Like with most games I think there are two ways to look at Control. And in this case it's interesting because that's exactly what I did. Once in 2019 and today in 2024.
Back when I first played it I was basically expecting a super creative and wild shooter with supernatural elements, and in a way that's exactly what it is, but the shooting or rather the entire combat let me down quite a bit.
It certainly did not help that I first played it on a base PS4 that had some serious performance issues but that wasn't really the main issue. I wanted to shoot things, fly around, explore and use crazy powers and the game turned out to not be that fun.
Combat in Control is pretty broken honestly. I instantly figured out that the Launch ability is the way to go after seeing that every new unlocked skill gives it another insane damage boost. I one-shotted most of the enemies and the ones that survived simply got hit with another Launch attack. It made large amounts of the game very trivial. Even enemies that dodge your launch can just be hit with another one right after. And when your ability gauge is empty you can just shoot enemies with the pretty powerful Pierce weapon and you're probably already full again.
It's okay for the game not to be hard and nobody forced me to use the dominant strategy. I did mix it up a lot and tried to build an army with the seize ability in some fights. I also used the shield more often, but realistically these are just options that drag out fights and there are tons of them. Later on they get a little more crazy and you get to fly around a lot mid-battle and it's a layer of the combat I really enjoyed but after a while even that gets a little stale when you're still just launching items around and effectively make yourself a bigger target.
The skill tree and the mod system are things that make some sense in a longer and open game like this, but I don't think it really added much to the game since most skills simply are not interesting. 90% of it boils down to raising percentages. Ideally in a skilltree you're making some tough decisions to decide what character you're going for, but Control does not really have that.
You can't really be a specific version of Jesse Faden, you're always playing roughly the same. The whole combat system revolves around launching things and every point you're not putting into that effectively means you could be stronger. Putting some points into your energy and health is a given. Everything else is just a bonus. There are some cool perks you can acquire but most of them are in the Launch tree anyway ... I got the ground slam since that's a fun one, but it's the second thing you can unlock for levitation and you get it so late into the game that your character is mostly set anyway, so it's once again not really an interesting choice to make.
The mod system is similar. I'm not even gonna get into the inventory for it being too small, the whole thing is just there. I don't really want to repeat what I said above, so I'm making it short: It's another aspect of the game where you're just going to focus on damage and health. If you happen to get those drops anyway. Otherwise you'll just take more ammo or recharge or whatever. And even if you're trying to get some more niché stuff like more damage after a melee attack or less ammo consumption while levitating ... It changes up your playstyle very little. It's a system that's there for the player to have something to collect in chests and given as quest rewards, but barely adds anything to the gameplay.
The other part of the gameplay is exploration. I constantly read that the map is terrible and I can only agree. It barely helps you getting somewhere specific and mainly acts to show you where you haven't been. On paper it's an interesting concept to have this huge open place that opens up gradually, but aside from the levitation and the dash there's nothing that opens up to the player naturally. Most of the stuff is locked by keys and story progression ... Which is a shame, because it had the potential for a 3D metroidvania structure, which is very rare to begin with. I get that the storyline demands linear progression but there was definitely some opportunities to do some missions in a different order. Basically what I'm saying is that I never actually went back through that building to hunt for new areas, to look around for items or anything. There is lore scattered about in the game, but unless you care about literally every single bit of written text I don't think it's worth it.
And that was pretty much the criticism I had in 2019 and I feel like it all holds up. I wasn't really there for the story and it all flew over my head anyway, so that aspect did not really do much for me.
So here comes the "two ways to look at a game" part into play. Because this time I wasn't here for the gameplay. I just recently finished Alan Wake for the first time and I'm pretty excited to play the second one since it looks great. So when I replayed Control I was more interested in the story and lore because this whole Remedy universe is something fairly unique that I'm curious about.
On my second run I tried to view the game as more of an experience. Try to immerse myself in the setting, reading every paper, try to comprehend the story ... and it was pretty fun! The beginning is already amazing and there are some really great ideas here. The whole 'Oldest House' setting is fantastic and the visuals in this game are simply great. I'm not a person who does screenshot in video games, but here I couldn't help but take some. It might be a bit of bias since I love colored light (I love the aesthetic of Winding Refn movies) but the surreal parts of the world also manage to impress.
This time I tried to empathize more with Jesse as a character and tried to view the combat as more of a power trip than an actual challenge to overcome. It turned out to be a little more fun that way, but ultimately combat will never be the thing I play this game for and that's fine.
In the end it finally made me appreciate the game. I would say that I like it quite a lot now! But unfortunately even the story part does have it's problems. The countless texts that are scattered about do sometimes have interesting information but there is simply so much of it that it becomes a chore to read after a while. And lots of it is also just meaningless fluff.
The actual main story is engaging. Jesse, her brother, Polaris, the previous director, the board, the janitor ... There are lots of interesting characters here and the idea that Jesse is looking for her brother at this crazy place and ends up in this inescapable scenario is cool. I even like the fact she takes it all so well because it's the thing she was looking for all her life and supernatural stuff isn't exactly new to her.
The ashtray maze is something everybody mentions and for good reason, it's an amazing section. But I also like the Overlook hotel bit that makes me uncomfortable everytime, the section with the clocks, the flamingo bit and several other setpieces that simply look cool. The game offers some highlights but they are far and few between. The Objects of Power bit was the perfect opportunity to really go into some insane directions but often it just didn't. Like following a letter that teleports around and then doing the same thing with a rubber duck that also randomly changes places isn't really on the same level as some of the psychedelic stuff other objects make you go through.
And since this is getting way too long, I'm getting to the main story ... It ended on a somewhat disappointing note? I'm not spoiling it, but aside from setting up a sequel, which is fine, I think the antagonistic force did not turn out to be fit for an interesting finale. What one can consider the 'final boss fight' is a serious let down and even though the actual finale is pretty cool, I think it should have ended with a bigger bang.
Control is more of a worldbuilding game than a storyline game I would say. The world is fascinating to explore, but I wish it would have more character moments.
I'm not gonna get into the DLC too much, just wanna say that they're a nice addition overall. The Foundation adds some needed challenge to the game and the bit with the 'tunnel' (if you know, you know) was amazing. Definitely do the object of power quest in this one. The AWE DLC is a nice way to lead into Alan Wake 2. The added light mechanic wasn't all that interesting, but I liked the antagonist in this one. Curious how they pick this one up in AW2 and if Jesse will play a role there.
Despite all of my criticism ... I now like this game. I do think this universe is really cool and I'm actually excited for the sequel. I just hope they give Jesse some more powers to play around with and make her go through more wacky shit. Add some more character moments to the story and it'll probably be a real highlight. Fingers crossed!
Back when I first played it I was basically expecting a super creative and wild shooter with supernatural elements, and in a way that's exactly what it is, but the shooting or rather the entire combat let me down quite a bit.
It certainly did not help that I first played it on a base PS4 that had some serious performance issues but that wasn't really the main issue. I wanted to shoot things, fly around, explore and use crazy powers and the game turned out to not be that fun.
Combat in Control is pretty broken honestly. I instantly figured out that the Launch ability is the way to go after seeing that every new unlocked skill gives it another insane damage boost. I one-shotted most of the enemies and the ones that survived simply got hit with another Launch attack. It made large amounts of the game very trivial. Even enemies that dodge your launch can just be hit with another one right after. And when your ability gauge is empty you can just shoot enemies with the pretty powerful Pierce weapon and you're probably already full again.
It's okay for the game not to be hard and nobody forced me to use the dominant strategy. I did mix it up a lot and tried to build an army with the seize ability in some fights. I also used the shield more often, but realistically these are just options that drag out fights and there are tons of them. Later on they get a little more crazy and you get to fly around a lot mid-battle and it's a layer of the combat I really enjoyed but after a while even that gets a little stale when you're still just launching items around and effectively make yourself a bigger target.
The skill tree and the mod system are things that make some sense in a longer and open game like this, but I don't think it really added much to the game since most skills simply are not interesting. 90% of it boils down to raising percentages. Ideally in a skilltree you're making some tough decisions to decide what character you're going for, but Control does not really have that.
You can't really be a specific version of Jesse Faden, you're always playing roughly the same. The whole combat system revolves around launching things and every point you're not putting into that effectively means you could be stronger. Putting some points into your energy and health is a given. Everything else is just a bonus. There are some cool perks you can acquire but most of them are in the Launch tree anyway ... I got the ground slam since that's a fun one, but it's the second thing you can unlock for levitation and you get it so late into the game that your character is mostly set anyway, so it's once again not really an interesting choice to make.
The mod system is similar. I'm not even gonna get into the inventory for it being too small, the whole thing is just there. I don't really want to repeat what I said above, so I'm making it short: It's another aspect of the game where you're just going to focus on damage and health. If you happen to get those drops anyway. Otherwise you'll just take more ammo or recharge or whatever. And even if you're trying to get some more niché stuff like more damage after a melee attack or less ammo consumption while levitating ... It changes up your playstyle very little. It's a system that's there for the player to have something to collect in chests and given as quest rewards, but barely adds anything to the gameplay.
The other part of the gameplay is exploration. I constantly read that the map is terrible and I can only agree. It barely helps you getting somewhere specific and mainly acts to show you where you haven't been. On paper it's an interesting concept to have this huge open place that opens up gradually, but aside from the levitation and the dash there's nothing that opens up to the player naturally. Most of the stuff is locked by keys and story progression ... Which is a shame, because it had the potential for a 3D metroidvania structure, which is very rare to begin with. I get that the storyline demands linear progression but there was definitely some opportunities to do some missions in a different order. Basically what I'm saying is that I never actually went back through that building to hunt for new areas, to look around for items or anything. There is lore scattered about in the game, but unless you care about literally every single bit of written text I don't think it's worth it.
And that was pretty much the criticism I had in 2019 and I feel like it all holds up. I wasn't really there for the story and it all flew over my head anyway, so that aspect did not really do much for me.
So here comes the "two ways to look at a game" part into play. Because this time I wasn't here for the gameplay. I just recently finished Alan Wake for the first time and I'm pretty excited to play the second one since it looks great. So when I replayed Control I was more interested in the story and lore because this whole Remedy universe is something fairly unique that I'm curious about.
On my second run I tried to view the game as more of an experience. Try to immerse myself in the setting, reading every paper, try to comprehend the story ... and it was pretty fun! The beginning is already amazing and there are some really great ideas here. The whole 'Oldest House' setting is fantastic and the visuals in this game are simply great. I'm not a person who does screenshot in video games, but here I couldn't help but take some. It might be a bit of bias since I love colored light (I love the aesthetic of Winding Refn movies) but the surreal parts of the world also manage to impress.
This time I tried to empathize more with Jesse as a character and tried to view the combat as more of a power trip than an actual challenge to overcome. It turned out to be a little more fun that way, but ultimately combat will never be the thing I play this game for and that's fine.
In the end it finally made me appreciate the game. I would say that I like it quite a lot now! But unfortunately even the story part does have it's problems. The countless texts that are scattered about do sometimes have interesting information but there is simply so much of it that it becomes a chore to read after a while. And lots of it is also just meaningless fluff.
The actual main story is engaging. Jesse, her brother, Polaris, the previous director, the board, the janitor ... There are lots of interesting characters here and the idea that Jesse is looking for her brother at this crazy place and ends up in this inescapable scenario is cool. I even like the fact she takes it all so well because it's the thing she was looking for all her life and supernatural stuff isn't exactly new to her.
The ashtray maze is something everybody mentions and for good reason, it's an amazing section. But I also like the Overlook hotel bit that makes me uncomfortable everytime, the section with the clocks, the flamingo bit and several other setpieces that simply look cool. The game offers some highlights but they are far and few between. The Objects of Power bit was the perfect opportunity to really go into some insane directions but often it just didn't. Like following a letter that teleports around and then doing the same thing with a rubber duck that also randomly changes places isn't really on the same level as some of the psychedelic stuff other objects make you go through.
And since this is getting way too long, I'm getting to the main story ... It ended on a somewhat disappointing note? I'm not spoiling it, but aside from setting up a sequel, which is fine, I think the antagonistic force did not turn out to be fit for an interesting finale. What one can consider the 'final boss fight' is a serious let down and even though the actual finale is pretty cool, I think it should have ended with a bigger bang.
Control is more of a worldbuilding game than a storyline game I would say. The world is fascinating to explore, but I wish it would have more character moments.
I'm not gonna get into the DLC too much, just wanna say that they're a nice addition overall. The Foundation adds some needed challenge to the game and the bit with the 'tunnel' (if you know, you know) was amazing. Definitely do the object of power quest in this one. The AWE DLC is a nice way to lead into Alan Wake 2. The added light mechanic wasn't all that interesting, but I liked the antagonist in this one. Curious how they pick this one up in AW2 and if Jesse will play a role there.
Despite all of my criticism ... I now like this game. I do think this universe is really cool and I'm actually excited for the sequel. I just hope they give Jesse some more powers to play around with and make her go through more wacky shit. Add some more character moments to the story and it'll probably be a real highlight. Fingers crossed!
2 Comments
Thanks! It's definitely worth playing.
Goldfield
3 months ago