Control is one of those games that trigger a particular neuron in my brain that causes me to hyperactively obsess over it for an extensive period of time. However, it is not perfect.

This is the only game I have played where I read, listened to, and/or watched every single collectible piece of lore within the game. The lore and worldbuilding in this game is so well-crafted and interesting that I would get excited every time I found a new document to read, audio file to listen to, or video to watch. By far my favorite collectible were the Dr. Darling presentations. Matthew Porretta is an absolute gem and it was so fun watching him explain the main concepts within the game (which serve as instructional videos both in-game and to the players, which is a genius move on the developer's part). I cannot stress enough how great the worldbuilding is in this game. It is so detailed and convincing that it makes you believe a place like the FBC really could exist. I love the concept of everyday items possessing paranormal abilities, it's so fun.


The writing is also top-notch, but a bit inconsistent. Again, the best writing is within the collectible lore documents you can find. There are so many different writing styles present within the game and it's masterful in how many tones the writing can assume. There's formal, informal, technical, bureaucratic, humorous, dramatic, insane, it's really got everything. Much of this writing occurs within the lore documents, audio logs, and videos, which is the main reason why they're so entertaining.

However, as mentioned above, it is a bit inconsistent at times, although I'm not sure if it's on purpose. Some of Jesse's lines seem a bit iffy, but I can't tell if that's a design choice or not.

In contrast to the highly-detailed and complex setting and lore, the main story itself is rather simple in comparison, which I think was a smart decision. The campaign is fairly accessible to any player while the more confusing aspects of the lore are confined to optional collectibles (though they do add a lot of meat to the overall story). The only thing that can make it a bit hard to follow are all the terms and concepts that characters will casually throw around (AWE's, thresholds, objects of power, astral plane, the Board, altered items, parautilitarians, Oldest House, house shifts, the Hiss, etc).

I guess the only downside to the extensive lore is that it will leave you with soooooo many questions, but I don't really see that as a bad thing. It gives you a lot to chew on after you finish the game.

Surprisingly, the characters didn't hit as much as the lore did. They're not bad by any means, and I definitely warmed up to them the longer I played, but they're not nearly as interesting as what's going on around them. The only exceptions I feel like are Dr. Darling, Trench, and Dylan Faden.
Dr. Darling was my favorite character and he was so entertaining and fun to watch and his instructional videos were my favorite part of the game.
Trench is also very intriguing and well-performed, but he's dead for most of the game and you only see him through the hotline and some lore documents (and that one flashback sequence).
Dylan Faden is one of the most criminally underutilized characters in gaming. He is the most conceptually and narratively interesting character in the game by A MILE, but he plays a very small role within the story. There's so much buildup to finding him, yet when he actually shows up, there's barely anything for him to do. You can talk to him a few times (which I will admit are very interesting conversations and even foreshadow Alan Wake II which I thought was cool) and then that's it until the end of the game where he shows up in the final mission where he DOESN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING. He just floats in the distance until you reach him and then the game ends. He could have had an incredible boss battle (a department the game is severely lacking in) and honestly that's what I was expecting throughout the game because it seemed like the logical thing to do, so I am truly disappointed that it didn't happen. Dylan represents all the wasted potential of this game. Hopefully he plays a larger role in the sequel.

Also, it'd be wrong not to address Jesse, the protagonist. She feels more like a vehicle for the plot than an actual character sometimes. Her motivations are decent but her personality is honestly pretty drab compared to everyone else. I also really didn't like how they handled her relationship with Dylan. She hadn't seen him for years and has spent much of her life searching for him, and there is barely any emotional payoff when they finally reunite. I know he's corrupted but there was still so much emotional potential. Happiness and relief upon finally seeing your brother again, heartbreak upon seeing him be corrupted by the force you've been fighting, desperation to find any trace of the person he once was, like come on! So much raw emotion in one scene, it really would have been beautiful. She just acts annoyed with him up until like the very end, but at that point it was too little too late. You don't really get the impression that they're brother and sister, which sucks because that was the character dynamic that this game needed.

On a more positive note, the art direction and environments in this game are outstanding. I was taking screenshots every time I entered a new area because this game is BEAUTIFUL. The Oldest House is such a unique and well-designed area with a perfect blend of government architecture and wacky supernatural influence. Also, I love the little explosion of color that you get every time an enemy explodes.

That's not to say the graphics are top-notch, there are noticeable frame drops and freezing from time to time, and the movement can be a little clunky at times, but it's nothing major.

Moving on, the combat is cool and pretty fun. Telekinesis is always fun in games and I liked all the different modes on the service weapon, that was a really fun mechanic. However, I feel like the enemies become way too spongy and do a disproportionate amount of damage as the game goes on. All of your abilities and weapons become a lot weaker even if you have good mods on them, which makes it harder to enjoy the combat. In some cases, it makes certain gun modes virtually useless (namely Spin). The powers should make you feel like a superhero, but that feeling wears off the farther you get into the game. However, the combat is still pretty fun.

However, the boss fights in this game are pretty lame, as mentioned earlier. The only good one is the mirror Jesse fight, but it's because she has all the same moves as you. All of the other bosses are just reskins of regular enemies with more health, which is pretty lame. I would have liked to see a more cinematic approach in terms of presentation as well as a unique move set.

On another note, the performances, while good, are bogged down by the facial animations. The mouth movements on all the characters (except Dylan, strangely) are so unnatural and really take the immersion out of the whatever conversation is going on. I can tell that the actors are trying to be expressive but whatever technology they're using for facial animation does not capture it very well. It reminds me of how the characters in the Horizon games talk.

I also want to add that I really like the sound design in the game, this game, while not a horror game, is very unsettling. Pretty much every area is going to have a dozen floating possessed people that are all mumbling ritualistic nonsense that overlap with each other, which serves as a very unique kind of white noise. There's also always random thuds, creaking, screeching and other scary sounds that play in the distance just in case you were getting too comfortable exploring an area.

Overall, great game, but there's a few problems that just really irk me because I KNOW Remedy can do a lot better.