The documents you find on the different sectors along the way are half grayed out with black boxes instead of words; there's videos to watch on your pause menu explaining the lore of the game and there's also a funny phone which you can talk with the previous director of the Oldest House who is now dead and speaks with you. Control is straight up outlandish; from the start: straight on - and it hooks you up by promising to tell you its secrets.
It's a video-game at heart, but also a movie & book at brain and a daring look into an intertwined story across - as the game often references - the common collective human unconscious. It's serious and at the same time isn't. But it's goddamn weird and the game wears this aura of weirdness through it all: which it tailors itself into cryptic scenes and cool gameplay mechanics. Probably more interesting that it's art direction in Control, it is Remedy's sense of direction into the aesthetics of this world and how poetic all of this experience feels. It just stratched my itch of cryptic stories perfectly and I really admired all the work that went into this.
This was my first of Remedy's games and I can't wait to play the next one which is probably gonna be Alan Wake 1. But.. As you step into the Federal Bureau of Control be ready for the hell of a ride while you get into a thriller-mystery world as the badass Jesse Faden. The place where you mindfully step in is called the Oldest House, a weird name for sure and things get only more fucked up the deeper you step deeper into the Bureau - the more you do it the game reveals itself into a more avant garde/unconventional motion of storytelling. And I love when games like these creative liberties.
The name of house at least in my opinion implies a Lovecraftian connotation - fitting for the world of control in which the Hiss tries to corrupt this house to its foundations, which gives the perfect about of balance in crazy video-game cliche premises and poetic storytelling along the way. There's no time to rush through this game since most stuff you find needs to be read/watched to make a bigger sense of the story - the characters fit world perfectly, especially the ones who probably have seen so much peculiar stuff that they become recluses and often soft dormant madmen. I am not a fan of "RPG dialogue" in third person shooters or games since I feel that breaks the immersion too much and the illusion of the story too much and it felt at least for me that those moments become too theatrical, but that's just personal taste I guess.
There's a lot to discover and get used to while playing the game especially with the UI/UX at it took me a little learning curve to get used to this change and the map design ( which I actually really admired - the maze has become one of my favorite levels in gaming) especially with these are integrated withing the story/universe of the game as a plot device. I got to really love the little 4th wall breaks along the way but more than that Jesse's telekinesis powers which made great combo with the Pierce mode service gun, which was my favorite mode from the ones I've tried. I ended up upgrading telekinesis the most cause it just felt right to throw big things around killing enemies, especially doing that in a somewhat governmental agency. The gameplay loop just "clicks" in Control: is fun enough to be challenging as well as rewarding and my type of fast paced, mindless killing and I have quite missed this kind of gameplay loop. Though that isn't always the cause since different types of enemies require different approach and game styles and I often took my liberties to try different combos on enemies and this sense of wander took a little time to wear off. (I still despise the fat hiss guy though) Though the reverse of this medal is that the gameplay lacks innovation and upgrading your skills don't create more interesting enemies mechanics in return and they seem to be on "the same continuous level"
Though I always felt like something was missing. I had this feeling in GOW Ragnarock too in some moments towards the end and I think for Control's case I just expected some more grand impact served by the story, which at least for me didn't quite did it the same way other games did. And it is something the expansions DLCs resolve but not so much at the same time? And also the huge loading screens - since I heard a lot of people complaining about that. Other than that I hope we'll get to see Control 2 one day since, again, it truly feels like something special - the perfect amount of cliche 3rd person shooter in combination with unique aesthetics.
It's a video-game at heart, but also a movie & book at brain and a daring look into an intertwined story across - as the game often references - the common collective human unconscious. It's serious and at the same time isn't. But it's goddamn weird and the game wears this aura of weirdness through it all: which it tailors itself into cryptic scenes and cool gameplay mechanics. Probably more interesting that it's art direction in Control, it is Remedy's sense of direction into the aesthetics of this world and how poetic all of this experience feels. It just stratched my itch of cryptic stories perfectly and I really admired all the work that went into this.
This was my first of Remedy's games and I can't wait to play the next one which is probably gonna be Alan Wake 1. But.. As you step into the Federal Bureau of Control be ready for the hell of a ride while you get into a thriller-mystery world as the badass Jesse Faden. The place where you mindfully step in is called the Oldest House, a weird name for sure and things get only more fucked up the deeper you step deeper into the Bureau - the more you do it the game reveals itself into a more avant garde/unconventional motion of storytelling. And I love when games like these creative liberties.
The name of house at least in my opinion implies a Lovecraftian connotation - fitting for the world of control in which the Hiss tries to corrupt this house to its foundations, which gives the perfect about of balance in crazy video-game cliche premises and poetic storytelling along the way. There's no time to rush through this game since most stuff you find needs to be read/watched to make a bigger sense of the story - the characters fit world perfectly, especially the ones who probably have seen so much peculiar stuff that they become recluses and often soft dormant madmen. I am not a fan of "RPG dialogue" in third person shooters or games since I feel that breaks the immersion too much and the illusion of the story too much and it felt at least for me that those moments become too theatrical, but that's just personal taste I guess.
There's a lot to discover and get used to while playing the game especially with the UI/UX at it took me a little learning curve to get used to this change and the map design ( which I actually really admired - the maze has become one of my favorite levels in gaming) especially with these are integrated withing the story/universe of the game as a plot device. I got to really love the little 4th wall breaks along the way but more than that Jesse's telekinesis powers which made great combo with the Pierce mode service gun, which was my favorite mode from the ones I've tried. I ended up upgrading telekinesis the most cause it just felt right to throw big things around killing enemies, especially doing that in a somewhat governmental agency. The gameplay loop just "clicks" in Control: is fun enough to be challenging as well as rewarding and my type of fast paced, mindless killing and I have quite missed this kind of gameplay loop. Though that isn't always the cause since different types of enemies require different approach and game styles and I often took my liberties to try different combos on enemies and this sense of wander took a little time to wear off. (I still despise the fat hiss guy though) Though the reverse of this medal is that the gameplay lacks innovation and upgrading your skills don't create more interesting enemies mechanics in return and they seem to be on "the same continuous level"
Though I always felt like something was missing. I had this feeling in GOW Ragnarock too in some moments towards the end and I think for Control's case I just expected some more grand impact served by the story, which at least for me didn't quite did it the same way other games did. And it is something the expansions DLCs resolve but not so much at the same time? And also the huge loading screens - since I heard a lot of people complaining about that. Other than that I hope we'll get to see Control 2 one day since, again, it truly feels like something special - the perfect amount of cliche 3rd person shooter in combination with unique aesthetics.