How often do we see game sequels totally shift genres?

How often do we see game sequels totally shift genres? | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these RPG ‘We lost things such as physics in games:’ The dev behind my most anticipated RPG thinks players are craving more interactive games, not just ‘moving around in a static 3D environment’ Third Person Shooter Arrowhead wants Helldivers 2’s assault on Cyberstan to really sell the promise of the Galactic War: ‘We don’t know how it will play out. 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Features By Wes Fenlon Contributions from Christopher Livingston, Tyler Wilde, Rory Norris, Lauren Morton, Andy Chalk published 17 February 2026 The upcoming Control: Resonant moves from shooter to melee action. You sure don’t see that very often. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter PC Gamer Get the PC Gamer Newsletter Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday GamesRadar+ Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you’re going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. Signup + Every Thursday GTA 6 O’clock Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O’clock experts. Signup + Every Friday Knowledge From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what’s on the horizon. Signup + Every Thursday The Setup Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more. Signup + Every Wednesday Switch 2 Spotlight Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo’s new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play. Signup + Every Saturday The Watchlist Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we’ve got you covered. Signup + Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Signup + An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter CONTROL Resonant – Official Gameplay Reveal | State of Play – YouTube Watch On Max Payne and Alan Wake developer Remedy Entertainment has spent most of its life making third-person shooters. Its 2019 hit Control, which gave you some telekinetic powers but also a transforming pistol, mostly stuck to that format—while also proving that the third-person shooting really isn’t why anyone’s playing Remedy games.We play them for the settings, the stories, the vibes. In the more literary words of PC Gamer reviewer James Davenport, Control was “littered with mundane objects made fascinating and sinister, treating Jungian ideas of the collective subconscious and a touch of Baudrillard’s hyperreality as the foundation for its paranormal logic.””Finally, mainstream sci-fi that isn’t spaceships and militarism and hot green men,” James said—and with those words ringing in your ears, perhaps it’s not surprising at all that Control’s sequel seems to be ditching Remedy’s tried-and-true third-person shooting to become… Bayonetta? Related articles The new Control game isn’t a shooter, it’s not set in the Oldest House, and it doesn’t star Jesse Faden—but, y’know, otherwise it seems like a faithful follow-up Control: Resonant serves up our first good look at its weird new outdoors world at Sony’s State of Play showcase ‘I consider it a millennial shooter’: The FPS dev making hit shooters by leaning into ‘2007-core’ Game spin-offs gleefully hop genres all the time, but how often do direct sequels make such dramatic pivots? Resonant got us pondering. Here are some of the best examples we’ve come up with from the annals of PC gaming (and a few that aren’t technically direct sequels, but we couldn’t resist including them anyway).Fallout 3Image 1 of 2(Image credit: Bethesda Softworks)(Image credit: Genin32)Bethesda threw fans for a loop when they bought the rights to Fallout and shifted Interplay’s series from isometric turn-based games into first- and third-person action RPGs. Many Fallout fans were repulsed by the genre switch-up (I’d be willing to bet some still are) but it’d be hard to argue that Bethesda’s gamble didn’t pay off bi