Control is a really fun third person shooter with some strong narrative theming and a few unfortunate missed opportunities.
Jesse's power set is a joy to use. Hitting someone over the head with a forklift is as comedic as you'd hope and even more so when their head explodes into vapourized sangrita blast. I do think that the novelty wears a little after a few hours though. Not because it's any less enjoyable, making someone become one with a desk lamp will always be funny, but because the regular enemies get more and more chunky and you lose some vermisilatude when bland grunt 38 gets back up after playing catch with a vending machine. Each power saw even use throughout my playthrough and learning to use all of them quickly and efficently in a fight became a instant highlight.
The main story is well paced with a mix of almost metroidvania like exploration and some really amazing set pieces. The ongoing conspiracy that Jesse finds herself wrapped up in is equal parts captifying and confusing. For the benefit of anyone reading this who hasn't played the game I'll just say that there's a certain section towards the end of the game which totally subverted what I was expecting and it might be ione of my favorite set pieces of a shooter game, ever.
I think the moment that I realised how much I was enjoying the game's story was when I realised I had been reading every single narrative pickup (audio logs, text logs, videos). Considering that this is widely considered the absolute bottom of the narrative barrel when it comes to most games, the kind of thing thats usually included out of obligation rather than to really contribute to the narrative experience, it speaks to the quality of the games writing.
It's a little suprising then, considering the quality of the writing in general, that the sidequests that I tried were pretty fustrating and poorly paced. I think this could have been a really great opportunity to explore some of the weirder altered items and I can't help but feel like it's missed potential.
It should also go without saying if you've seen anything of the game but Control is visually stunning. The brutalist style mixed with the unique visual effects really give the game a distinct visual identity.
After I finished the game I was super excited to try the DLC's until I found out that steam lists the standard edition of the game (the original edition) as the ultimate edition (special release with all the DLC) in your library and I actually didn't own any of them. That excitement was further lost when I realised that 505 games had pulled the DLC off of steam when releasing the ultimate edition, meaning I would have to rebuy the entire game if I wanted to play the DLC. This isn't something that will effect anyone buying the game nowadays as the standard edition has also been delisted but I think it's worth noting and calling out these anti-consumer decisions.
Overall, Control is pretty dang good and I hope Remedy are able to make a sequel that's able to fully live up to the premise and worldbuilding they've established here.
Jesse's power set is a joy to use. Hitting someone over the head with a forklift is as comedic as you'd hope and even more so when their head explodes into vapourized sangrita blast. I do think that the novelty wears a little after a few hours though. Not because it's any less enjoyable, making someone become one with a desk lamp will always be funny, but because the regular enemies get more and more chunky and you lose some vermisilatude when bland grunt 38 gets back up after playing catch with a vending machine. Each power saw even use throughout my playthrough and learning to use all of them quickly and efficently in a fight became a instant highlight.
The main story is well paced with a mix of almost metroidvania like exploration and some really amazing set pieces. The ongoing conspiracy that Jesse finds herself wrapped up in is equal parts captifying and confusing. For the benefit of anyone reading this who hasn't played the game I'll just say that there's a certain section towards the end of the game which totally subverted what I was expecting and it might be ione of my favorite set pieces of a shooter game, ever.
I think the moment that I realised how much I was enjoying the game's story was when I realised I had been reading every single narrative pickup (audio logs, text logs, videos). Considering that this is widely considered the absolute bottom of the narrative barrel when it comes to most games, the kind of thing thats usually included out of obligation rather than to really contribute to the narrative experience, it speaks to the quality of the games writing.
It's a little suprising then, considering the quality of the writing in general, that the sidequests that I tried were pretty fustrating and poorly paced. I think this could have been a really great opportunity to explore some of the weirder altered items and I can't help but feel like it's missed potential.
It should also go without saying if you've seen anything of the game but Control is visually stunning. The brutalist style mixed with the unique visual effects really give the game a distinct visual identity.
After I finished the game I was super excited to try the DLC's until I found out that steam lists the standard edition of the game (the original edition) as the ultimate edition (special release with all the DLC) in your library and I actually didn't own any of them. That excitement was further lost when I realised that 505 games had pulled the DLC off of steam when releasing the ultimate edition, meaning I would have to rebuy the entire game if I wanted to play the DLC. This isn't something that will effect anyone buying the game nowadays as the standard edition has also been delisted but I think it's worth noting and calling out these anti-consumer decisions.
Overall, Control is pretty dang good and I hope Remedy are able to make a sequel that's able to fully live up to the premise and worldbuilding they've established here.