Control has the flesh of a masterpiece, but the bones of it all are still a bit crooked.
THAT'S WHY I AM BETTING IT ALL ON CONTROL RESONANT BABY, THAT ONE WILL FOR SURE FIX ALL THE ISSUES WOOOO!
After 36 hours of reading censored bureaucratic documents, I think Control warrants a review.
Control is Remedy's sixth game, if you count those that actually matter, and you can tell it all really started to click by now. After all, this is the game that *officially* started the Remedy Connected Universe. While it doesn't stray far from what came before, it solidifies what makes Remedy games so unique, so fascinating, and frankly so much better compared to their AAA contemporaries. The story is overly complex, the art direction is staggeringly jaw-dropping, and the gameplay is holding the experience back in some way. This is what Remedy is, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Okay, but what actually is Control?
Control is technically a third person shooter, but I don't think that classifies the game well. This is actually a third person supernatural power fantasy action game where you can also shoot a gun.
The story follows Jesse Faden, a regular adult, who, in search for her missing brother, ventures to The Oldest House, an enigmatic, brutalist and seemingly endless building which houses the secret US government organization called the Federal Bureau of Control. The FBC is an agency which handles all things paranormal, whether it's a floating bucket, or an a fridge that will eat you if nobody is looking at it (Yes, the setting takes a lot of inspiration from SCP). Jesse stumbles through the building until she finds a gun called "The Service Weapon", which in turn somehow makes her the director of the entire organization.
That's the gist of it, because I don't want to get into spoilers, but you can see how that would make for an intriguing story.
Hands down the best part of the package is the worldbuilding. This setting is just SO unbelievably cool.
Even though the game technically takes place in a single building, the idea of an ever-shifting interior with paranormal entities gives them the flexibility to do basically everything they want.
As Jesse enters the scene when the FBC is in a disarray, you learn all about it and the entire ecosystem around it through scattered documents, videotapes, and audio cassettes. I have resorted to reading, watching, and listening to all of them because they are simply FASCINATING. Out of (apparently) 412, I was uninterested with maybe a handful of them. My favorite part of it all was certainly Dr. Darling, a fanatic Head of Research scientist, who recorded himself explaining many different paranatural items or past events. He is just mesmerizing to listen to (also voiced by the amazing Matthew Porretta a.k.a. Alan Wake himself).
Going hand in hand with the worldbuilding is the level design, which is suprisingly astonishing.
While the building is extremely complex, it's still completely logical. There is a main elevator, which will take you to your desired floor and it branches out however it wants from that point on. You will need to jump between the floors and specific locations in them pretty much constantly, but thankfully, the developers gave you a map! ...Right?
Well yes, but the map is not all that useful. It will let you know that the location you need to get to is somewhere southwest, but it won't be effective if you want use it for actual real-time navigation. This might sound bad, but I actually have grown to love it a lot. I am not going to lie, I was frustrated at first, but once I understood what you are supposed to do, I think it's quite genius. As you can't completely rely on the map, the building has a ton of signage (just like real life corpo buildings!), which you will have to use instead, further improving the immersion. It will certainly not be for everyone, as I understand the feeling of just wanting to know where to go, so take that as you wish.
It is elevated by the superb graphics. Control was one of the first games to use ray-tracing, and probably the first to ACTUALLY use it. This was the cutting-edge game some time ago, and it still remains top tier. They went all in and you can certainly see it when the game is maxed out. And it's not only because your PC will cry out for help. This game is gorgeous, especially when it comes to the lighting and the reflections. It coming out during the ray-tracing infant days is a bit of a curse though, as even on maximum settings the environment will display distracting noise. Thankfully Control Resonant will have path-tracing, so it will just be this game's art direction without the flaws. Hopefully.
All of that culminates in a simply fantastic atmosphere. Unknown voices echoing through the hallways, sudden light shifts, and the constant excitement of the unexpected keeps the experience immersive throughout the entire runtime and is simply a cherry on top.
Now, let's stop all this sweet talk and get to the more shaky parts of the experience. The story itself is, meh, alright.
As always, no spoilers, but the story genuinely has (because I'm sure the sequel will expand on it) a ton of potential. It is very ambitious, but it works for the most part, and it will make sense if you indulge it. The issue is that it all just goes a bit too quickly. Big things happen, but they don't elaborate on it enough and just move on to the next big thing. While 36 hours is certainly not a short game, I probably spent like 9h on the actual story, so they certainly could've extended it a bit. I stil like it, but it is definitely carried by being based in this cool world.
The dialogue that supports it is a bit weird. It feels uncomfortable, with quite long pauses and awkward interactions, but at the same time it feels completely intentional? Like I am weirded out whenever I am listening to them, but the concept of this story is quite absurd, so the circumstances completely call for the awkwardness. It helps that the voice actors themselves are quite great.
Finally, the gameplay is the mixest of the mixed bags. What else did you expect from a Remedy game?
It starts off fine, the guns feel weighty, the animations are gorgeous, and the enemies are interesting. However, as the time goes on, the gameplay becomes the least interesting part of the package. The new enemies don't differ enough to change your approach to them, the powers you gain are not as useful as your "throw ♥♥♥♥ at the enemy" ability, and you already found your favorite gun so you don't need to switch it around.
...Until you get the levitate ability, which is just SOOOOOO cool that it makes the combat like 5x better. And then you get bored of it as well, but you've probably finished the game by then.
It does not help that there is a leveling system, which feels insanely tacked on. You earn skill points which you can spend on stuff like:
a) Your ability #1 deals 5% more damage
b) Your ability #2 stays active for 5 more seconds
c) Your ability #3 is 5% more durable
Honestly, what's the point? I never felt like they changed anything aside from some exceptions like the upgrade that lets you hold three throwable items at once. That one is sick. Hopefully they also rework this in the sequel.
All in all, Control is an incredible experience that engrossed me in its world way more than I expected. While the gameplay is not top of the class, it is a fun power fantasy, and probably the best out of all Remedy games so far. The series itself has a ton of potential and I am unbelievably excited for Control Resonant.
