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.
Seriously, this game blew my mind! The rich lore and the lore/action balance are amazing! Also, and I can't stress this enough, thank you for the Assist Mode! I've never been the fastest and most accurate gamer around, but as I'm getting older and slower and whatnot, I appreciate this a lot! I am playing for fun, I have nothing to prove. So thank you again, you're awesome for allowing people like me to enjoy a brilliant Universe. Also, for new players, please, *please*, play Alan Wake! You'll thank me later :) Thank you, Remedy! :)
Loved the Max Payne games back in the day but hated Alan Wake.
This game on the other hand is just great. Congrats Remedy.
Pros:
Good Graphics
Good Performance
Destructible enviorments
Great Mysterious story with xfiles/deadly premonition vibes
Powers of the character are fun
Cons:
-
A solid third-person shooter with an interesting story and setting which is ultimately let down by a host of instability issues. I was eventually forced to give up after 15 hours due to a crash corrupting my save and the only option being to restart a chapter and lose hours of progress. The fact that previous saves are inaccessible is such an incredible no-no.
Like other Remedy games, Control is a third person story driven game. For a story driven game however, a huge percentage of play time is spent using its generic third person shooter mechanics: just six different weapons in a 30 hour game with recharging ammo, a very basic weapon upgrade system, the laziest ability tree I've ever seen with the vast majority of abilities just being the same statistical upgrade, inadequate enemy diversity, inadequate weapon diversity, some basic supernatural abilities like telekinesis, flying and floating, the ability to turn enemies to your side, a shield.
The level design is generally simplistic from a functional perspective resulting in all combat encounters being wave based shooter. The gameplay is weak and too much of a focus. The game is loosely architected similarly to System Shock in that it takes place in a facility with an elevator connecting the different levels. It should have had similarly excellent survival horror gameplay as System Shock 2 as well, which would've been more thematically appropriate.
Now the story: it takes after X-Files and especially SCP. The Federal Bureau of Control (FBC) is a secret government organization that contains paranatural entities. The antagonist is one such entity, the protagonist is fueled by another. World building for FBC is good as you uncover research presentations, research paper, correspondence, and even a puppet show.
Some of the scientific language is off, most prominently the use of "dimensions" which don't refer to spatial dimensions but really other worlds or universes. Technobabble needed refinement. A bit too much of the plot lies on a generic idea of "resonance", which is just an unidentified type of energy responsible for all paranormal stuff including the antagonist and part of the protagonist.
Remedy really tries in the writing department, but has yet to deliver a masterpiece. Ultimately this is hard game to recommend, being 30 hours of weak gameplay.
You don't know how/why you die, and you get punished for it because that side quest you were doing before the mysterious death is no longer active.
As annoying as it is to see health regen in every game, I'd rather have that + ammo than whatever system this is. I appreciate needing to collect health items...but this stupid charge system reeks of developer-dictated-play; I can't play the way I want to. So what if I want to use a weaker weapon against enemies? That's my right to add my own difficulty. Making it so that I will literally be unable to progress (I don't have health regen, but enemies do? TF?) unless I bend the knee to the playstyle the developers enforce on me.
It only gets a 2nd star because it's gorgeous in RTX...but that's it. I'd give it zero+1, but I don't think zero is an option for leaving a review.
