Several years ago, while playing DOOM [2016], I realized that I had an unforgiving level of intolerance for optional challenges that could outright ruin a game for me if I committed too heavily to them. Thankfully, DOOM made it quite obvious that its challenges were optional, making it easy and intuitive to skip them. I can't say the same for Control.

Control has this really bad habit of throwing new missions your way with very little context and without making it clear whether they're optional. As if this sort of thing wasn't already bad enough, the game sees fit to plaster a massive text notification over the screen at the most inopportune times, even for optional side missions, even during intense combat.

Even worse, if you decide to waste your time with certain optional missions, then you'll sometimes find yourself failing them for no clear reason with no option to retry them. Did I leave the "mission area" as you may find yourself doing in other games? No idea. I didn't receive a notification, outside of being told that I failed, despite supposedly having three minutes left to finish the mission.

Let's say you manage to stick to the main path without being distracted by any optional missions. You'll often find yourself lost, as it doesn't seem as though anyone as Remedy understands the concept of using visual cues to make navigation more intuitive. Furthermore, a combination of bad checkpointing and various areas looking too similar to one another will inevitably cause you to get turned around.

In case I haven't already made it clear how bad the progression in Control is, I'd like to now talk about the controls for the various traversal abilities you'll unlock throughout the game. If you've played another video game before, then you're probably used to the concept of holding a jump button to jump higher, right? Too bad holding the jump button in that fashion activates your levitation ability. To make matters worse, you then have to press jump to fall again more immediately, meaning that you're screwed if you need to jump in order to evade an attack. And whose bright idea was it to make a single press of the jump button cause you to float downward while falling? Isn't it generally customary to HOLD the jump button or a separate button altogether?

On the subject of controls and general handling, you'll often find yourself getting caught on level geometry, with the problem being exacerbated by the game's admittedly impressive destructible environments. You won't just find yourself getting caught on level geometry, though, as you'll find that your launch ability is damn-near useless in tight spaces, since someone at Remedy saw reason to provide some of the most impressive auto-aim I've ever experienced in a game while somehow managing to make all of your abilities completely inadequate for reliable use in cramped areas.

As if everything I've already described isn't bad enough, the game has various performance hitches, especially right after you un-pause the game. I've also experienced crashes to the dashboard on Xbox Series X, mostly during loading screens but occasionally during intense combat.

I really wanted to like Control. It has an interesting storyline with well-acted characters. Unfortunately, the game part of the game gets in the way of the narrative, making for a pretty lousy experience, in my opinion.

PowerSlave is such an overlooked, underrated gem. I originally played it years ago on Sega Saturn, but I recently began playing through PowerSlave EX (NOT the DOS-based version available on GOG – that’s a completely different game) for PC, which is more so based on the PlayStation version of the game.

If I had to "sum up" PowerSlave in one statement, then I'd say it did the Metroid Prime thing before Metroid Prime did the Metroid Prime thing. That said, I'd consider PowerSlave a bit more similar to Tomb Raider in the sense that your challenges come more from your surroundings than your enemies, and I think critics of PowerSlave tend to sell that aspect of the game short. Sure, a first-person shooter in which you mostly shoot giant wasps and other non-human creatures may not sound very interesting, but PowerSlave focuses more on traversal than shooting from a progression standpoint.

The level design in PowerSlave is fair yet formidable, and the level of control that you have over your character is second to none as far as games of PowerSlave’s era go. You should play the Sega Saturn version if you have the means and a 3D Control Pad, as the game features analog movement and turning via the analog stick, as well as analog strafing via the analog triggers. That said, PowerSlave EX is certainly no slouch, as you’ll have access to some very solid mouse and keyboard controls (though you’ll want to track down the mouselook patch before playing on Windows 10).

PowerSlave isn’t afraid to send some really daunting-looking platforming challenges your way, which really says something for the developers’ confidence in the quality of the platforming experience in PowerSlave. Some of the jumping segments are simply exhilarating, as you’ll find yourself continually building confidence at approaching what look to be impossible jumps, and you’ll find yourself tackling them with ease as long as you use a little finesse when it’s called for.

In most cases, if you die in PowerSlave, then it’s probably your fault. That said, this does bring up one of the game’s flaws: a complete lack of checkpoints within levels. Some may consider this game-breaking, though I do think PowerSlave does an excellent job of clueing you in to threats, even those of the environmental variety. If you can’t currently see an upcoming trap, then you’re usually able to hear it. Plus, if there’s some new element introduced to the game play, such as collapsing platforms, then the game will generously introduce it in isolation to give you ample opportunity to understand it before you need to manage the same element during a tenser moment.

You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t talked much about the shooting thus far, which may seem odd given how much shooting you’ll do while playing PowerSlave. Honestly, it just “feels” so good that you really don’t think about it so much. You can tell which enemies you’re hitting very easily, as they flash briefly with each hit. A rather generous auto-aim feature helps players cope better with the sheer verticality of the levels. At the time of PowerSlave’s release, many players were still unfamiliar and unpracticed with the concept of having to look up and down to shoot enemies, so PowerSlave’s Doom-like approach to auto-aim (in the sense that it tracks vertically without altering the player’s view) makes for a very intuitive experience for beginners.

And what review for PowerSlave would be complete without mentioning the music? PowerSlave isn’t a particularly long game, and much of it involves backtracking through levels you’ve already explored to explore them with new abilities. This means that the music needs to be something special if you’re going to hear it again and again. Thankfully, PowerSlave doesn’t disappoint in this regard. While some tracks are slower and more so present to add to the atmosphere, most of PowerSlave’s music drives you forward with something I can only describe as an “Egypt remixed” approach to its soundtrack. Think of it as stereotypical Egypt video game music mixed with electronica and rock. It’s a very interesting mix, and it suits the action well.

If you have the opportunity to play PowerSlave, then definitely give it a shot. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how well it holds up, as well as how it surpasses many of its contemporaries.