I have played a lot of video games in my life, a majority of them being excellent. Some games aim to be innovative and engage us through interesting gameplay systems and ideas. While other games are more focused on being impactful and immersing us not just through the gameplay, but through their world and characters. Then there are the games that fail to captivate us. Either by having an unintriguing world to venture through, a narrative that fails to tell it's themes, or gameplay that just isn't fun to play in general. What I’m trying to say is that an idea is what leads to the creation of a video game, and it takes a lot of time to come up with an original and exciting idea. However ideas come at a cost. When you scan the surface of an idea you get a first impression, and it can either be captivating or just be bland and uninteresting. Today’s game is kind of weird, because it is both an interesting concept that somehow falls a little bit below under the line of intriguing. Basically, I do not know what to say about it.
Established in 1995, Remedy Entertainment was a company that not many people expected to do so well. Their first game was a top down racer named Death Rally, and it performed decently mainly due to other popular racing games in the market that were received much better like Driver and Twisted Metal. Their next game though would be the kickoff towards their massive success, a third person shooter that was centered around making the player feel as badass as possible named Max Payne. It was an action packed adventure unlike any other game at the time featuring slow motion bullet time combat and a complex narrative. Players could hop across the screen gunning down waves of enemies while rolling towards the ground and flipping into the air once more to do it all over again. It was a simple gameplay loop that worked for an entire game. Basically this game made you feel like you were in The Matrix which is convenient as Max Payne took somewhat of an inspiration from it.
With the help of a publisher, Rockstar Games, Remedy Entertainment had an easier time reaching their games out towards the public. Remedy developed the first two games in the Max Payne series and Rockstar would go on to develop the third and last entry by themselves. After the release of Max Payne 2, Remedy began development on an entirely new project, something much bigger than Max Payne. This time with the help of Microsoft, Remedy released Alan Wake, another third person action adventure game. Alan Wake had a twist though, it delved into a more psychological territory and it provided a world that was both unique and thrilling. The game leaned towards survival horror, but it didn’t lean so far that it could mainly be classified as survival horror. It was an odd mix between horror, thriller, action, and amazement. Alan Wake is one of Remedy Entertainment’s most successful games and it was nominated for quite a few awards back in 2010. Remedy began development on another action packed third person shooter named Quantum Break which was originally planned to be a successor to Alan Wake. Unlike Alan Wake, Quantum Break was more story driven and aimed to be more like cinema. Introducing elements that Remedy Entertainment fans weren't really fond of. The game received mixed reviews, some adored the gameplay and others were disappointed by it. Although the game wasn’t a complete failure, I would consider Quantum Break to be one of Remedy Entertainment’s most least successful games.
Remedy separated from Microsoft and decided to develop another third person action game, but unlike Quantum Break they wanted to lean more towards the psychedelic, paranormal themes that Alan Wake had. They poured a lot of time and money into this new project and eventually they came out with Control. When I originally saw Control my first thought was that it would be a game that would fail. It looked weird, was different from a majority of other Triple A games at the time, and wasn't exactly nailing what it wanted to be. Yet, different isn't bad and Control turned out to be a massive hit. Fans adored the new ideas Remedy Entertainment slammed onto the table. Mixing in the psychedelic elements of Alan Wake with the action packed gunfights of Max Payne. The atmosphere was the tops and compared to a majority of Triple A games, Control gave other studios a run for their money for the crazy set pieces and content it showed during it's short run period. Control is one of Remedy Entertainment’s greatest games to date and it was considered one of the best titles of 2019. Being nominated for multiple awards and being considered by a small minority Game of The Year.
I recently played through Control and I can say that I mostly had an amazing time with it. It's one of those games where the qualities I liked about it luckily strived tremendously, but what made it falter was hard to fully explain in detail. Still though, Control is a game that many will enjoy and does quite a few things things most games similar in vein couldn't handle as well. So today we’ll be talking about why I liked Control well enough and why it deserves your attention. So prepare to explore the cryptic corridors of The Oldest House and fight back against entities unknown.
Story
This is where my first criticism of Control comes into play. I didn’t understand what was going on half the time, at all. It’s not that the story is bad, it’s actually pretty good once you get the basic information down, but the way it’s presented to the player makes it confusing. If I had to sum up Control’s story I would describe it as a ten hour long acid trip, because you have to be high as hell to enjoy whatever was being shown to you. So we’re just going to use the info I could gather up. If some parts of this explanation sound odd to you then it’s due to me not being able to comprehend the story.
Anyways we follow the role of Jesse Faden, a woman who is traumatized by a series of strange paranormal events that took place during her childhood. In her home town Ordinary, she and her brother Dylan were exploring the dump yard until they stumbled upon a projector. They turn on the projector and a strange being makes contact with them. It begins to show them strange imagery and speak to them in an abnormal language. A government agency known as the Bureau of Control is sent to Ordinary and tries to cover up anything that happened. They kidnap Dylan which ends up disturbing Jesse, and when Jesse tries to confront anyone about what she saw that day they view her as crazy. Several years later Jesse tracks down her missing brother at the main headquarters for the Bureau of Control, The Oldest House. The Oldest House is a paranormal place, constantly shifting and changing its structure.
Jesse meets the janitor, Ahti, who warns her about the dangers she’ll encounter within The Oldest House. Jesse stumbles into the Director’s Office to confront the head of the Bureau, but she finds the Director has committed suicide using a gun. She picks up the gun the Director used to kill himself, the Service Weapon, and after experiencing some strange visions she is mysteriously announced as the new Director of the Bureau of Control. She then encounters a bunch of possessed corpses being controlled by entities from another world. They talk using cryptic language and the room they possess glow with a hazy neon dark red. After fighting the beasts off she meets a group of officers, led by Emily Pope, who instantly calls Jesse the new director. Pope states that the Oldest House is overrun by these strange monsters which Jesse then names the Hiss. The Hiss is trying to break into the human world and it’s up to Jesse to force them back into their own. As Jesse you must explore each sector of the Oldest House, fend off against the Hiss, and locate your long lost brother Dylan. Trust me, there is a much deeper story, there always is when it comes to these psychedelic games.
Gameplay
While I found the story to be decent and jarring at times, I found myself getting quite absorbed with the badass gameplay. You explore each sector of the Oldest House, fighting various forms of the Hiss, picking up upgrades, and opening up various paths. At first I thought the level design would be very linear due to Control being a third person shooter, but it wasn’t until a few minutes in where I began navigating my way through twisting corridors opening up shortcuts to make backtracking easier through the interconnected world. Then I realized this game was similar to a metroidvania of all things, because it has the design philosophy of one. The only way to explore new sections of the shifting Oldest House is to unlock powers or specific items. Powers not only serve as new ways to traverse the environment, but an expansion to what you can do during combat. Hover around in air for a short period of time, levitate objects to then smash them into destructible walls, or just force push the wall down yourself.
It's nice to know these elements mixed well together with the third person over the shoulder combat, and that combat is possibly the best part of Control. It may seem like a typical third person shooter at first, but it has a lot of ideas that make it heavily engaging. Remember how in Doom Eternal standing still is practically a death wish? Well standing still in Control is a death wish too. You want to constantly be moving and gunning down enemies, because taking cover behind a stone wall will only protect you for a short amount of time before it shatters into a million pieces. Plus enemies are hovering around easily and constantly reposition to advantage points. You have a specific amount of health and if you take too much damage you die, lose a bit of your currency, and respawn at your previous checkpoint. Enemies do drop health when you kill, so it gives you a reason to be moving around to stay alive.
Luckily you are armed with the previously mentioned Service Weapon, a gun that I now dub one of the best weapons I have used in a shooter. It has an unlimited amount of ammo, but you can only shoot it so many times before it needs to be recharged. You can upgrade it, equip special mods, and unlock new forms that provide different firing modes. From a simple pistol like form to a shotgun form and a superpowered charge shot, the Service Weapon is basically multiple guns at once and easily swaps on the fly. Besides the Service Weapon there are also the many powers you unlock throughout your journey as mentioned earlier, usually discovered by finding Objects of Power. This game basically turns you into Doctor Strange. It feels badass when you levitate an explosive and send it back at an enemy with a mighty force. Take flight and snipe enemies while slowly decending. Forming a shield of rubble just so you can get up close and blast a group of enemies over with the push of a hand. All of these powers are amazing to use, but similar to the Service Weapon there is a meter that dictates how many abilities you can perform before you have to wait for it to recharge.
I think giving both the Service Weapon and your powers limited meters is a good thing. It forces the player to rely on two methods of fighting rather than stray to one side. It also switches up, so that you rely on powers that fit the current scenario best. Besides that there is nothing much else to talk about Control. There are some bosses dotted throughout the world, but a majority of them are easy to miss especially if you're just progressing through the main story. Some of them are thematically cool though, so maybe check them out. With these powers at your disposal and a gun made out of ominous alloys you should be able to fight back against the Hiss and save your brother.
Thoughts
Control is a game I want to say I absolutely love, but have a very hard time doing so. It is really fun to play and I do consider it one of the better made shooters to come out in years. The combat made me feel like a superpowered badass with how much impact it had and with all the chaos flying about. There were enough elements to balance out each of the tools you had and get you to use all of them. The atmosphere and setting is the tops. The Oldest House is a place that makes you wonder what mysteries are ahead and the place can have some pretty interesting places and moments. The levels twisted back and forth into one another and the walls literally folding into each other. Opening that metroidvania wonder inside of me, even though Control isn’t classified as one. I thought There's this really cool sequence in the end where the game literally throws a power trip at you. Throwing every enemy and trick they have in the book, and showing how far the player has gotten to reach a point like that. The payoff for reaching the end of a metroidvania, or in this case Control. Jesse Faden as a character was really cool. You have this young shy lass who has been traumatized her entire life and now has to confront her own personal problems by diving into the main source. It would have been nice if the game focused more around this theme of conquering your own fears, but nope it just decided to spew random paranormal information into the player’s face and hope they are writing it down onto a piece of paper.
While Control succeeds in every area it is good in it is easily dragged down by many limb crippling flaws. The story is somewhat of an acid trip like I said earlier, because at times it feels more contrived than mind boggling. The ending just felt like a giant WTF moment and anticlimactic to be honest. The graphics and details to the environment are great, but I thought the lighting for certain areas could have been improved. I found myself completing the main story in under ten hours which is a fine runtime for a shooter, but there isn't enough worthy side content or justifiable reason to go back for another playthrough. Maybe it’s because I didn’t do many of the side missions or extra activities. Also you want to make sure your console is up to date or you have the latest hardware, because this game lags a lot. I was playing the Playstation 4 version and it slowed down anytime I paused or resumed the game, entered a new area, or when too much was happening on screen. Which is bad when combat incentivizes bodies and debris flying about. I can also tell the game was mainly marketed for high tech gaming computers, because of the raytracing and advanced lighting. Finally, while the game certainly is really well made, nothing it's doing is original or innovative design wise. I'm not asking too much, but at least one groundbreaking thing that isn't graphics related.
Besides all those problems, did I enjy Control? Yes, I really did. The Oldest House is one of the most unique locations I have seen in a game, with it’s marvelous halls providing a sense of wonder about what lies around every corner. There's a lot of unique moments you don't get in other video games and the first playthrough is worth it for the sheer excitement Control throws at you. Control is basically a smart pretty girl forgetting to wear shoes to prom. You may now get to smell the mold growing between her toe cracks, but the rest of her is a beautiful sight to behold. I don't know whether to recommend Control, but it might be one of the most unique experiences I’ve played. In the end I am giving Control an 8/10 for being pretty good.
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