Control Ultimate Edition

Great environments, decent story, mid-gameplay with interesting powers laid over tedious 3rd-person shooting. The most useless map in gaming. But overall, please don't buy this buggy "ultimate edition." Came back to this after hearing all the hype for Alan Wake 2. Pretty disgusted with the state of gaming industry that a studio with all the hype and success is still selling a broken game. If I want to start a new game, I have to comepletely delete my exsisting save files and disable cloud saves, because if I try to start the second level, Maintenance, having paritally done it on my first save, the game will confuse its save files and locked me out of progressing the game. Having done that, I am now having a consistent crash when completeing the mission "Captive Audience" to gain the hypnosis power. Checked online to see both these issues are widespread and known for years. FIX YOUR GAME.

Just started playing, so far the story is interesting enough to keep me going. Mind you, it's not opening like ME1/2 or Deus Ex, but still ok. Visuals are top notch, perhaps that adds to the immersion and makes it more believable. I could even consider rating it 5, but... Unfortunately, stability is below average. I originally bought it on Epic, and asked for a refund the very next day: typical gameplay between crashes was ca. 3 minutes. The GoG version seems better, still during first hour it has crashed 3 times, so it is playable, but far from comfort (for comparison the Witcher 3 has crashed for me 2 times in approx. 200h of gameplay). Let's hope it will get better in time.

Almost every aspect of this game fits into it's cheesy, yet spooky atmosphere. The immersion is real here and it's very fun to experience. The powers are diverse and at the start, which one you pick matters quite a bit! Late in the game, with both dlcs, you'll have unlocked most of the powers to max. At that point, you can just play around. I found the storylines, including both expansions to be great experiences. The only things that sucked are... the spawning system, which will sometimes put enemies behind you once you are far enough away from where you came in. The other part that sucks is enemies get more accurate the more you are still. Keep moving, even at point blank range and a lot of enemies will simply miss you most of the time. On the other hand, you can be 50 feet away from a simple enemy and after a few seconds, they will begin repeatedly getting headshots on you. For me this leads to a glass cannon playstyle, where all the melee range skills are completely useless! Want to put up a shield and then wack an enemy with it, only to pull out your shotgun and rail on them with it? Won't work because they don't get staggered by a massive amount of tiny rocks hitting them; unlike when you use your ranged throw power... so you immediatly get shot repeatedly in the head as soon as you drop your shield power.

I am quite a latecomer to this game, but I have to tell everyone: it's brilliant! The only negative thing I can say about this game is the occasional rare crashes. Did not bother me much. Otherwise you will get: - An excellent story, that is wildly different from anything you likely played before. The story and lore is delivered via multiple media (cutscenes, inner monologues, readable stuff, videos) - Gorgeous graphics and art design and atmosphere - Interesting characters - Top notch voice acting and the best lip sync and facial expressions I have ever seen in any game. - Challenging but not frustrating gameplay - Butter smooth combat mechanics, I found it even more flowing than the excellent Horizon: Zero Dawn - Good rpg-ish progression - If you do not want to max out everything, just finish the game it is not grindy Don't miss out on this game.

For the most part this game is a blast. The combat is realistic, the AI pretty challenging (most of the time) and the levels are beautifully designed. The plot will keep your attention if you are into the "Something went wrong in the science lab" genre of FPS games. This game is not only about shootouts though. There are puzzles to solve and a lot of the time, just trying to figure out how to complete some of the missions requires the player to think hard (or at least consult youtube). This was a little frustrating for me at times when I could not understand what exactly I was supposed to do based on the title of a mission. Jessie is a nicely designed character and fun to play. She starts out as a badass and only gets more so. If you are so lucky as to take advantage of Ray Tracing, this game really starts blurring the lines of reality. The rooms, buildings and levels all feel like you are really there sometimes. One major con of this game is that the upgrades you can get to your weapons and Jessie's abilities don't seem to matter much. Maybe a slight boost in energy or a slight reduction in energy cost but nothing that affects the outcome of a battle. The good stuff is awarded at the end of levels and that is what really matters. Speaking of battles, this game can be outright exhausting. The difficulty level gets harder as you progress through it. I often find after facing wave after wave of snipers, grenade launchers, troopers and boss characters I am just done and need to walk away. A better balance of problem solving to endless battles would be better. But I am an older player so take that with a grain of protomolecule. I look forward to what future versions of this game might look and play like.