a bit better than i had thought but still easily the black sheep of Remedy's catalog (well hopefully, i still need to play Alan Wake 2 after i replay Control and do its DLC) with nothing else coming close.

i don't know, i just find myself feeling more charitable about it all in a post-Control world. like yeah the gameplay is serviceable and the powers themselves leave barely any impression but when you look at it as something of a prototype for what was to come it's whatever.

the tv show format is interesting, though it is a gag that it came years late after the whole mess with Xbox/Microsoft and tv (to think i find myself craving for that vs the past few days at this point...) among other things. i'm not usually into time travel stories but i enjoyed the characters and was mildly invested. it's a bummer this left things open but we'll probably never see it followed up on. i think Remedy did something with similar but not the same character stand-ins or at least the same cast members later on so it's fine.

final boss is bad to a baffling extent still, especially with the load times this game has. what the hell were they thinking?

Control is another incredibly unique experience from Remedy. From its gripping start that left me wanting more, to plenty of secrets and rich lore waiting to be uncovered, it's a game that pulls you in and keeps you hooked. The intriguing storyline, the immersive atmosphere, the amazing sound design, and the sheer thrill and fun of hurling all kinds of objects at otherworldly beings all contribute to its unique charm.

But as the hours passed, the gameplay loop of navigating the same environments, fighting the Hiss, and cleansing the control points started to feel a bit too repetitive. While the storytelling remained creative and engaging, the lack of variation in enemies and scenery became a noticeable drawback. This honestly slowed me down quite a bit as my play sessions became less and less frequent. As much as I love story-driven games, the gameplay loop just didn't click with me as much as I wish it did. Which is a shame, because the actual gameplay with all the fun physics and abilities is buttery smooth.

Overall, I'm glad that I finally got the time to play Control and experience something special. Just like Alan Wake, Control stands as a fantastic testament to creative storytelling. It's a perfect example of how story-driven games can unfold in innovative ways.

And the Ashtray Maze was just freaking awesome. Ahti has great taste in music.

Harry Whatsapp
Kim Kitsuragi: You should kill yourself NOW.
Titus Hardie: You should kill yourself NOW.
Kim Kitsuragi: I NEED cock detective
Cuno: You should kill yourself NOW.
Garte: You should kill yourself NOW.
Sans Undertale: Can I borrow 500 réal

Makes sense that most of the communist-chanting options are played almost as jokes, because no one believes those grand statements anymore. More than that, they can't believe. They almost lost their meaning. This town is more complicated than all of that.

The sense of longing and the pain that comes from nostalgia are not enough: the world, the people, society, they have layers and layers. Reality is broken, and the past holds too many traumas for everyone. But you can still peel most of those layers, and get to the bottom of the heart. It doesn't feel like a task or a chore in any moment, it's like the answers are always driving you forward in such a small and concrete environment. You HAVE to keep going!! Be the detective, untangle every mess in your life and roll those dice!!!

It almost feels silly to call anything else an RPG now that this exists. It's a perfect culmination of the idea of injecting stats and rolls and modifiers into a game that actually lets you play a role, to define who this amnesiac man is and how he relates to the world he inhabits.

And what a world: broken and tragicomic, Revachol comes off at first glance as a bitter satire written by a disillusioned leftist. But the deeper you dive, the more it opens up into something haunting and beautiful in its own right, with even a faint glimmer of hope hidden among the ruins. No people is truly broken, argues Disco Elysium, while they still have hearts to care for one another and arms to link against their oppressors.