In news that has nerds everywhere immediately launching into rampant speculation (myself included), Remedy Entertainment has announced that Control 2 will be an action RPG.
This has confused many (again, myself included), partly because Control was definitely not an action RPG, Remedy isn’t known for making RPGs, and nobody actually knows what an action RPG really is in this day and age.
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What Is An Action RPG?
Even the term itself is confusing. ARPGs and action RPGs technically fall under the same umbrella, but ARPGs are generally Diablo-likes like Path of Exile, and action RPGs are, I don’t know, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, just off the top of my head.
On top of that, RPG mechanics have permeated into triple-A to such an extent that most modern action games have some form of them. Pretty much every action game has levels and skill trees. Not all of those games are necessarily RPGs, but they have light RPG mechanics.
Dragon Age: the Veilguard has been most heavily compared to God of War, which is not considered an RPG even though they share a lot of similar ideas. The lines between genres are very blurry, to say the least. It’s hard to pin down exactly what makes an action game qualify as an RPG, what mechanics have to be included for it to count, and how many.
Action RPGs are narrative- and character-focused, unless they’re not, and are more concerned with the world and lore surrounding them. They usually involve player choices, unless they don’t, and your experience is on rails. They show characters developing by gaining experience, levels, and skills, unless… well, that’s probably the one thing that most games have nowadays, which means it isn’t even exclusive to RPGs anymore.
The Witcher 3 is considered an action RPG because it allows you to make choices. Assassin’s Creed games are also largely considered action RPGs, but I don’t think of that series at all when I think of action RPGs. Are immersive sims like BioShock action RPGs? Star Wars Outlaws is considered an action adventure game, but it has all the traits of an action RPG. What gives? It’s all too ephemeral and vibes-based to really mean anything anymore.
What Does Control 2 Being An Action RPG Mean?
So when Remedy says Control 2 will be an action-RPG, what does it mean? The studio does seem to be very clear that the sequel will be very different from the first game, as in the same presentation where this was first announced, it called Control an action-adventure, not an action RPG.
That’s fair, considering Control only had the lightest of RPG mechanics – namely, a skill tree. Really, that’s all I can think of. Control 2 being an action RPG implies the addition of basically any other RPG mechanic, possibly multiple.
In a statement to GameSpot, Remedy said, “Control 2 is a natural continuation to the first game, holding on to key tenets of storytelling and spectacle, but leaning even further into player agency, exploration and RPG mechanics.” What does that mean? Will our choices as Jesse Faden affect the narrative? Will we have any form of character customisation? I’m afraid to even type this, but… will Control 2 have an open world?
Remedy has never made an RPG before, but then again, it hadn’t made a survival horror game before Alan Wake 2, and that was a very good one. Considering that Remedy is a studio that continually tries to push boundaries and makes weird, beautiful games, I’m very much looking forward to whatever it makes. It remains to be seen how much of an action RPG it’ll actually shake out to be, though.
Control puts you in the shoes of Jesse Faden, the newly installed Director of the Federal Bureau of Control. You must explore the organization’s headquarters, uncovering its mysteries and contending with a supernatural force named the Hiss.