I enjoy everything about this game apart from actually having to play it. I've devoured SCP Foundation content at a couple different points in my life, and whilst Control's slightly more confined possibility space is less compelling to me I could still read the various information logs in this game for hours upon hours. The world of the Oldest House and the Bureau, the assorted AWEs and OoPs, and the story of Jesse and Dylan and how it all ties into this is just fascinating, and whilst the need to confine all of this within the realm of a triple-A game limits how far this can really all be pushed even then the game still goes to some exciting places especially so in the burst of confidence found in the final couple hours. Finding out more about this universe, and the cinematic flair the game is able to bring this to you with, is just a delight.
And then there's actually having to play the game which I don't looove... The first few times the game throws you into its third-person shooter sections it is actually pretty fun! It controls nicely, is reasonably flashy and the various telekinesis abilities are very sweet. The problem is so many of these sections play near identically, the same cycling between shooting an enemy and hurling items with telekinesis whilst you wait for one or the other ability to recharge, occasionally having to dash out the way or towards health pick-ups if you're running low. Even the telekinesis quickly grows dull once you realise you seldom have to find a thing to lift up nor have to put effort into locating the target it'll be fired at; the game just does all of this for you. No matter how much the game tries to throw new enemy types at you it seldom makes the combat encounters feel that meaningfully different and so these sections descend into such unremarkable, textureless mush. I started to actively dread that the game would throw another combat scenario at me whenever I would run across the map to the next quest location marker, and in doing so would delay my progress through this cool world to have to mindlessly cycle through the same two attacks over and over again. Anytime the game would start to get exciting narratively it would then throw another wave of enemies at me, what feels at the time like the worst pace-killer imaginable, and I just...
The cynic in me wonders if this isn't just inevitable on some level? Control is ultimately a big budget, triple-A game so like of course it needs enough of a focus on action-orientated gameplay to bring in a mass audience, of course it always needs to be pointing you exactly in the direction of where you're headed next even though you're in a place that feels like it should inherently have mysterious geometry on some level, of course it should have the wretched, unnecessary, tacked-up on upgrade systems that so many triple-A games do nowadays (with a gacha-esque system thrown in too, even!). Despite all of this maybe I should still be happy that the game rebels against these confines as much as it can, that there is some genuinely bold, exciting stuff in here stylistically, but then I just remember having to fight my fiftieth wave of lookalike glowy-red zombies and I can't help but sigh.
And then there's actually having to play the game which I don't looove... The first few times the game throws you into its third-person shooter sections it is actually pretty fun! It controls nicely, is reasonably flashy and the various telekinesis abilities are very sweet. The problem is so many of these sections play near identically, the same cycling between shooting an enemy and hurling items with telekinesis whilst you wait for one or the other ability to recharge, occasionally having to dash out the way or towards health pick-ups if you're running low. Even the telekinesis quickly grows dull once you realise you seldom have to find a thing to lift up nor have to put effort into locating the target it'll be fired at; the game just does all of this for you. No matter how much the game tries to throw new enemy types at you it seldom makes the combat encounters feel that meaningfully different and so these sections descend into such unremarkable, textureless mush. I started to actively dread that the game would throw another combat scenario at me whenever I would run across the map to the next quest location marker, and in doing so would delay my progress through this cool world to have to mindlessly cycle through the same two attacks over and over again. Anytime the game would start to get exciting narratively it would then throw another wave of enemies at me, what feels at the time like the worst pace-killer imaginable, and I just...
The cynic in me wonders if this isn't just inevitable on some level? Control is ultimately a big budget, triple-A game so like of course it needs enough of a focus on action-orientated gameplay to bring in a mass audience, of course it always needs to be pointing you exactly in the direction of where you're headed next even though you're in a place that feels like it should inherently have mysterious geometry on some level, of course it should have the wretched, unnecessary, tacked-up on upgrade systems that so many triple-A games do nowadays (with a gacha-esque system thrown in too, even!). Despite all of this maybe I should still be happy that the game rebels against these confines as much as it can, that there is some genuinely bold, exciting stuff in here stylistically, but then I just remember having to fight my fiftieth wave of lookalike glowy-red zombies and I can't help but sigh.