valantar on that point about quality not equalling hours.

I will pay full price or close to it for fewer hours, down to 7 or 8 if it meets my desire for high quality entertainment. So no, 15 hours does not mean it is lacking in content. This game in no way suffers from lack of quality content.

Extra chapters... come on. Its not strange to expect the vanilla game to have some semblance of replay value included. Like an infinity mode/arena mode, or new game plus sort of stuff. Or at the very least add it shortly after release as free DLC.

This roadmap reeks of 'we want some extra money for the stuff that should've actually been in there' -DLC and I'm not a fan, so not paying for it. I'll get the whole deal on discount instead.

Borderlands 3 has a similar problem in its own way - you just know they're going to bleed you dry for every inch of endgame content like its an MMO, even though most of the RNG stuff is already there. Control tries something similar but hasn't got the balls to call it a true expansion, this alone speaks volumes.

Sorry - played too many games to not see through this bullshit.

 

[nguyen]

Extra chapters... come on. Its not strange to expect the vanilla game to have some semblance of replay value included. Like an infinity mode/arena mode, or new game plus sort of stuff. Or at the very least add it shortly after release as free DLC.

This roadmap reeks of 'we want some extra money for the stuff that should've actually been in there' -DLC and I'm not a fan, so not paying for it. I'll get the whole deal on discount instead.

Borderlands 3 has a similar problem in its own way - you just know they're going to bleed you dry for every inch of endgame content like its an MMO, even though most of the RNG stuff is already there. Control tries something similar but hasn't got the balls to call it a true expansion, this alone speaks volumes.

Sorry - played too many games to not see through this bullshit.

Huh this game is only 25usd on Epic game store, that is a good price for a 10-15hours main campaign or an episodic installment.

 

[Vayra86]

Huh this game is only 25usd on Epic game store, that is a good price for a 10-15hours main campaign or an episodic installment.

Right, but its still a much better deal when you pay 40-60 for the full thing with all of its content released.

Which is, honestly what I'd much rather do. This isn't about being cheap. Its about how to release a story driven game. When I've played a 10 hour campaign I'm sure as hell not going back for some silly 3 hour DLC months later.... not my style. But give me an actual meaty expansion a'la Blood and Wine in TW3 and I'll get back into it. And similarly, I didn't buy Hitman per episode either, but have no problem paying 60 for the whole game way post launch.