Remedy has shared new details about Condor, its live service Control spin-off

[mgftp]

Remedy has shared new details about Codename Condor, its co-op multiplayer Control spin-off.

Billed as the studio’s “first step towards service-based games”, the title has an initial development budget of €25 million ($27.1m).

Built on Remedy’s in-house Northlight engine, it’s set to enter full production this year for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

“After the Hiss Invasion, the Oldest House is under lockdown: a boiling pot of volatile and dangerous supernatural forces,” Remedy said of the game in its annual financial report.

“Trapped within is the last vestige of the Federal Bureau of Control who will need to take a stand and push back to regain control. Desperate times require desperate measures. And everyone’s needed.

“The Control franchise is larger than one story, or one character,” it continues. “With codename Condor, we invite players on a collective journey into the depths of the Oldest House.

“Within, they’ll face overwhelming enemies and obstacles, but by relying on their gear and each other, they will have a chance for survival.”

Remedy also confirmed that Condor will be a “service-based fixed price” game rather than a free-to-play title.

“These are premium games that may have a lower initial price point but a long tail of revenue through updates, game expansions and potentially microtransactions,” it said.

505 Games
Among other projects in the works at Remedy, its Max Payne 1 & 2 Remake is also in the production readiness stage.

The game is being funded by Rockstar Games and has “a similar development budget as Alan Wake 2”, according to Remedy CEO Tero Virtala.

The studio also recently said players should expect a “more regular cadence of sequels” for Alan Wake and Control.

Control is still the most overrated game of all time IMO. I'd rather get split roasted by two dudes than entertain playing another similar game.

[JayJ350]

[SirFapsAIot]

Control is still the most overrated game of all time IMO. I'd rather get split roasted by two dudes than entertain playing another similar game.

You already get spit roasted while going skiing, so that's not saying much

[Coal Man]

You already get spit roasted while going skiing, so that's not saying much

He always uses the spit roasting analogy when making this sorta comment lmao

[SirFapsAIot]

He always uses the spit roasting analogy when making this sorta comment lmao

He's not lying.

[nkiritsis13]

Remedy in general is one of the most overrated developers out there, and I should at least be somewhere in the same zip code as in their target audience since I like horror, and the more cosmic the better.

I could never wrap my head around why anyone gave a schit about Alan Wake back in the 360 days, especially when it turned out to be flashlight tag against basic bitch shadow monsters, let alone how anyone could give a schit about the SBI sequel. Now with Control, I could at least see the general appeal of their "SCP at home" game, but apparently they couldn't one up shadow monsters and went with more generic, possessed pricks with a lightbulb shoved so far up their ass that their heads glow red.

What absolutely kills it for me is that the player has all of these super powers, which conceptually defeats the entire point of any sort of unimaginable, mysterious, cosmic horror/paranormal/whatever theme. All of the physics and lighting I've seen are impressive, but it just makes the combat and gameplay loop in general come off more like a tech demo shoved into the wrong type of game when the last thing it needs is for some kind of super power-fantasy against already pretty damn standard spoopy enemies. As much as I hate super powers/"the force" crap, that sort of physics gameplay would be fine for pretty much any other type of action game since it wouldn't detract from the sense that you are in a weaker position than the unknown entities you're facing.

Remedy also confirmed that Condor will be a “service-based fixed price” game rather than a free-to-play title.

“These are premium games that may have a lower initial price point but a long tail of revenue through updates, game expansions and potentially microtransactions,” it said.

Bruh. Brother, even.

For studio so far up their ass that they need a professional victim/sensitivity reader to write their Stephen King fanfics, that's the most corporately glazed wording to say they want in on the "milking dumbschit consumers who don't know any better" trend for their executives.

How would microtransactions even look for something based on Control? Would they charge you to make it more or less woke?

But seriously, the human side of the whole game is just regular suits against walking red litebrites, many of whom are also regular suits or security guards, and I can't picture them selling pocket protector skins. So if you either severely limit or remove cosmetics from the "micro"transaction pool, then that just leaves pain-in-the-ass game design meant to nudge players into buying reprieves. Then again, "Condor" is supposed to be a multiplayer game, so how else do you inject FOMO that necessitates bloated install sizes to include all of the garish skins you're meant to buy out of envy?

Who knows, though. Maybe they totally cracked the code for microtransactions that don't suck balls and feel like the developers are giving you the middle finger when shareholders.

*This game was giving me some deja vu, and it just struck me that it reminds me a hell of a lot like Redfall before they realized that microtransactions wouldn't fly, down to it also being a co-op game.

Even better, it's supposedly [url=https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/remedy-comms-director-says-upcoming-live-service-control-spin-off-is-for-fans-we-dont-have-yet-as-he-muses-on-how-challenging-the-co-op-multiplayer-space-is/]"for fans we [Remedy] don't have yet." The same director is even aware "how challenging the co-op multiplayer space is," so again, good luck. I hope they're taking notes from Helldivers 2, who are at least sensible enough to know that you can't make a game for everyone, which every other GAAS game keeps trying to be, only to fail to capture that mythical group they're trying to appeal towards.