Remedy make a boss fight that isn't shit challenge. Hartman honestly might have been full on worse than the final boss in Quantum Break. the only thing that gives me pause is the lack of a long load screen and cinematic in front of this one in comparison.

otherwise this was once again more Control. the setting has less of the drab caves which is a bonus but the connection to Alan Wake wasn't as exciting as it sounded which was a bummer. surge as an additional weapon type seemed like a gamechanger but ended up being much less immediately busted than i thought. </3

i find myself thinking that i had my fill of this one with the base game and could've done without the expansions completely. they're both serviceable but they don't have anything to offer that made me feel like i was particularly glad that i played them or anything either. that's the case for a solid 80% of the DLC i've played for any game ever so it's not a big shock, i guess.

hopefully by the time Control 2 rolls around my fatigue from these will have faded.

alan wake is definitely not my favorite experience in the videogame department and i sure did not need an entire expansion for some lore implications of a game i already dont understand a lot about but oh well what can we do

after playing the foundation dlc i had high hopes for this one to actually add some more substantial elements to an already pretty incredible experience but it sure wasnt what i was expecting seeing that most of this is just an alan wake 2 teaser and while it tries so hard to connect the 2 games together it falls flat on his ass with the “theyre connected because we say so not because theres actually any kind of story element to tie the different lores or anything” like most of the time redhead will just be like oh damn this poet thing is stuck in a dark place poor him ok whatever do we care no

i can see how this could actually make alan wake fans lose their minds but me not being a fan of that game to begin with and a certified nihilist i dont find any kind of joy in seeing the protagonist of one the most monotonous games ive played this year show his face to me again to reenact all that juicy PTSD so yeah sorry to the fans (authors notice: i liked some of the stuff in alan wake i hope fans wont voodoo doll my ass into the grave now)

as for the gameplay theres not a lot here the investigations department of the bureau is just another carbon copy of the stuff youve seen for the entire game so theres nothing worth of note here the alan wake darkness mechanics of shining light to black cum to make it disappear is tucked on control just for some side quests that i had no interest to actually do and most of the time youre gonna fight with a monster from the alan wake lore which is actually scared of darkness or something and can be fucked up by shining some pole lights onto him for like 5 different encounters until he dies and theres that as i said this is as bare bones as it can get as additional content it just acts as a way to wet alan wake simps pants and i gotta say the finale makes a nice teaser for whats to come i will give them that

so yeah im done with control funnily enough i played these games to play alan wake 2 but i actually think i will wait a sec to play that one because i got so much stuff in my backlog im probably gonna burst until that moment stan jesse faden aka courtney hope for the funniest lines ive ever heard and a simile realistic experience

Gostei dessa DLC, pois ela explora os acontecimentos de Alan Wake e fundamenta o que aconteceu lá, com explicações "lógicas" dentro do universo do jogo. Nessa DLC também é desbloqueada uma nova arma bem divertida.

O ponto negativo é que a DLC gira toda em torno de caçar um boss, onde toda vez que você o captura, ele foge. Torna-se bastante repetitivo. Também esperava mais da sala de simulação do EMA de Bright Falls, que não ofereceu nada além de alguns documentos.

É uma DLC que vale a pena ser jogada, principalmente se você é fã de Alan Wake.

WARNING to epileptic gamers -- there are several scenes/in-game moments involving rapidly-flashing lights

This is a review of the AWE DLC - for my critique of the base game (which also holds in-depth breakdowns of the game’s technical facets), check out https://backloggd.com/u/RedBackLoggd/review/1311820/

For my critique of the previous expansion, The Foundation, check out https://backloggd.com/u/RedBackLoggd/review/1311823/

Add half a star if you’re a diehard Alan Wake fan

In a time where crossovers are abundant, AWE should’ve been a layup - after all, not only was Alan Wake retroactively added to the Control universe via files in the base game, but there were plenty of reasons the writers could’ve concocted for Jesse to travel to Bright Falls and meet the eponymous writer.

Unfortunately for fans and non-fans alike, Remedy opted for the cheaper route - the opening of a new wing in the Oldest House that sees Jesse investigating it for paranormal activity. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same exact premise Foundation floated on, the only differences being instead of Emily it’s Alan initiating the mission, and instead of a new Object of Power, it’s a new threat that needs to be handled. That new threat in question is a character from the base Alan Wake game, his random appearance here relegated to, you guessed it, optional archives you’ll need to read/listen to lest you get lost on the plot details.

Yeah, it goes without saying that AWE has a lot of flaws, the largest being its doubling-down on the same problems that plagued the vanilla game, and if you read my review, you’ll know that, chief among those, was the decision to shove 50% of the narrative into collectables, an aspect that has been gleefully replicated here to a nauseating degree. In the first room alone, let me repeat, in the first room alone, there were around 10 docs to find, and it only gets worse as the story progresses.

Unfortunately, that’s not the only negative brought over from the prequel: in paying homage to Alan Wake, a lot of dark interiors were added to this sector of the Oldest House, and just like before, the lighting is overly-dim to a fault (and no, this wasn’t a result of my monitor - I YouTubed videos to affirm as much). Enjoy having to max out your brightness every now and then just to get an idea of where to walk!

Side missions also make a return following their semi-absence in Foundation, yet they’re tragically modeled after the worse variants from the main title, including the eradication of Mold and pointless fetch quests. AWE does add a couple of challenge “maps” via a possessed arcade cabinet that task you with clearing out a limited amount of enemies under special caveats, and while I completed the two easy versions, the endeavor as a whole felt like a rehash of the Jukebox excavations.

But let’s get to the main course -- obviously the presence of Alan Wake means a lot of fans will be going into this excursion eager for some red meat; however, such boys and girls will be liable to being disappointed courtesy of the story existing as a very loose crossover. Minus a few boring epileptic cutscenes involving Wake, there’s no juicy interaction between the two properties. It’d be akin to someone calling the Captain America cameo in Thor 2 a crossover; sure, technically it is one, but you’d ultimately cast it aside as mild fanservice, and that’s really what sums up AWE in a nutshell: it’s bland, forgettable fanservice ripe with the same issues as its progenitor. This isn’t even getting into the overreliance on combat scenarios, of which the only tangible difference is the inclusion of a self-healing enemy archetype (compared to Foundation which at least integrated two new abilities AND a fresh Hiss variant).

If I had to drum up any praises, it’d be that more effort went into the environmental personalization here compared to the vanilla game. It’s still not great, but seeing a basketball hoop or specialized posters on walls went a long way compared to the OG. But that’s about it. As I stated in the disclaimer, unless you’re a huge Alan Wake fan, you won’t get much enjoyment from AWE.


NOTES
-No new music.

-The creation (recreation?) of the Apollo 14 capsule + moon dust in one area was absolutely exceptional (too bad it’s not used for anything other than another combat playpen).

-There was one side mission involving a train puzzle that I did enjoy, no matter its shortness (featured some incredible sound design).

-Was ambivalent about Jesse being more sarcastic here, though I suppose it is, in a strict sense of the word, character progression.

It's Control with some Alan Wake thrown in. I kinda don't think the two style's congealed well though.
Every time you get in low health and all the danger red is on the screen on top of the darkness, it made a combo where I couldn't see anything. The using tk to carry flashlights was neat but it never really felt like it mechanically went far enough. I also almost regret saying the stronger/spongier bosses of the main campaign were lame because I REALLY didn't like the final boss of this DLC. There was definitely an attempt at intriguing boss design though. The tells for his attacks could've been clearer imo.

more control, but this time alan wake is here! couldn’t ask for a better combo. overall very solid expansion, kinda wish there was more to it other than just following the same guy around and trying to kill him like 4 times but in the end this expansion is very enjoyable. i loved how this expansion sorta combined the gameplay of control with the mechanics of alan wake, having to use telekinesis to power light sources to get rid of the big boss of the dlc and get rid of darkness was full of creativity. really loved how this dlc sets up alan wake as well, the final line of the plot being “you have been warned.” from alan just tells me that aw2 will be hype as fuck. remedy killed it once again.

Didn’t think I’d ever miss my flashlight this much.

This expansion had a few excellent moments of suspense with great atmosphere but all that was sadly overshadowed by uninspired level design. The only thing that saved it and which kept me going were the Alan Wake crossover elements.

The final cinematic did give me slight goosebumps, though. Can’t even lie. Hyped for AW2, I’m finally ready.

This was the cherry I was playfully juggling to and fro in my mouth during my entire playthrough of Control, all but certain it would be "The Good Part"- my unwavering motivation that kept me going down the same droll corridors and an even more mind-numbingly paced expansion immediately prior to this one. Imagine my feelings when the only kind thing I have to say about AWE is that it's at least shorter than The Foundation, neither of which meaningfully iterate on the gameplay loop of the original game- instead choosing to slather additional layers of pretentiousness on top of stories that were already a few yards up their own ass. Conspicuously, Jesse Faden herself has very little to say about the events that transpire within beyond the occasional quipping that I'm convinced is just lines recycled from the base game.

Upon completion your reward is a few precious seconds of unashamed intellectual masturbation masquerading as an ad for Twin Peaks Season 3: guest starring Alan Wake... and then ear shattering silence. You are coldly thrust back into the game world as if nothing of consequence ever happened at all, left to pick up a few generic scattered upgrades left over from the last encounter. After dusting yourself off, you are free to slowly walk back to the last checkpoint so you may carry on with whatever scraps of the game you have left to consume; tragically, I had just finished cleaning out the entire establishment. I guess this gamer got his money's worth, but if the questions Alan Wake 2 seeks to answer are anywhere near as vapid as those posed by this glorified advertisement clutching to the bones of a glorified RTX tech-demo, then I'm afraid I'm going to have to pass on another course of Remedy.

AWE brought Alan Wake and Control together, establishing them as in the same universe. It introduced light mechanics that Alan Wake is known for, and had more of a horror theme that I enjoyed a lot. I can't say I fully got the story as I've found Alan Wake in general difficult to understand, but it was still great. In fact, I preferred this expansion over the Alan Wake game itself. The use of Jesse's paranatural abilities made all the difference, and the expansion's antagonist was more than memorable.