Alex Birlo on July 10, 2021
“Control” is the latest hit game from Remedy Entertainment. It is sort of a continuation to one of the studio’s previous game “Alan Wake” and is as excellent!
Although not for everyone, this game is definitely and experience you should not dismiss lightly.
In terms of story, I would describe this game as a mesh of Horror, Suspense and Action.
You play as Jesse Faden, a woman whose search for answers to the mysteries of her past brought her to the secretive “Federal Bureau of Control”.
The entire game transpires inside the Bureau HQ – “The Oldest House”.
Jessie arrives just as disaster strikes and of course is the only one capable of sorting out the mess.
All of the lore is built on quantum physics’ theories.
Where our thoughts, when strong enough and come together, may bring things from other “possible realities” into our own, or even altered existing objects.
The Federal Bureau of Control is a Secret Service of the United States that investigates “Altered World Events” and obscure them from the public eye.
“The Oldest House” is also an “altered location” with shifting rooms and an infinite number of secrets not known even to the FBC themselves.
Despite the entire game happening only inside this HQ, the developers exhibit great creativity.
It is a massive place, yet it feels condensed and manageable. Though the map might feel extremely confusing until you get familiar with the areas.
It is broken into many floors, with distinct themes and many hidden areas that you uncover as you progress through the game, acquiring new powers or information.
In a time of senselessly huge and empty open worlds in games, it is satisfying to play a game where the same areas change and evolve with the story. While the story makes backtracking meaningful.
When it comes to gameplay there is a lot to dissect here, so let us start with the basic “moment to moment” gameplay.
At times it feels like a “power fantasy”, as you fly through the air, using telekinesis to throw office furniture at your foes.
And at times it seems like you are playing a “Souls” game, as you die a fifth time to an overwhelming boss, waking up at the last activated “Control Point” to try it all over again.
You start slow, with nothing but your “Service Weapon”.
Encounters are small and have you carefully taking cover between shots.
As the game progress, you find and neutralize “Objects of Power” that are altered reality items giving you new powers, which drastically transform combat.
You become more aggressive, combining powers for attack, defense, and mobility.
The enemies and their influence on combat is a separate thing, I would like to talk about
You see, all games have “enemy types”, but it is the first time in a very long time, that I play a game where the enemy types are so important to how the combat transforms with the game’s progress.
Somewhere at the middle point you begin to understand, that you will have to strike a balance between aggressive mobility and taking cover – being on the defensive.
Each enemy type and their variations have their own patterns of behavior and sets of abilities – as in any game.
What is different though, is that they are designed in such a way, that when paired together they perfectly compensate each other’s weakness.
The game starts throwing you into impossible encounters, where the combination of enemies and their amount leaves you very little time to act or space for error.
In tandem with the fact that there is no way to increase your “resistance to damage”, encounters quickly change since you remain as squishy as you were at the start of the game, and certain enemies can simply one-shot you.
Which brings us to the next topic – Progression
Talking about progression, I would like to take you to the upgrade and leveling menu.
Every time you complete a main mission or a side-quest, you receive “Skill Points” as per usual.
When arriving at a “Control Point” – your equivalent of something like a Dark Souls “Bonfire” – you are met by an unremarkable and simple screen.
This screen provides you with all the usual RPG functionality, while actually, quite conveniently, minimizing the time you spend shuffling through menus.
You have a very straightforward page to level up your skills and an interesting crafting system for your weapons and mods.
Now, on the topic of your “tools of destruction” – the weapons.
You technically have just your “Service Weapon”, but you can craft new “forms” for it and have up to two of them equipped at a time, for quick swapping mid-combat.
The forms range all the way from the classic revolver to a rocket launcher or even a sniper rifle.
Besides upgrading the “forms” of the service weapon, you can also acquire and install mods for each of them.
You can combine up to three weapon mods per form, and three personal mods to improve character stats.
These mods have rarity levels and are this game’s “loot” so to say. They drop from killed enemies, bosses and can be crafted to receive a random one.
Another entertaining way to gather mods and resources is the “Jukebox”.
Yeah, so it turns out this game even has something like a replayable dungeon!
There is an “altered item”, a jukebox, isolated in the bureau.
You can craft or loot tokens, that you use to activate it and have yourself transported into a different dimension.
There you will have less than half an hour to complete four islands with varying layouts and objectives, like “hold the point”, “survive waves of enemies”, “collect data” etc.
Though it is kind of useless, since you have to be quite strong already to even stand a chance of surviving the overwhelming combat scenarios.
It would have been a fun co-op mode, though!
To sum it all up with more of my personal thoughts, I would like to say that as a fan of studio “Remedy”, with “Alan Wake” being one of my all-time favorite games – I put over 50 hours into “Control”!
This time just flew by, with me enjoying every second.
It is a stylish game with a lot of world building and lore, that yet is not overwhelming, and easy to dive into.
It is a game that is approachable yet complex for those who seek it.
And if you pick it up together with the excellent DLCs, then you are in for hours and hours of “quality gaming time”.
