Remedy is slowly building up its Connected Universe with games like Alan Wake 2 and Control, but it still wants to make sure each game is enjoyable on its own.
Easily one of the biggest problems with things like the MCU these days is that there’s just so much you have to watch to understand the newest entry. A lot of those projects just stand on their own, you have to watch something else to fully appreciate them, and that’s specifically something Remedy is trying to avoid, apparently. Creative director Sam Lake recently spoke with IGN about the Remedy Connected Universe, where he noted that the developer is only “just getting started” and that right now it’s “too early to start talking about an endgame.” But he also made it clear that Remedy wants each game to be something that can be enjoyed in its own right.
“I love tying these things together. I love making it deeper and expanding on the lore,” Lake explained. “It really feels like this kind of opportunity to take these strands that we have put there, expand, entertain different ideas. It feels really exciting. And the way we are looking at it is, every game needs to be enjoyable on its own and stand on its own feet, but then, for our fans, for people who have been playing other Remedy games, we want to put in a lot of content for them to discover for the ongoing universe story.”
Despite the fact that this Connected Universe only really got started with Control, you can feel this intention already in effect – I played Alan Wake after Control, and definitely didn’t feel like I was missing out. Plus, it inspired me to go and play Alan Wake, so, nice one, Remedy! Mission accomplished.
Of course, there’s a lot coming up for Remedy at the moment too. There’s Control 2, for one, but also FBC: Firebreak, a three-player, first-person shooter set within the titular Federal Bureau of Control. Exciting stuff!