Control - supernatural third person action-adventure from Remedy

[Adon]

The actress is cute. Her in-game equivalent is not.

It's a bit weird when you take into consideration that she was also in Quantum Break, and her in-game model looked noticeably better than she does in Control.

Goes to show how much that MS money made a difference.

 

[lightbane]

Or rather, lack of pozz and making her look like as she actually looks like, not what the PC Cult says how she should like.

 

[Silva]

I tried it, but uninstalled after a couple hours. I really couldn't stand the MC. Not only was she an ugly, manfaced bitch, she was also insufferable whenever she opened her mouth, and didn't really act believably whatsoever.

Same here. I very rarely give up this type of shooter games but there was just no motivation to go on. For example I had no problem playing Prey (the Beth one) until the end.

I finished the game but I had to really force myself and when it came to the DLC I only slogged through the Alan Wake one because I am a fan but honestly it was not worth it not even in the slightest. The problem is that the game has an incredibly interesting premise but utilizes it for the most generic drab story it ever could. It literary features every single cliche you could think of for this kind of narrative but somehow it expects you to be floored by it. The "hiss" is literary just demons but with less style and nothing else. Jess is just a cardboard cut-out that spends the whole game going "I am not the director" only to then instantly jump to "Oh, yeah I am the director now" with absolutely nothing in between. There is no character development or revelations or twists that are not explicitly spelled out in the first hour of the game. It genuinely feels like shitty anime filler where stuff needs to happen but none of the stuff can have any long term relevance so its all intentionally kept flat and basic so it can be neatly showed to the side when the main plot catches up.

Even Jesse's backstory about the projector and her town getting destroyed by it sounds like a way more interesting plot than what is in the main game or the DLCs. That one moment where she describes her friend turning himself willingly into a dog creature is several times more interesting than anything the main plot has to offer. Its just all so much of... nothing. Its just a nothing, like a story nobody writing it wanted to tell.

Nicely put. Couple that weak narrative with a shallow and repetitive gameplay and you have Control. This post from reddit says it all:

"Nothing happens in the story until the very end: You're basically exploring the Oldest House and taking control points without any plot advancement until you start exploring the Ordinary sector toward the end. Then you get all this backstory at once, and you're off to fight the final boss. The story is all lore, no plot. Isn't that boring. It's like reading an encyclopedia."

Which is a pity because the game world is actually pretty good, very atmospheric and a joy to traverse and explore. A game like this with actually good shooting mechanics, and a good narrative to boot, would be a blast.

 

[Bigg Boss]

I got it for free though so is it ok?

Almost even. I am tempted because I like Alan Wake.

 

[Cyberarmy]

I got it for free though so is it ok?

Nice shooting elements, OK ish X Files/Supernatural feeling but gameplay and areas gets repetitive fast.

 

[JDR13]

I could see how repetitive the game was after just a few hours. How many times can you kill the same enemy type over and over again before getting bored?

And yet I've still got people telling me I need to give it a chance because it gets really cool later on. Uh... no thanks.

 

[Ravielsk]

Nicely put. Couple that weak narrative with a shallow and repetitive gameplay and you have Control.

Oh yeah that is probably the second most bizzare part about this whole game. Supposedly it was made by the same guys that made Alan Wake and Max Payne but from the way it plays it feels more like a cheap imitation of both. The weapons are just crap. They look lame and without extensive upgrades(most of which are DLC exclusive) most are borderline useless. They are all eclipsed by just throwing random crap so hard that its not even funny. They genuinely feel like a last minute addition to a game that was never supposed to have them. For a game focusing on the paranormal it has like 3 enemy types of which two are just dude with a gun(big and small) so after the first hour it literary has nothing new to offer. Even the "bosses" are just juiced up regular enemies.

Its the sort of thing you expect from a band of amateurs making their first game for a budget publisher, not from supposed professionals that have around 20 years under their belts.

I got it for free though so is it ok?

No, its not. Dont waste your time with it there is seriously nothing in it worth your time.

 

[Silentstorm]

Trying the game, it's...alright, i really don't care about the main character not being the hottest, i have played with uglier characters before, but so far the story is just meh, there are people that love the kind of story that explains little but i am not one of them, as for the main character, when people say she doesn't react, it's more that she keeps the same tone of voice even when she suggests she is feeling some emotion, though i think it's supposed to be partly because of whatever psychic helper she has?

As for gameplay, yeah, it's...alright, i guess it gets better once you get more powers, some of the better reviews say the game gets more fun and kinda metroidvania like when you get more powers, and i don't really care for guns being weak because...literally almost every damn game where you get super powers i would rather use those than normal guns, i endured Saints Row IV just because of super powers, and yet, despite you playing as a psychic warrior it's just...alright.

That's the word i would use for the game so far...alright, it's not as bad as you guys are saying, holy crap, you guys must have really avoided bad games if this is the epitome of bad for you, but it's also nothing stellar, it's just...fine, i guess it would help if i was one to like stories that refuse to say anything, but nope, i wasn't into that back when stuff like Lost was popular and i still don't care for it.

It plays kinda fine and the story is just there...sincerely from someone who failed to care at all about how the main character looks, seriously, it controls well but the game just doesn't really have that much impact, there are much better games to play where you have powers.

Heck, regarding games with similar looking offices, fucking F.E.A.R did this better, Alma was a better horror threat, the guns were fun to use and going for bullet time was awesome as fuck and the only power you really needed, oh God, the times i would end fights through a bullet time flying kick just because i could and found it awesome in that game, that simple thing gave a better feeling of power and impact than Control has done so far, oh sure, i saw Jaden shift rooms but...eeehhh.

 

[Ravielsk]

That's the word i would use for the game so far...alright, it's not as bad as you guys are saying, holy crap, you guys must have really avoided bad games

Nope, I played plenty of crap and simply lost my tolerance for it. The problem with the game is that it does not get better. The upgrades are not nearly impact-full enough to make any serious change, also there is no metroidvania aspect to the game. The reviews lied to you. Sure you can backtrack and find some hidden boxes with randomly generated loot but as already stated none of that really matters because outside of the strongest post-game(a.k.a after the main boss is dead) ones they barely make a dent. The only ones that have any real impact are locked away in the DLCs and they are not exactly at the start. The only semi-metroidvania system are the side-quests and some minor environmental puzzles(entirely optional, mostly reward costumes) but those usually boil down to go to X and kill juiced up "guy with gun No.538" or if the devs felt extra creative "floating guy No.158". If that is enough for a game to be called "metroidvania" than I suppose we can officially declare Crysis to be full blooded metroidvania RPG.

The core problem is that this game has about 5 hours worth of content stretched out across 30 hours. The story is not bad because Jess stole giga-chads chin but because its for the most part a nothing burger. The hiss are just lamer demons, the board is just... (maybe)vaguely evil, the Bureau is... maybe kinda scummy, Polaris is... something, your brother was meant to become director but then... actually I dont know what happened I suppose he killed a dude by accident and that somehow disqualified him?(In a organisation that regularly bags a couple people per month). The only interesting part or character is Darling and even then only because of his actors delivery for he most part. Its not bad because its offensively terrible, its bad because its a collection of nothings. Like a computer generated creepy pasta minus all the weird quirky stuff a computer generated stories have.

 

[Zombra]

I played a couple hours of this last night. I could pick apart a lot of things I don't like about the writing and gameplay but I guess I have nothing new to say that hasn't already been said. I will say that it's trying so hard to be the Matrix, while not being the Matrix.

Possibly new thoughts:

* You can turn off almost the entire UI, which is great.
* But crouch has to be a toggle only because they didn't think about making this for PC.
* You can't even fucking walk in the game using mouse & keyboard. But you can walk just fine with an analog controller. Fuck you.

* What the hell? A whole game about warping reality, and having crazy powers, and nothing is real, and there is no effort whatsoever to meta explain defeat and resurrection in the game? You lose all your hit points, screen goes black, and you reappear at the previous checkpoint like nothing happened? What kind of lazy ass design is this?
* The "Astral Plane", which is a bunch of floating black rectangles in space, which is fine I guess, and sometimes there are gaps between the rectangles that are hard to see, but if you fail to jump over them, you fall in a bottomless pit. Screen goes black, go all the way back to the beginning. Suddenly this is a "do or die" platformer from the 80s, except in the 80s platformers had much better visual design.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

what's this negativity? last time i heard journos speaking of this game, they depicted it as almost as good as deathloop, which we all now is the bestesterest game ever.

 

[Alienman]

* You can't even fucking walk in the game using mouse & keyboard. But you can walk just fine with an analog controller. Fuck you.

Is a constant fucking issue on PC. I don't get it.

 

[Maxwell's Demon]

There is no point where you need to walk in Control. It doesn't serve any purpose.

 

[Zombra]

There is no point where you need to walk in Control. It doesn't serve any purpose.

Then why is it allowed at all?

 

[antimeridian]

There is a toggle walk keybind but it's in the "other" section for some reason iirc (not "movement").

I really, really liked this game but it's definitely not Codex-oriented.

 

[Maxwell's Demon]

Then why is it allowed at all?

I agree. It was a waste of development resources.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

the only game who's ever needed and used walk speed has been splinter cell, and even there it was dumb sometimes because some mobs moved at walk speed and you couldm't catch up to them while being behind, but do just one click on the wheel to walk faster and they'd hear you, so you had to walk away, wait for them to walk around again and approach them from a different vector.

 

[Alienman]

It's not from a gameplay perspective, it's to be able to slow down and take in the atmosphere without having to run around like a spastic.

 

[Zombra]

There is a toggle walk keybind but it's in the "other" section for some reason iirc (not "movement").

Whoa, will wonders never cease. I may even give this game another chance.

 

[cvv]

Isn't the stronk wombyn element too annoying?

 

[Nifft Batuff]

It's an above average game.

 

[kangaxx]

There's so much crap on the market nowadays but this game did hold my interest in a "switch brain off and shoot" kind of way. I liked the brutalist architecture too, but if I didn't then I probably wouldn't have bothered with the game.

 

[toughasnails]

So uh this is what Remedy has been doing since


I guess at least they got paid.

 

[kangaxx]

So uh this is what Remedy has been doing since


I guess at least they got paid.

I can't believe how fucking bad that game looks.

 

[The Decline]

It's the third game in some shitty South Korean FPS series, I'd phone it in too.