The Foundation is the first Control DLC that released several months ago but I am now finally getting around to as all of the DLC is now out! The DLC takes part in... the Foundation, the bottom levels of the Oldest House which you visit briefly in the main campaign to meet with Ahti the All-Powerful-Janitor. As you wander into this new area you learn more about the beginnings of the FBC and how their initial explorations into The Oldest House went (spoiler alert - real bad) and how The Board became a more distinct entity that influenced the Bureau and their relationship with the directorship and the mysterious Former...
So all of that sounds awesome right? And it is pretty good! But ultimately not super satisfying? We get lots of hints that the Board is even more manipulative of the Bureau than we already knew they were which is cool and we learn about their connection to the Astral Plane but nothing is really DONE about it other than Jesse letting us know "She's onto them!" which its like... Duh? We learn a bit more about the early Bureau and how they made their first forays into the house which killed a lot of their people and how Darling's predecessor locked himself into the Foundation for... what exactly? We never learn or even get real hints about what is down there that he finds so fascinating or what he finds to be directly threatening about the board or why he's wary of them. Ultimately this is the fine line of all DLC - how do you have enough happen for it to be relevant to the player and feel meaningful WITHOUT confusing the shit out of regular fans who boot up Control 2 and are like "yo WHEN did all this shit happen?!" and unfortunately Foundation falls off that line into the irrelevancy side.
All that said the good parts of Control is still very much here - the art direction is still absolutely stellar with some stark red sand and white stone all over the place and mysteeeerious light sources projected through small apertures making everything lit VERY dramatically (perhaps a bit too much..?) and it all looks exceptional. The combat is still solid but I'm still mostly just hurling things telekinetically while hovering over chaotic battlefields and having a pretty dope-ass time with it. Scattered about are lots of little notes and audio logs detailing the workings of the bureau and they're all still some combination of creepy/funny/intriguing. DLC itself lasts a few hours and also gives us a bit of closure on where Marshall went off to but she gets a pretty meh send-off for a character who we are CONSTANTLY told she's a badass... she literally does nothing badass that we see..?
All in all The Foundation is a decent enough expansion to Control that offers more of what we love even if there's not a whoooole lot of substance to chew on. We get no real conversations with any NPCs other than Emily who just spouts exposition about the story and there's no meaningful move forward in the main plot of the game - nothing more about the Hiss, about Hedron, or about Dylan. Just a little sidetrip to an ancient part of the Bureau and fighting some more red dudes. Damn that 80's movie sidequest though is great hahahaha... On to Alan Wake!
So all of that sounds awesome right? And it is pretty good! But ultimately not super satisfying? We get lots of hints that the Board is even more manipulative of the Bureau than we already knew they were which is cool and we learn about their connection to the Astral Plane but nothing is really DONE about it other than Jesse letting us know "She's onto them!" which its like... Duh? We learn a bit more about the early Bureau and how they made their first forays into the house which killed a lot of their people and how Darling's predecessor locked himself into the Foundation for... what exactly? We never learn or even get real hints about what is down there that he finds so fascinating or what he finds to be directly threatening about the board or why he's wary of them. Ultimately this is the fine line of all DLC - how do you have enough happen for it to be relevant to the player and feel meaningful WITHOUT confusing the shit out of regular fans who boot up Control 2 and are like "yo WHEN did all this shit happen?!" and unfortunately Foundation falls off that line into the irrelevancy side.
All that said the good parts of Control is still very much here - the art direction is still absolutely stellar with some stark red sand and white stone all over the place and mysteeeerious light sources projected through small apertures making everything lit VERY dramatically (perhaps a bit too much..?) and it all looks exceptional. The combat is still solid but I'm still mostly just hurling things telekinetically while hovering over chaotic battlefields and having a pretty dope-ass time with it. Scattered about are lots of little notes and audio logs detailing the workings of the bureau and they're all still some combination of creepy/funny/intriguing. DLC itself lasts a few hours and also gives us a bit of closure on where Marshall went off to but she gets a pretty meh send-off for a character who we are CONSTANTLY told she's a badass... she literally does nothing badass that we see..?
All in all The Foundation is a decent enough expansion to Control that offers more of what we love even if there's not a whoooole lot of substance to chew on. We get no real conversations with any NPCs other than Emily who just spouts exposition about the story and there's no meaningful move forward in the main plot of the game - nothing more about the Hiss, about Hedron, or about Dylan. Just a little sidetrip to an ancient part of the Bureau and fighting some more red dudes. Damn that 80's movie sidequest though is great hahahaha... On to Alan Wake!