An absolute all-timer dungeon crawler with a super impressive map & fun combat. It's held back by some really dreary visuals, and the removal of towns (and no all-heal) makes the rest-fight loop get tiring, but the insane combat difficulty and quality of cartography keeps this entertaining anyway. Was my first Wizardry and it set the bar very high. Would come highly recommended if it weren't for the absurdly racist bit in the middle, so uh, watch out for that first (it's slightly less bad on snes).

Graphix: 10/10
Story: 6/10
Art: 11/10
Gameplay: 5/10

a perfect representation of everything that makes gaming epic -- reviewed in the only way that matters

I'm blown away by how excruciating this game is.

Everything about it is laborious, like a relic of the worst elements of 3D platformers made years prior, with none of the charm. The controls feel like you're swimming through molasses and had me double checking to make sure I didn't accidentally turn off game mode on my TV.

Lead designer George Andreas later stated they should have scrapped Kameo and started over, and I have to agree. Its troubled development really shows and it's hard to believe Rare could make a game this bad.

Neat little 'irreality' game by the guys behind Alan Wake, Quantum Break, and the Max Payne writer. Remedy, at least from what I've seen, have always had a keen sense for aesthetics, and Control exceeds the mark. It doesn't always hold-up to it's own standard though; they're some areas that are way too rote and generic for this type of game, but there are some really strong areas and levels, with the Ashtray Maze being probably one of my favorite levels of the 2010's. The combat starts a little slow albeit serviceable, but with the access to each successive psionic power the game really opens up. By the time you have levitation, combat has evolved to a dynamic, fully 3-D spectacle of particle effects and psionics, with debris flying everywhere, makeshift cover quickly appearing and disappearing, and a variety of engages and disengages as you switch between your pistol types. It's actually quite difficult as well, with health regen only occuring on enemy death, so knowing the proper weakness and counters for every enemy type is crucial, enhancing the combat stakes even further.

The narrative is unfortunately carried very heavily by the direction; the director was behind Alan Wake so you know you're getting best-in-class stuff, but Sam Lake isn't in his Max Payne days anymore. By way of being a supernatural FBI story, there's some portents of metaphysics and bureaucratic critique here, but it fails to be meaningful in anyway, and the story just plainly falls flat on its face in the last 2 minutes, despite an excellent 1-2 hours beforehand. Still the direction is excellent, and as an audiovisual experience there are really some striking visuals and sequences, as well as the frequent use of visual imposing that is well-handled. Definitely my least favorite of the big weirdo trio in 2019, but a very strong game nonetheless.

WE HAVE ACQUIRED TECHNOLOGY!

“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.”

-- Ursula K. Le Guin, Datalinks