Developed by Remedy Entertainment PLC. Published by 505 Games. The Remedy logo and Northlight are trademarks of Remedy Entertainment Oyj, registered in the U.S. and other countries. Control is a trademark of Remedy Entertainment Oyj. 505 Games and the 505 Games logo are trademarks of 505 Games SpA, and may be registered in the United States and other countries. All other marks and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
An interesting premise, but the combat is annoying and gets stale really fast and the game is riddled with bugs. Omg the bugs... the most interesting for me was that you can't start a new game, all the containers and mission checkpoints are unlocked so you get softlocked at some point during the story.
There are really volumes to write about how bad this game is, but the reason I only rate this 1 star is that this game has the hardest boss of all games: the anchor boss hard crashes the game to desktop, every time. There are countless discussions with several "fixes", none of which worked for me. The developers don't seem to care their game is completely broken despite countless people complaining, and as I couldn't progress past this point I just had to give up.
Unless you're on welfare, the current $10 price for this is a steal. Control isn't perfect, but when it's good it's very, very good. You'll be impressed.
I've taken off a star for being a bit repetetive in the fighting after awhile, and for having a truly dismal upgrade system that amounts to little more than busywork.
Have you ever played a third-person shooter and thought it would be better if the protagonist had psychokinetic powers? If so, here's a game for you! In Control, your gun kind of acts like a support weapon: your true strength lies in superior mobility and the ability to pulverize enemies by throwing energy blasts and random props at their face.
And overall, it's very well executed. There is a simple, raw beauty to the combat, and to the way it gets increasingly insane as you gain new powers: it's not entirely without clumsiness, but the way the heroine destroys the environments during fights is extremely satisfying. The level design is fairly non-linear, and exploring the Bureau is fun and immersive, largely because Control has great atmosphere.
In the Oldest House, a strange place inspired in equal measure by Jungian theory, brutalist architecture and SCP stories, you'll indeed discover a fascinating world of sterile concrete walls and deserted office spaces where everyday items are imbued with surreal powers, and where every employee has a few screws loose. Like in every good horror work, the true monsters of Control are glimpsed at rather than seen... Although Remedy's usual brand of deadpan wackiness brings some levity to it all.
Sadly, Control suffers from, uh... "modern gaming issues". You know, all these RPG-esque mechanics that you've seen in every action game for the past 15 years but never really liked. Crafting, experience gains, upgrade systems, tiered enemies, randomly generated missions and loot... Those contents are meant to add depth to the gameplay, but it's mostly here as padding and does very little to actually enhance the experience. It's easy to imagine a version of Control that would have none of this fluff and remain great.
Still, while Control has its flaws, in the end I can only recommend it. It's one of the most unique shooters to have been released in recent years and a blast to play, at least when it comes to the main story and DLCs.
This game is weird in the best way. The story is very strange but your character is just as weirded out by everything as you will be so you will figure things out together. This is Remedy at their best. Be sure to check out Alan Wake 2 as well.
