Disclosure: I love Control and my review is biased. Control is peak Sam Lake and Remedy. Expect a great story, told not without imperfections, with diverse characters that you'll love, hate, or be ambivalent on. Voice acting is pretty top notch, and the motion capture does a great job to match. Graphically speaking, Control leans into the realistic but with a cohesive and well done art style. A little too early to tell, but I think it'll hold up well in the years to come. Gameplay? I love the 3rd-Person running and gunning and bevy of superpowers, the gameplay and combat was super smooth for me and once you find your playstyle you'll be hooked. Combat is split between various "firearms" and powers. While there is only one wrong choice (Melee is bad, don't do Melee), the Yeetus-Deletus power and its upgrades are much better than others. So some balance tweaks were due. but passed over. The writing is...very very good. Clever, funny in the right places and maintaining seriousness when appropriate. Any humour inserted into a serious moment is well-delivered as gallows humour. I can't get into specifics without spoilers, but the in-universe setup and world building is excellent. And the DLC? Get the Ultimate Edition. Run, don't walk, to the checkout.
Disclosure: I haven't tried the GoG release, played on PS3 hardware. So Bound by Flame is an interesting little game that I had originally played, a fun budget title from the PSN back in the day. For $7 CAD? You literally gonna go wrong. Make no mistake, this is not a Triple A title, it is firmly B Tier and that's a very good thing. The world needs more B Tier games. Overall story is pretty good, nothing truly innovative but honestly it approaches some themes better than other big budget games. Mechanics? A great Action RPG with a couple of different build options...that have a lot of impact on the game's overall plot, story, and ending. Want to be a fire-slinging demon swordsman? Power comes at a price, but rejecting the corruption makes things much harder on yourself. Overall, I love Bound by Flame and was really wishing it would be ported to PC...and then it was. Hurray!
With just shy of 560 hours on record, I think it would be redundant to say I like the game. Instead let's talk about the Pros and Cons. Pros? Almost unlimited creativity and customization. Having cleared everything the game can throw at you, there are virtually no missions where not having a certain mech or build or strategy results in a game over immediately. The life management sim aspect is a mile wide and several feet deep. Lots of RNG but for better or worse the random events rarely have a lasting impact outside of losing a pilot or gaining one. Some of the events even have sequel events that can pay dividends later on. Hint: you want to build a pool. You can absolutely overlevel and walk through missions the game sets up as snatching victory from the jaws of death, because there's an infinite amount of side content. Doubly so with the Flashpoint DLC. Patches have also greatly increased the amount of control you have over difficulty and certain gameplay elements, such as number of parts necessary to build a mech and if it comes fully equipped and an Ironman mode. The story is extremely well done in my opinion, easy 7.5/10 with some truly detestable villains. Cons? A select few missions are complete bullcrap. Doing a base defense against waves? You best believe enemy mechs are going to spawn within walking distance of them, often getting a turn before you can even see them and destroying your precious bonus C-Bills and buildings. There's a certain story mission I won't detail because Spoilers, but trash Mechs and NPCs against overwhelming odds isn't super fun. The game is also...janky. Running slow for no reason, loading saves can break missions, etc. It has gotten better with modern hardware and patches, but still. Also the RNG Seed is only reset if you reset the whole mission. Overall? Buy the game and DLC, mod it as you like, and remember to come up for food and water.
