Remedy Entertainment are one of those premiere studios that, when they announce a new game is in the works, it’s a big deal. With a portfolio that includes Max Payne 1 & 2, Alan Wake, and Quantum Break, anyone looking for a compelling third person action adventure with a strong story and character development ought to give them serious consideration.
While Quantum Break was arguably a step back for the studio when it was released for Microsoft platforms exclusively in 2016, earlier this week Remedy teamed up with 505 Games to release Control, available on Windows, Xbox One, and the PS4. I received a review code on the PS4 and have thoroughly enjoyed the game and am eagerly anticipating the DLC that is scheduled to release into Spring of 2020. In a word, Remedy has absolutely found their stride again, and Control is a return to form that should not be missed. In a few more words below, I describe some additional thoughts on the game.
So in Control, you play as Jesse Faden, a young woman who is determined to find her missing brother, Dylan, who disappeared after a paranormal event and subsequent government cover-up in their hometown seventeen years ago. Since then, Jesse has had this sort of spirit entity within her that communicates with her and helps guide her to places and reach decisions with knowledge that she really otherwise could not possess. The opening minutes of the game see Jesse coming off of the sidewalks of a busy downtown New York City and going into what seems like a typical monolithic office building, although this one is home to the Federal Bureau of Control. This mysterious organization has a sort of ‘hide out right in front’ mentality. The layers of obfuscation in not only what they do, but even their peculiar headquarters building begin to unfold before the player as you dive deeper into the mystery of Dylan’s whereabouts.
When I first sat down to play Control, it was late one evening after a busy day and I had a full day ahead the next morning. I intended to only play about ninety minutes, but this was one of those rare games that hooked me in early and hard — some four or five hours later I reluctantly decided I should call it a night. When life’s more important tasks were satiated the next day, I jumped right back into Control, and this sort of pattern would repeat itself for several days as I continued to explore the depths of The Oldest House to uncover all the mysteries and hidden locations and so forth that I could. Control, thanks to AAA level development from Remedy powered by their Northlight engine, has provided me many hours of compelling gameplay. It’s the kind of game you think about when you’re not playing, the one that gush about to fellow gamers, and that reminds you, “ah, this is one of those prime reasons why I still play videogames.”
That’s not to say everything about Control is perfect, or that any other game has achieved that, but Control is damn good. If you’re into paranormal, sci-fi, conspiracy stories that are rooted in a realistic fiction, there’s a lot to dive into here. From dozens of redacted, classified files that you find and read to internal memos and videos, the Hotline messages from the Board and previous Director (trying not to spoil anything), there is a great deal of intrigue and opportunity for the player to form their own opinions and get invested into the story and game world. There is an open and increasing invite for players to speculate on those redacted details and true intentions of NPCs, and so on, such that you’ll find yourself not only invested in Jesse and her personal quest, but you will wonder, on many levels, just what the heck is going on. Only unlike with some lesser quality games, this isn’t a question asked out of exasperation, but one asked with a genuine curiosity, and I applaud Remedy for being able to pull that off.
As far as actual gameplay goes, Control balances gunplay with supernatural abilities for action, has typical third person platforming and light puzzles, and a light RPG/perk system. Jesse obtains a transforming weapon fairly early on that begins as a basic but effective pistol. Eventually, this weapon is upgraded by the player multiple times throughout the game, to yield different types of weapons from this one gun — Shatter is a shotgun, Spin is a full automatic, Charge shoots grenades — that kind of thing. These items all share one ammo meter, and that ammo regenerates automatically. The design is such that you will routinely have to balance gunplay with her other powers that have a separate meter, the Energy meter. Different upgrades you can find and also create from materials you gather in exploration help tweak the game in a variety of ways, such as reducing the amount of Energy required for certain actions, a reduction in ammo consumed, improved accuracy, improved damage, and so on. These various perks have levels to them ranging from Common to Prime.
The gunplay in Control is familiar and works great, and balancing it with the Energy tactics and taking cover behind objects works really well. Energy tactics include Jesse’s telekinesis ability, the ability to Dash (including in air), a shield, and more. These abilities are learned throughout the story, and require you to cleanse and take control of Objects of Power, another neat and well-implemented idea within Control’s world. Players can upgrade their health and energy meters, as well as their melee and other abilities as you go along. Additional perk slots are opened up as you play more as well, and I found the variety of perks offer interesting loadout options that you can adjust at anytime. For example, while I’m using the standard pistol mode, called Grip, I might want to keep the perk that gives me an extra 48% damage boost when I’m on low health, but when I have the weapon in Shatter mode I might instead use the increased focused perk that adds an extra projectile. And with each weapon being able to eventually get upgraded to hold more than one perk, the combinations are quite flexible.
Control has a lot of collectibles, nearly all optional, but all worthwhile. I appreciated that Remedy did not make these super hard to find, but instead the UI highlights these for you as you enter into a room that has them. Typically these are audio tapes or folders of paper that Jesse can pickup and if you hold down on the Touchpad you will pause the game and open up the item to examine it. The documents are all quick reads, no longer than one page, and I found nearly every one of them interesting. Many of these are off the straight-forward path, which helps promote exploration, just as finding hidden locations and secret item boxes does. I really liked the sort of sandbox design that allowed me to, and even required or encouraged me to at times, revisit areas from earlier in the game many hours after I first encountered them. As you get further into the story, Jesse gains higher Clearance Levels that allow her to access new areas that weren’t previously permitted, which sometimes yield additional collectibles, NPCs, or side missions.
Control lays out your current objective under the Missions section, and the Map overlay makes it to where you likely won’t ever get lost. Side missions that you take on are also tracked in the Missions section, as are pop-up, time-based missions that appear seemingly randomly. These type of missions require that you get over to a certain Sector and typically dispatch some higher tier enemies or help keep some NPCs alive while fighting bad guys (that is, if you choose to do those missions — you can also ignore them). Additional “crafting” materials and general points are received for these excursions, while Ability Points typically only come from completing the bigger side missions or the story missions.
As far as presentation goes, Control looks great, though I wouldn’t put it in the highest category of graphical fidelity and ‘wow’ factor. Nevertheless, while not the most stunning in the technical raw sense, the art direction is great. Yes, you could argue there is a lot of prop and texture re-use, but, with the majority of the game taking place in a sprawling government facility, it makes sense. I do want to point out that the environmental effects of action, be it Jesse’s telekinesis, or her push melee attack, or just damage from bullets and explosions, looks really good and the physics are very, well, ‘active.’ Sometimes it seemed like items toppled over a little too easy, but the overall effect is quite cool. In some areas, the frame rates slowed down, just very briefly, when there was a tremendous amount of effects on screen at the same time; this happened to me a couple of times in the NSP Security area in the big Maintenance Sector nexus for example (on a PS4 Pro for what it’s worth). Still, these minor performance hiccups are absolutely the exception, as the game typically runs a very smooth framerate and looking very good while at it. The sounds of Control are excellent, helping to build up the engrossing atmosphere. Music is reserved, but effective when present; I like the periodic, ‘spooky’ bass sound that you hear within Central Executive, that’s one early-and-often sound design that really stuck with me.
Flaws and shortcomings in Control are utterly few and far between, while the gameplay is highly satisfying and fun. The world Remedy created is full of intrigue from the get-go and stays enthralling throughout. Barring any major surprises, Control is my personal game of the year for 2019.
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