Talvez tivesse feito mais sentido eu jogar esse jogo antes do Alan Wake 2 já que ele explica e introduz uma cacetada de conceitos pro universo da Remedy, mas jogando agora foi até um refresco entender melhor algumas coisas. Control é realmente impressionante tecnicamente, ainda mais em um mundo onde os jogos carecem de personalidade, todo lançamento da Remedy esbanja disso e sempre tenta fazer algo de diferente, Control consegue fazer um ótimo uso da física, que é algo que eu me amarro, sou simplesmente viciado em ficar me jogando de prédios e carros no GTA IV só pra ver o Niko se esborrachando, e aqui os cenários são altamente destrutíveis, tudo tem interação de acordo com suas ações e a gameplay é uma delícia, os poderes são extremamente divertidos e o conceito de uma arma que se transforma em diferentes armas acrescentam ainda mais variedade pra gameplay.

Eu vi muita gente falando que a história desse jogo é muito confusa e complexa, até certo ponto realmente é, mas por trás de tantos termos complicados e conceitos sem explicação, a história é bem simples, o problema é que o desenrolar dela é bem lento e se você não ler nada ou não prestar atenção suficiente, você vai ficar boiando do começo ao fim. Superficialmente, a história não passa de uma irmã tentando achar seu irmão e salvar ele, a questão é que o universo da Remedy é repleto de coisinhas complicadas, Objetos de Poder, Itens Alterados, o Ruído, a Presença Obscura, o Lugar Escuro, o Plano Astral, mas sinceramente nenhum desses termos tem muita utilidade, o quê você precisa saber é que os objetos de poder são conectados com o plano astral e o plano astral se conecta com qualquer fenômeno paranormal no mundo, já os itens alterados não se conectam, porém, são afetados por fenômenos paranormais.

O Ruído é uma espécie de infecção paranormal que toma controle de tudo que toca, menos a protagonista por ela ser imune, aí cabe a você achar seu irmão e acabar com essa praga. O interessante é que a Jesse não tem "livre arbítrio", tudo na vida dela foi manipulado, a Polaris basicamente controla ela o jogo todo, o próprio Alan Wake interferiu na vida dela pra história do jogo acontecer, e você, como jogador, também tomou controle da vida dela durante toda a jornada, então mesmo que ela tenha controle sob o ambiente, sob os inimigos e seja super poderosa, no fim, ela não controla nada, e sim os outros personagens desse universo que controlam ela.

A trilha sonora do jogo é fodástica igual nos outros jogos da Remedy, principalmente o pedaço tocando rock com o cenário inteiro se modificando, os gráficos do jogo são do caralho apesar dessa engine ter um problema chatão de delay de render e ghosting no PC, a direção das cutscenes trazem alguns ângulos bem inventivos, o level design do jogo é bem intuitivo, raramente você se perde e quando se perde é por culpa do mapa horrível desse jogo que funde todos os andares em um só, as missões secundárias são bem legaizinhas e recompensadoras, no geral o jogo é extremamente competente, infelizmente a má apresentação da história e alguns problemas de pacing acabaram estragando a experiência de muita gente.

Control foi um jogaço, tava bem curioso pra jogar e eu me diverti muito, aí como eu sou pobre, gostaria de agradecer a @chrisredfield que deixou de comprar açaí pra me dar o jogo, te amo mano.

I really wanted to like Control. It has a very intriguing story premise, and a striking art and cinematic direction. Its biggest problem is with its combat, which makes up most of the content in the game. Combat has some rather frustrating issues, and as a result, a majority of the game isn’t especially enjoyable to play. I eventually got to a point where I realized I was forcing myself through it, and decided I didn’t want to commit to it anymore.

Control has an intricate setup that can be difficult to summarize. It takes place inside of a location known as “The Oldest House”, a surreal magical office building that is a gateway to other dimensions and serves as the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control, a government organization dedicated to the research and combating of the supernatural. It is being invaded by a paranormal force referred to as “The Hiss” which is infecting members of its staff and security forces and is wreaking havoc all throughout the building. The Bureau holds many dangerous magical artifacts, referred to as “Objects of Power” within the Oldest House, and the invasion of the Hiss means that these objects can potentially be released to the public, which poses a great danger to humanity. You play as Jesse, a telekinetic woman who has arrived at the Oldest House in the midst of all of this in search of her brother, whom she suspects is being held captive by the Bureau. You primarily navigate the dreamlike and labyrinthian Oldest House while battling Hiss-infected enemies with a combination of a supernatural gun that regenerates ammo and Jesse’s telekinetic powers.

Combat is decent, but I don’t think it’s varied enough to remain interesting throughout the entire game. You’re introduced to your core abilities and a majority of enemies fairly early, so you’ll go through very long stretches of the game fighting hordes of the exact same enemies over and over again. I do mean hordes of enemies, because you’ll tend to face a large amount of enemies in waves over the course of a single encounter. This causes combat to drag out and become tedious as a result. There are also several factors outside of your control that bring down combat even further.

Fights are frequently visually cluttered due to a combination of this game’s lighting and the destructible environments constantly obscuring enemies and incoming projectiles. In areas where light is strong, it washes the environment out, while dark areas are too dark, making it difficult to be aware of your surroundings. It’s especially frustrating during fights with the Hiss, because I would be getting pelted with projectiles or shot at with rockets and grenades by enemies whose location I just cannot determine because of the harsh red lighting in areas where the Hiss infection is at its strongest. It makes it feel like the game is randomly blowing you up or killing you. It’s even worse if you’re close to death because the screen will turn red when you have low health, making it even harder to see. There are pits you can fall into and ledges you can fall off of in areas where you’ll be fighting in, and falling down these just adds to the frustration of the lack of visual clarity in combat. If my issues with the combat weren’t there, I’d enjoy the game a lot more. In areas where I can see what’s going on, combat is at its best and is actually pretty fluid. Its fun managing your gun's ammo and your telekinetic abilities, using them in conjunction with one another.

Combat is what makes up the vast majority of this game, there’s not much else to it besides the occasional simplistic puzzle and surreal set piece. The layout of the Oldest House is intentionally convoluted, but locations are sign posted and it’s not super difficult figuring out where you need to go, making exploration not particularly difficult or engaging. You’re mostly just going from point A to point B while clearing out the Hiss on your way there. Since this game is mostly combat, and I had such serious issues with the combat, I decided to put the game down. I got about three quarters into it and I realized I was just forcing myself through it while not having a great time.

The setting and story of Control were primarily what kept me invested, but the issues with the combat are keeping me from progressing any further with it. The main reason I picked up Control is that I heard it has ties with the newest Alan Wake game, but at this point I think I’d rather just look up how the story plays out. Maybe there are mods out there that help to reduce the visual clutter, but I’m not invested in Control enough to really look into them. I’ve got other games I’d rather play.

Passagens multimídia encobertas por uma maravilhosa nevóa difusa entre tosco e noir; brutalismo usado como fonte de horror e adoração; tour de force de direção artística alimentado por sombras afiadas e iluminação impecável; um pacotinho de controles e poderes que flui de forma magnífica entre um e outro.

Por quê, então: mais um shooter de terceira pessoa amaldiçoado com crafting, elementos roguelite de conteúdo infinito, sistemas de “RPG” vestigiais que só servem pra alimentar os cabras mais famintos por dopamina que tem por aí. Nada diz “explorar um inferno brutalista não-euclidiano que é fisicamente e emocionalmente labírintico” como equipar seu personal mod lvl 4 +13% fart rate. O próprio ato cansado de apontar e atirar é ressignificado em sarcástica lógica circular: o supremo Objeto de Poder é uma pistola que… atira nas coisas. Quando a maioria das suas opções de interagir com horrores além de sua compreensão são sentar chumbo neles ou dar um dash até eles, tem alguma coisa errada.

Uma pancada estética muitíssimo memorável, carregando por aí um corpo do gênero mais cansado dos últimos 15 anos. Pô, eu jogo feliz qualquer bobagem que for bonita desse jeito - o choro é pelo que podia ser.

Fucking christ man

Absolutely incredible experience, just insanely engaging and cool in every way that matters. Remedy really knows how to make their presentations work, this might just be the most visually striking game I've ever seen

I already brought it up when talked about Alan Wake but considering how prevalent of an inspiration it is, I think these games perfectly capture my favorite aspects of Twin Peaks' core meaning
In both series there are extremely powerful parannatural beings at work and the audience is never expected to fully comprehend them, and I personally always found that to be just super engaging. I think stories like this giving you room to speculate just makes the experience that much more memorable

"I don't think I'll ever understand. I don't think I need to"

Really, really love these games

"I had a Dream and I built the thing I saw in my dream. A machine that will contain God, but not the God you know or the ones anyone knows. A new God. This machine will be his body, his heart, and his mind. I made it just like the Dream showed me."

--

"They're the Bureau's past, Emily. We won't operate like they did. We'll learn from their mistakes. We'll be better than they ever were. We won't ever be like them."

Another fine entry in the freaky stuff happening at the corporate office genre (maybe the best genre). Should probably have tried to play this more often for as much as I enjoyed my time with it I definitely took a few too long stretches of not playing it which I'm pretty sure lessened the impact of the story/themes/ending. Not 100% sure if that's a fault of the game for not sucking me in/being a bit of slog here and there or the curse of not being able to completely dedicate your life to a long-form(ish) game anymore (I don't have too much interest in playing it any further after the credits so leaning a bit more on the former here). Nonetheless, the combat, exploration, discovering the history/lore of the Bureau and it's building through notes, and the addictive destruction physics (can't wait for their Max Payne 1 & 2 remaster) are more than enough for a completely satisfying experience. Standouts are the Anchor boss and the maze set piece, among several set pieces that play with the buildings architecture. Could watch the building shift and warp around itself for hours. Lots of neat stuff here with structure, colors, editing, framing, and, most importantly, sticky notes which has now given me the perfect idea so that I can permanently work from home and never go back to my dumbass office.

I have wonderful glowing positive things to say about this game.

I have always had a fondness for remedy's style of game making, there is perhaps nobody besides Kojima that understands how to make a game that feels like a movie like they do.

There are several moments in this game that send shivers up my spine from the visuals, perhaps it is the best looking ps4 game.

Gameplay wise, it reminds me quite a bit of alan wake just with more flavor and is less gimmicky. Mostly shooting with some platforming and puzzle elements. It's pacing is great and does not overstay it's welcome.

Story wise it might utilize my favourite way to tell stories, through the environment, lightly used cutscenes with expertly acted characters.

Maybe the best written female protagonist of any game ever, Jesse is very well written and impeccabley acted by Courtney Hope.

She says something in the game that stuck with me about even though the situation is horrific it felt right to be where she was in the moment. A line bespeaking of existential bliss, a feeling we all chase after. Well this game made me feel that in a way, it was a joy.

Eu sinto pena de Control ser um jogo e não poder ser chamado de surrealista.

Antes que esse comentário soe como pedante ou diminutivo para jogos como arte ou Control como um jogo, preciso deixar claro o que senti enquanto jogava Control.

Eu já havia deixado de jogar Control antes, mas por estar testando e não ter ido muito a fundo no que se tratava. Depois de ter jogado Alan Wake, jogar Control era o próximo passo lógico e estava emocionalmente preparado para o que quer que fosse esse jogo.

Control é bem estranho, de fato.

Visualmente, é um espetáculo, o surrealismo aqui se mistura ao brutalismo e nos deixa insignificantes e ao mesmo tempo, inconsequentes. Isso, apoiado em uma narrativa bem única, promove um jogo AAA pelo menos “estranho” e nisso Control me fisgou em vários momentos. É uma pena, porém, esse jogo encontrar amarras justamente no que o torna um jogo.

Inicialmente, as mecânicas de Control são: jogo de ação com poderes. Os poderes não são nada de mais e a maior conexão que consigo tirar é que, de fato, estamos TOMANDO CONTROLE.
Os poderes nos fazem tomar controle de objetos, pessoas e até de nós mesmos ao levitarmos e manipularmos nosso corpo. Porém, essa conexão é uma linha fina e sensível que acaba se estourando ao ser estressada pelo loop encharcado de combate. Eventualmente, o ato de controlar, que inicialmente parece tão significativo quanto a lanterna do Alan Wake, se torna apenas mais uma mecânica de combate junto às diversas armas, upgrades e mods que você encontra pelo jogo.
O momento em que Control foi mais livre é o labirinto vivo do TAKE CONTROL. Ali o jogo consegue ser livre em estética e arte, mas também em mecânica, ainda mais se, assim como eu, você balanceou o jogo para ter energia quase infinita e poder flutuar e usar poderes à vontade. Se eu não tivesse feito isso, talvez não teria terminado esse jogo, mas, graças a uma feature modular de dificuldade, consegui ter uma experiência boa, mas que beirou o cansaço e exaustão de combate, ainda mais quando se trata da FUNDAÇÃO, a DLC que é, basicamente, combate e puzzles.
Puzzles aqui que não usam 100% do que poderíamos fazer com a simples mecânica de telecinese. Em Alan Wake, por exemplo, a Remedy extrapola mais o significado de luz e temos equipamentos e puzzles que utilizam a luz, alguns até de forma inteligente. Aqui, os puzzles são simples e parece que a mecânica de telecinese se resume a encaixar objeto A no ponto B, coisa que poderíamos fazer com as mãos.

Porém, se formos olhar em uma perspectiva de design, Control é amarradinho no que se espera de um jogo, e é nesse ponto que eu não gosto da conceitualização de Control como “video games”. Do mesmo jeito que criticamos a implementação de mundos abertos sem um porquê, sidequests, níveis e loot sem um porquê em jogos AAA do mercado, me pergunto o mesmo para Control que, surpreendentemente, inclui cada um desses aspectos citados. Agora, por que? Não consegui encontrar essa resposta no jogo, mas em mim, isso apenas me desconectou da experiência como faria em qualquer jogo da Ubisoft.

Na verdade, essa falta de conexão na minha experiência ficou também na narrativa. Apesar de adorar sua direção, os temas são, basicamente, Worldbuilding. A trama pessoal da Jesse aqui não importou muito para mim já que o jogo parecia se importar mais em explicar e estender as regras daquele universo.
Existe uma questão sobre explicar universos fictícios que me intriga em alguns jogos, o apego pelas regras. As regras do mundo são cruciais para a elaboração de um worldbuilding, é isso que aprendemos em cursos de narrative design, mas quando vejo um jogo que se preocupa tanto com regras e “porquês” eu sinto um realismo que não me agrada muito em jogos que querem ser tão livres quanto Control. Ao meu ver, esses jogos brilham quando justamente o Porquê não está em um item de lore, um codex ou uma teoria do personagem, mas sim em nossa interpretação.

Por que a Jesse é a Diretora? Porque o jogo é sobre controle, e para mim, isso é suficiente.

Mas, novamente, isso é esperado de grandes jogos. Mesmo sabendo que jogos são tão jogos com ou sem combate, upgrades, mundo aberto e um worldbuilding coeso, Control parece se render, o que é uma pena. Afinal, não diria que Control é surreal, já que absolutamente tudo naquele jogo está imerso e ancorado na sua própria realidade e, sendo as suas regras claras, as consequências são previsíveis e pouco subjetivas, mas pelo menos divertidas.

the world building in this is a 20/10 and that elevates it beyond the imperfections, i’ve never read so many collectible notes and audio logs in a game. combat moves are satisfying and flashy but dying just plain never felt like my fault, and loads/run backs were too long. i eventually checked the Immortal box in the settings and never came close to regretting it. i could still see the health bar drop to zero and every time it happened i said yeah that would’ve been a stupid moment to die. really was annoyed the elements i was loving kept getting interrupted by combat because of it’s a video game, not because it was an impactful or special sequence in any way. just added filler hours. damn that’s probably what all my reviews are gonna be like on here huh.

tl;dr I wish I liked this game more than I did.

There’s no getting around it: Control is one of the most inspired settings in video game history. The Oldest House is not just a brutalist hellmaze, but a transdimensional hotbed for new and exciting conflicts + future titles.

The SCP similarities are shameless (in a good way). The House of Leaves similarities? I’ve already talked about House of Leaves before (and I’ll likely have more to say about it when I’m talking about Alan Wake, believe it or not) but they’re mostly skin-deep. Jacob Geller has some great videos about it.

Control is captivating, at first. It forgoes a lot of the traditional Remedy set dressing / diegetic prologue-ing and instead gives you a gun, and now you’re also the new director. Congratulations!

The first hour of this game is succinct, sowing intrigue, introducing key characters, acquainting Jesse with the service weapon, the Hiss; it’s grade-A Remedy pacing. Then, it starts to open up, and it slows waaayyy down.

Drinking game: take a shot every time a Bureau Alert appears; if you finish the mission successfully, take a drink of water – if you fail the mission (or die before you can reach it), take another shot.

Bureau Alerts are optional missions but they occur so frequently and repeat so often, they started to get on my nerves. You can safely ignore all of these (they didn’t even give me ability points, so I’m not really sure what their purpose would be outside of resource farming / achievements).

Side missions range from Pretty Good to Whatever. A lot of it is just busywork (“Go here, find this,”) and almost every boss encounter was kinda bad. If it wasn’t a souped-up enemy, it was either Big Ball or Big Worm (you gotta fight this guy in a Fridge and a Flamingo). Big Ball is an anchor, actually. Credit where it’s due, I can’t say I’ve killed an anchor by throwing clocks at it until I played this game. That’s gotta count for something.

One persistent complaint across every Remedy Game I’ve noticed is lack of enemy variety. I wouldn’t say Control alleviates this problem any. I think maybe my expectations were too high. I was expecting the human enemies to diminish in numbers as the game continued, allowing for various enemy factions / types to emerge later on (the Foundation DLC does this, kinda… they’re still all humanoid enemies though). Instead, it’s mainly humanoid soldiers for 3/4ths of the enemy roster – that remaining quarter is Small Balls (Hiss Clusters), Physic Objects Glitching Out (Astral Spikes), Exploding Guys, Floating Throwing Guys, Rock Shield Throwing Guys, and my least favorite guys, Invisible Jumpscare Guys That Can’t Be Attacked Until They Attack You But If You Don’t Dodge Their Attack They Deal 95% Of Your Health.

Combat was good – but it never elevated the experience for me. Just like Quantum Break, fodder enemies were too weak and bigger enemies were too spongy; unlike Quantum Break, all of Jesse’s abilities are tied to a singular power source – meaning there’s no waiting on ability cooldowns, just one main energy recharge. Likewise, your Service Weapon – despite having multiple “modes” to choose from – operates on a cooldown as well, meaning if you spend all your ammo in one place, you can’t just switch to another mode and keep blasting.

I’ll be straight with you: I didn’t like this! I understand it’s all intentional design to incentivize switching between Jesse’s powers and her weapons, but let’s be honest – the only thing it incentivizes is using the launch ability between weapon cooldowns. There’s nothing else you can do in a firefight besides shoot, or launch, or defend, or collect health. It makes for very samey combat throughout, albeit you eventually learn to fly later on, as well (this changes combat less than you’d think).

I wish the combat felt more dynamic. Let me switch between all my weapon modes at once! Make the individual weapon mode cooldowns longer to compensate or something, I don’t know.

Inventory micromanagement was a chore. Low inventory space and boring upgrades. +10% to Reload Speed after Evade? +15% Ground Slam Damage after Reload? Go fuck yourself. Just give me +10 Damage or +10 Defense and call it a day. I don’t want to keep recycling redundant weapon/player perks just because the game hands them out like candy.

If you focus solely on the main story and ignore all the extraneous busywork nonsense, I think you’ll find that Control is actually really good most of the time. However, because this is my first playthrough, and because I’m compelled to loot and read and do everything I can blind – I found most of the downtime was a lot more uninteresting than I’m used to.

The lore is interesting, the setting is awesome, the gameplay is good – but it never harmonizes. Its good ideas are sandwiched between truly baffling gameplay conceits and creative decisions that left me feeling underwhelmed. Combat that should've been fluid and fun ended up feeling rote and unsatisfying. Concepts that should be thought-provoking were glossed over, diluted and incorporated into or alongside more digestible third-person shooter verbiage.

It ends unceremoniously, without so much as a final boss to send it off.

The ashtray maze fucking rules though.

did a quick replay through the base game plus all side quests and hidden areas so i can move onto the DLC and Alan Wake II finally. there's so many nice costumes/skins in this game that end up available after you're finished pretty much. such a waste tbh.

---

as with Quantum Break before it, this was also a bit better than i had given credit for in the past. the combat plays like a refined version of what that game was working with but the powers stand out more on their own and have much more oomph/impact to them. Jesse feels like one of the biggest examples of glass cannon i've encountered in a game in that you will be reaming EVERYTHING but can only take two, maybe three solid hits yourself before dying. playing this the first time years back near release before any of the updates with combat settings and better performance (this game made my PS4 pro sound like a hairdryer constantly) made for a rough adjustment with the relative difficulty of everything but today it fared better. as long as you boost your health/energy a few levels earlyish on, level your launch to max asap, and keep moving you should be okay.

elsewhere i also enjoy the moment to moment gameplay of navigating the Oldest House which has a surprising amount of variance in pathways, hidden areas, and other stuff to uncover. getting from point A to point B at times can be more complicated than expected which is natural for its setting. this was a replay and my prior knowledge kept most of this just fresh enough that i wasn't getting lost much, if at all.

the only place this truly stumbles is in personal investment to the narrative, overall universe, and characters honestly. Jesse as a lead character is someone that i go back and forth on. some of the abrupt cuts to her inner monologue are funny and among the best parts of the game but at the same time she falls into the gabby protagonist/player character thing that wears thin for me. at large, the characters are stronger than the narrative and universe itself for me with Arish and Marhall being my favorites. almost every section of the Oldest House is absolutely stunning, it just ends up being a bit of a pretty but otherwise vacant thing for me.

who knows, maybe the DLC chapters will be what fully pull me into Control investment wise. at the very least, i'm under the impression that the second one in some way helps set up Alan Wake II so it should have that going for it at least. curious to how Control 2 turns out as well. exciting times for Remedy.

remedy by way of ubisoft lol,, rlly just very dry and boring in a way remedy never is,, idk if a studio like that should have a budget like this. feels so modern triple a game core fucking bloated game w like infamous games tier combat which who was rlly clamoring for that to come back in style,, lame confusing interconnected map. idk missing all the style and swag that prev remedy games had esp in regards to its main character, max and alan instantly recognizable and at least partially sympathetic,, they seem real and human even w tech that was obv more limited. but jesse never once felt human to me,, feels like modern superhero movie quippy girl and that’s just so boring to me. and why is she a girl what specifically about her is so diff from max or alan or rlly any video game character that is oh so sad oh so tragic,, blank slate ahhh character..idk shit is boring I bounced off after five hours. remedy asleep at the wheel frfr and house of leaves seems like infinite jest for ppl that suck even more somehow. on that pseud type shit. zzzzzzzzz

the way my jaw dropped all throughout this game at least 100 times because of how beautiful everything is in here damn

coming from the alan wake playthrough which honestly let me down I saw discussions around that were like “play control before AW2 or kill yourself” and I was like oh ! rude but let's get it and I'm SO glad I did this is a masterpiece dont get me started

I genuinely knew nothing about this game I think I saw it around on here maybe they even gave it a prize or something I have NO idea the only thing I knew is that it was gonna be another chore before AW2 but I ended up loving it so dearly

this game is a weird object of power to this moment i have no idea what the fuck am i supposed to think about the story theres a lot of segments words intricacies thrown around but at the end of the day if you ask me what happened in this game I cannot even begin to explain it to you but the whole gist is

jesse gets thrown into an enormous facility of super technological and scientific matrix which actually do a lot of weird things even tho its those “deeper you get the more laboratory ish it gets” resident evil 1 style in search for her lost brother and while doing that she realizes that a being called hiss is taking CONTROL hahahahahahahha OH LORD I SAID CONTROL HAHAHAHAHA SO FUNNY ok anyway taking control of people in this structure and jesse has to take care of them because she's somehow special and can do a lot of paranormal stuff and all the people talk about her like she's the director of the game and she's kinda schizo she talks with a voice in her head

lets be real theres probably a lot of different lore elements story beats explanations that will give sense to the whole experience but I'm usually pretty stupid and if you don't say things to my face I don't get what's happening but the thing is this is a vibes first story second and there's nothing else to say about it

the vibes are UNMATCHED the oldest house is such an intricate maze like oppressive and dangerous and yet soothing setting that I found myself just exploring every nook and crannies to see what was lying below the surface and when I tell you this place has a LOT of variety in its nature every room and department is characterised by some things stuff that can range from day to day objects or something absolutely paranormal and that makes for an experience that is dreamlike in nature for yourself and for jesse too (she's still schizophrenic why the fuck is everyone schizophrenic in remedy like alan wake is schizo jesse is schizo what are you cooking)

while I definitely enjoyed its story beats even though I understood absolutely fucking nothing there's a part of me that wanted more of a coherent or at least explanatory story . don't attack me wait a sec . I love mind fucky stuff but the lack of real directions actually undermined jesse as a character and the side characters of the entire story like even when you find her brother nothing really happened in me I was like oh cool ! gyatt

so yeah I mean a more down to earth approach wouldve made it better in that department BUT I GOTTA SAY I loved not getting what the fuck was happening literally this game is so esoteric that not even the story proceeds in a linear manner stuff happens and all you can do is watch the events unfold with your brain functions shut off that's how I played it like call me stupid

I ended up liking jesse as a protagonist tho I saw some people shit on her in here and while yeah she's not like the most enjoyable approach ever it has to be said that her energy is also dependant to her surroundings (+ she's traumatised) and although this is the premise I genuinely enjoyed staying in her head she's so fun and quirky sometimes has somehow a sharp tongue and a twisted sense of humor and all in all I loved her not understanding what the fuck is happening because it was basically me during the entire playthrough

can I say I like pope I really like her she's so interesting and witty I would love to listen to her talking about data or some shit

so after all this i can confidently say that yes the vibes of this game are totally awesome running around the oldest house is claustrophobic and yet so grand in nature at the same time most of the spaces are liminal corridors or offices which are sometimes invaded by the casual hiss monsters most of the characters have this kind of uncanny nature to them because of course they would in a facility like this theres a lot to explore you can get lost at how huge this whole place is and I honestly would do it again a hundred times

all this gets into the next point

I dont play a lot of realistic art style games im more of a anime cartoon style man or some degree of illustration ish comic artist esque visual but when I tell you……. when I tell you that this game has probably the greatest visual presentation I've EVER seen on every video game ever would you trust me

some people in remedy really have some degrees in cinematography graphic design and art direction because damn this game is absolutely beautiful its BEAUTIFUL some cutscenes play in nonconvensional ways like using a lot of cinematography tricks here and there with lighting work and camera work most of the game is permeated with color schemes and use to the point that I cannot think of this game without thinking of the color red thats just how GOOD they made me neuronally connect this game to the color and thats what good art direction is all about

I would talk for ages about how beautiful and grand this game is but as a whole this is such an incredible step up from alan wake in every way shape or form the thing that I wanted from alan wake (a good sense of artistic direction and an identity in its design) I got it here and you won't believe how GOOD it is even outside of cutscenes and scripted event the oldest house plays a lot of visual wonders also because of its fucked up nature theres gonna be a lot of jawdropping shots and scenes just by walking around the facility and it's beautiful to get caught up in moments like this staring at awe at an inverted pyramid or the infinite void or a twisting room or a blinding amount of red I cant really get into words how special this all feels

most of the focus of the game is exorcising paranormal objects of power which is such a stupid premise like you will be against fucking fridges cmon but in that kind of absurdity the developers can play a LOT with unconventional elements of art design and im so glad this cake out as well as it did because every single part of this place as some degree of wondrous landscape to look at and remember this game plays entirely INDOORS and it has more variety and interesting aspects than alan wake that plays entirely OUTDOORD that's a damn huge improvement in this aspect at least

I could talk about the art direction of this game for ages so better stop now I cannot give you more details because I'm not competent enough to put the visual masterpiece that this is

somehow I gotta say that the gameplay also won me over . saw some people complaining about the whole battle system and shit but they're honestly WRONG this plays as a third person shooter but with superpowers wow and this then escalates into can sprint can throw objects telepathically can create shields can levitate literally youre gonna get an arsenal so big youre gonna feel like a god and you know what they also have ???

SKILL TREES THATS RIGHT i love skill trees and of course this game was gonna have a skill tree but I do think it's implemented accordingly you get materials from enemies and use them to get some upgrades on your weapons or on yourself

combat as a whole is tight as shit the enemy variety is hauntingly good theres a lot of different types of hiss enemies and you slowly learn to deal with them some way or another while doing all this paranormal godlike shit you can say everything about this battle system but it feels GOOD it feels so damn good to just annihilate everyone in a single room and coming out of the other way victorious I don't usually enjoy shooters that much so this is definitely the greatest compliment I could give this game it's just so so so damn good

there's some more puzzle esque elements but they're very scattered so that I wouldn't feel irritated and every single object of power interaction always culminates in some otherworldly things to do and I guess there's some kind of platforming but the real cake is always gonna be the exploration and the combat like these 2 elements could make or break an experience and I just think control manages to use its entire arsenal and throwing it at you

that to say people who hate the gameplay are cowards

there's a lot of stuff I want to say about control but I would go on and on and on about it forever and I wouldn't encapsulate the real wonder of what this game has to offer so you just need to play it for you to see you won't regret it

side note side quests are actually pretty fucking fun to do they always have some interesting shit to do like remedy is NOT messing around and I'm slowly working through them until I'm ready to play the DLC expansions

that fake ending got me I gotta say and the real ending is so anticlimactic i thought they were gonna fake end trip me again

For my reviews of Control’s two DLC, see https://backloggd.com/u/RedBackLoggd/review/1311823/ and https://backloggd.com/u/RedBackLoggd/review/1311826/

Control may be the closest we’ll ever get to a Superman game, and I promise I’m not kidding. Set in an SCP-esque universe, you control Jesse Faden, a young lady gifted with powers akin to the Man of Steel. She’s looking for her brother Dylan who, years ago, was forcibly taken by the mysterious Federal Bureau of Control (FBC) to a facility called the Oldest House; and now that she’s arrived there, it’s ready to enact its plans for her. What are they and what secrets does Jesse discover? That’s for you to find out should you play the game, a recommendation I gladly give though with some major reservations, the largest being the story.

See, I made the comparison to SCP for a couple of reasons: one, Remedy themselves outright stated it was an influence; and two, this is a game similarly-reliant on optional material. For those unaware, the SCP Foundation’s mythology is built upon thousands upon thousands of articles detailing paranormal instances across the globe, and while Control doesn’t have anywhere near as much lore, you genuinely will not understand the scope of Jesse’s brave new world unless you read/watch/listen to the numerous pieces of media about you. Explanations about locations, enemies, backstories, the FBC’s hierarchy; why Jesse was chosen as the new Director, how she got her powers, the uniqueness of her gun, etc….Sure, playing the base game will net you a thin enough web of understanding, but unless you’re engaging in those extended convos with your colleagues or tracking down extra database entries, you’re going to be missing out on a significant portion of the narrative, and I just don’t know if this was a good storytelling method. People play video games for the sake of, you know, playing video games, not to read/listen to a book/audiobook, and though Control has great gameplay (more on that later), it’s ultimately a story-driven game. To handicap that aspect for players who didn’t feel like digesting every article they found is a sign of either shortsighted direction or accidentally-obtuse design.

Regardless, speaking as someone who DID engage with 90% of the supplements they spotted, I can tell you their quality is hit-or-miss. The SCP-type articles, for example, are superbly written, featuring the kind of handcrafted mysteries which genuinely expand upon Control’s mythos in an organic manner. The Hotline calls to Jesse’s predecessor, the late Director Trench, on the other hand, are absolutely lazy, chock-full of rehashed B-roll and monologues that drag on for up to two minutes on end (and whose only intent seems to have been to give James McCaffrey (RIP) a SAG-protected paycheck).

Mixed are these live action clips starring Matthew Porretta with the most punchable face in a Remedy game since Max Payne’s original visage. They do their job as far as divulging vital info, but the whole Bill Nye-parody wore out its welcome very quickly.

There are several other sources you’ll come across in your journey, from interview tapes to office notes to even puppet shows with atrocious voice-acting, and while Remedy certainly deserves credit for diversifying their output ala Between the Lions, they all still come down to the core problem of being exposition dumps for the sake of exposition dumps. If Half-Life was an example of a title being too reliant on environmental storytelling, Control is the opposite, and that’s just going to rub some people the wrong way.

That aside, even having ingested the majority of the backbone, I can’t say Control has a particularly strong tale, largely because of two big problems: one, Jesse’s character occupies an inconsistent niche; and two, the game, as a whole, feels very anticlimactic.

Regarding the former, Jesse enters the FBC in a weird capacity -- she knows something is off courtesy of events from her past, yet simultaneously doesn’t know the extent of this hidden society, placing her in a strange position wherein she’s both aware and unaware of such goings-ons. This was clearly done to differentiate her from the fish-out-of-water archetype Alan Wake occupied in his respective game, but the problem is the developers didn’t know how to frame her attitudes against that of the player. What I mean is, when you’re controlling a veteran, their reactions expand upon the world; when you’re controlling a newbie, their reactions mimic your own. With Jesse, though, Remedy opted for this bizarre in-between wherein she’ll internally note how things are beyond the realm of normality, yet maintain this attitude of complicity. It’s admittedly hard to describe, and you’re better off experiencing the game yourself to understand what I’m saying, but the end result is it turns her into a slightly-unsettling individual. Now, some of you may be thinking well Red, what about the numerous science fantasy worlds out there whose heroes likewise don’t express any surprise at their surroundings? The difference is those titles deliver most of their mythology to you in spades, an aspect that, as stated before, Control relegates to digitized stationary.

This polymorphization of heavy optional lore and semi-oblivious protagonist culminates in a world that just doesn’t feel lived-in. The Oldest House and its shifting corridors may be a technical enigma, but not once did I ever feel immersed in its shaky abode, and a good chunk of that is owed to Jesse’s complacency as a person -- after all, if the main character doesn’t care for all the Men in Black-style reveals, why should I? Because of this, Jesse’s arc of embracing her role as Director of the FBC comes across as very half-baked, her lack of explicit consideration for the directorship’s pros-and-cons being the perfect example why her arc is underwhelming. If that weren’t enough, the primary plot of fixing the Oldest House and rescuing Jesse’s brother is incredibly mundane: there’s no real build-up to the climax, the final set-piece is lame, and the truth behind events-past is gleaned very easily (ruining any surprises beforehand).

It brings me no joy to criticize these things because Control is a game that clearly had so much love and effort put into its world; however, the reality is all that love was for naught as the worldbuilding is just not executed in a natural-enough manner. Combined with the bathetic main story, and the end result leaves a lot to be desired.

Still, I assume the lion’s share of buyers out there will be seeking out Control for its gameplay, a facet I can’t quite talk about yet without first addressing the graphics. You see, Control is a unique enterprise, its fidelity resting on a destructible environmental schema fans of The Force Unleashed may find nostalgia from. Remedy’s artisans have done a phenomenal job crafting a system wherein the majority of obstacles & objects within are rendered collapsable, either from adjacent shooting or Jesse’s psychic energy, and while the transitory animations weren’t quite at the smoothness level they needed to be, it’s a feat I never thought we’d see in an open world game given the dedication and sheer engineering required for such a craft.

Yet it’s been done here, and not only has it been done here, it’s been done very well here: glass walls, plywood paneling, computer terminals, clock faces, water coolers, paper piles, stone columns, TP rolls, chair fibers; the crack of the ground as you land with G-Force; the shattering of frames as you bolt through an enclosed window -- all exhibit the kind of response you’d expect from such objects getting hit with a strong enough pulse (shards, splinters, sparks, fragments, floods, confetti, pebbles, scraps, plastic strips). Minus the paper piles looking like polygons out of FEAR (and miraculously evaporating in thin air), it’s an incredible accomplishment, and one that makes Control stand above its generational compatriots.

The rest of the game holds up just as well, with Remedy programming those small details I’ve come to love in AAA/indie gaming alike -- I’m talking reflections off of glossy saran wrap, film projectors continuing to play their picture across surfaces even as you telekinetically manipulate their orientation, light reflections within eyeballs during convos, etc…etc….

In terms of the character modeling, things are a little bit more mixed. To clarify, everyone looks great, but I couldn’t help feeling some detail was deliberately shedded whenever the camera exited close-ups as, in the midst of said close-ups, you could literally make out skin pores and eyebrow strands on Jesse and co.’s faces. When the camera pulls back, however, such tissue is rendered much more translucent, a strange occurrence considering Photo Mode reveals no detail to have been technically lost.

However, my bigger issues lay with some macro aesthetic principles Remedy evidently followed. For starters, Control can get excessively dim at times, predominantly in the cavernous areas, to the point where I had to manually upscale the brightness to find the correct paths (which is saying something considering Alan Wake had no such issues despite taking place almost entirely at night). Secondly, as much as I liked the consistency of the Oldest House (every wing, no matter how radically-varied, visually resembles its architectural-brethren), there was a severe lack of personalization in the minute details. A lot of the office spaces, for example, are mimicked floor-after-floor, exhibiting the same plaques, memos, and paraphernalia. No, this doesn’t apply to the dedicated NPC chambers (like the Director’s quarters), and yes I get that this could’ve been a commentary on the monotony of corporate culture; but still, to not even throw in a bobblehead or family photo out there felt like a missed opportunity.

But these are slim pickings in the long run, and the reality is the majority of players won’t focus on them amidst the urbicidal carnage of the gameplay…which brings me to the gameplay. See, Control is a third-person shooter with psychokinetic elements, meaning Jesse isn’t just trading fire, but utilizing her various abilities to dispatch scores of enemies sent her way; and as you can probably surmise from everything I said before, it’s no secret which part of the combat led to the Superman comparisons. I won’t list all of Jesse’s abilities to preserve some of the surprises for you guys, but know that, as long as you’re keeping yourself upgraded, it’s pretty rare to enter a scenario wherein you don’t feel as powerful as the Big Blue Boyscout.

That’s not to say the gunslinging is mediocre- far from it, what you’ve got is a frenzied shoot ‘em up bolstered by slick auto-aim and an armament reminiscent of the Lawgiver from Dredd (for the uninitiated, it’s capable of swapping into multiple models contingent on your personal preference). Tearing a boulder out of the ground and following up its collision with a hailstorm of bullets never gets old, and I was impressed by the realistic damage calculation done by the Northlight Engine (i.e., the mass of the flung item + the wind-up time + any impeding barriers = output).

To counterbalance Jesse’s onslaught, you’ll often be against tens of wraiths at a time, sets of them divided into special classes ripe with their own unique offensive/defensive schemes you’ll need to adapt to in the midst of battles. It’s a genuinely fun time, namely due to the smooth integration of the abilities synchronizing well with Remedy’s attempts at discouraging cover shooting (unless you’re actively trying to cheese the game, you’ll find most cover crumbles and a surge of explosive munitions thrown your way). No matter the diminishments in difficulty, I always had a blast getting into random skirmishes throughout the Oldest House.

There are only four major drawbacks to the whole enterprise: first, the omnipresent qualm of respawning enemies, which concurrently hamper exploration whilst giving players easy caches for farming exp; second, boss fights, the preponderance of which were less specialized encounters and more bulletsponge rehashings of existing enemy archetypes; thirdly, the game relies on respawn points, some of which can get very frustrating courtesy of them not being near where your objective/death resides/occurs. And fourthly, the fact that new abilities are tied to completing side missions over learning them during the main campaign.

In terms of whether that side content is good, your mileage will definitely vary -- a few standout, involving Jesse investigating malicious items the FBC was studying under lock-up, but a large number embody repetitive extermination tasks (some of the aforementioned Altered Items also not living up to their potential as far as in-depth scenarios).

You’ve probably heard about Control indulging in the Metroidvania genre, and on that front it doesn’t do anything particularly exciting. If anything, the game is more reminiscent of Alien: Isolation or Arkham Asylum wherein returning to prior areas with new skills is less about digging up new secrets and more about progressing forward in the story. Yes, there are discretionary rooms you can access later, but the thing is they often only contain generic upgrade components over specialized goodies, handicapping their enticement as far as being worth pursuing. And it’s kind of a shame because Jesse’s various skills, placed in conjunction with these bland quarters, could’ve been directed towards some unique environmental puzzle-solving under the Metroidvania format, yet the most you’ll get are shoving giant batteries into slots ala Dead Space-style.

SFX, on the other hand, is pretty solid, rarely doing anything exceptional but always underpinning your actions in a veritable manner (one zoom-whoosh din, in particular, became a classic melody for me whenever I battered enemies with telekinetic projectiles!). Unfortunately, it’s slightly counterbalanced by a major defect in the sound editing, that defect entailing the foleying for metallic simulacra. I’m not sure what kind of material they use in Finland, but I’m not lying when I tell you guys every single steel-based accessory and trinket in Control literally sounded like glass bottles falling off a shelf. Again, perhaps the manufacturing is just different in Finland, but with my American background, hearing alloyed rods or drawers clatter like stemware from a high-class bar was a bit immersive-breaking.

Voice acting is more uniform than past Remedy games, with Courtney Hope doing a phenomenal job as our Leading Lady. I’m not sure if Control’s tight shots were filmed under a mocap lens or conceived via algorithms influenced by the actor’s performance, but I like to believe it was the former given the numerous tics Jesse does that perfectly encapsulate what someone ailing from anxiety/trauma/OCD would exhibit: the shifting eye contact, twitching jawline, and forced confidence pitches underscoring a terrifically-accurate visage. If Hope’s fellow castmates had stumbled in their parts, her stagecraft would’ve been more than enough to carry the game.

Luckily, that didn’t need to happen. For all my complaints about his mug, Poretta does a better job here with the multifaceted Casper Darling than he ever did as Wake, depicting that shift from idealistic bliss to hopeless turmoil pretty well.

Martti Suosalo won the inaugural Supporting Performer BAFTA for his role as Ahti the Janitor, and you’ll be scratching your head as to why after beating the game. It’s not that he’s bad, but more-so that he’s barely in it, his limited screen time (even with all the side content) failing to leave a lasting impression.

Antonia Bernath, Ronan Summers, Helen Marshall, Charlotte Randall, and Derek Hagen round out the remaining major players of the story, and though minimally-present, all successfully convey their characters’ personalities in a likable-enough manner.

You may have noticed Dylan’s marionettist, Sean Durrie, absent from the above accolades, and that was for a reason: he’s the only bad one. Whatever direction Durrie was given by Remedy was misguided as he ends up going for this annoyingly manchildish voice, presumably in an attempt to convey Dylan’s concurrent turmoil/dual mindset, that just comes off as fingernails on a chalkboard. Unlike the others, his short airtime quickly emerges as a blessing.

The score, sadly, is the biggest lowpoint of Control, its essence a case of misguided intentions. The talent was certainly not lacking - Martin Stig Andersen did a solid job with Limbo & Inside, and of course Petri Alanko crafted the cinematically-tuned OST for Alan Wake. But the issue here is the two overindulged in bleary synths as a way of conveying the Oldest House’s eerie atmosphere, causing the OST to sound like one of those B-movie scores from the early-2010s that overused distortion effects in lieu of authentic ambience. The result is an ugly-sounding assemblage of motifs that are simply more obnoxious than pleasant to listen to (the quieter tracks somehow being the worst of the bunch). Two bonus songs are thrown onto the soundtrack, one inspired by Finnish heavy metal, the other foreign tangos, and if you’re a fan of either genre you’ll probably enjoy them, though they admittedly didn’t do anything for me.

Despite ending on a bad note (no pun intended), I meant what I said in the introduction: Control is a good game. It’s without-a-doubt the most fun I’ve had with a Remedy release, its base constructed out of d@mn good craftsmanship that mostly overcomes its aforestated flaws. After years of playing games that soft-blocked movement with conveniently placed desks or walls, I can’t tell you guys just how thrilling it is to be able to burst through an aperture or table to get to the other side.

Small things like that go a long way, and you’ll definitely enjoy your time with Control.


NOTES
-The biggest hurdle to 100% completion are these challenge areas called Jukebox Expeditions in which you’re tasked with traveling over a wide expanse and completing an assortment of random errands within a set time limit. It’s perfectly doable; however the extraneous enemy numbers placed in conjunction with the time limit prevent it from being as engaging as I’m sure Remedy intended.

-One thing that bothered me a lot was how Jesse only jumps with one leg. Could they really not have programmed a leap in both appendages?

-Another thing that really bothered me were the hapless redactions and references to other reports within the collectible documents. The blackouts often made no sense (listing a state, yet hiding the city; telling one symptom, but not another; providing one useless detail whilst excluding another), and I couldn’t fathom why they’d even do it if the records were meant to be disseminated to other FBC agents (worse were the ones ordered by Jesse- why TF would she not be entitled to uncensored copies of her own requests?!). The references speak for themselves considering you can’t even access whatever they’re citing. In summation, both methods came across as attempts at making the write-ups seem deeper than they actually were.

No início não estava entendendo nada e chegando ao final... senti que ainda estava no início.

Brincadeiras à parte, eu admito que passei a ter mais interesse nesse game após a sequência ABSURDA de Alan Wake, e devo dizer que tê-lo ignorado foi um erro tremendo! Não apenas por enriquecer a franquia vizinha e sim por toda a densidade que seu universo apresenta, talvez de uma maneira confusa aos olhos de alguns mas ainda assim, consistente e intrigante em tudo que se propõe.

Entretanto, me senti um pouco perdido durante a gameplay e não me entenda mal, os combates são divertidos e contam com mecânicas que funcionam perfeitamente bem em todos os cenários, porém, seu mapa deixa a desejar e falha em ser eficiente no que deveria, sendo pouco (ou NADA) interativo. Era de se esperar algo melhor, principalmente para uma obra dessa proporção, mas claro que o meu senso de direção, diga-se de passagem, TERRÍVEL, também não foi de grande ajuda!

Em suma, fizeram um trabalho realmente meticuloso aqui e mesmo alguns empecilhos não foram o suficiente para ofuscar seu brilho. Toda a dedicação e audácia da Remedy em seus últimos projetos só me deixam mais empolgado para o que virá a seguir, dessa que a cada novo passo vem se consolidando como uma das melhores desenvolvedoras da atualidade.

Ao revisitar a experiência de Control, o primeiro elemento que se destaca é sua impressionante direção de arte. Os letterings em negrito, contrastando com os fundos, as incursões do diretor na mente da protagonista, entrelaçadas com o gameplay, e os cenários exuberantes repletos de peculiaridades se destacam como pontos altos da obra. A maneira como a iluminação interage com os ambientes é impecável, refletindo um design meticuloso em todos os detalhes.

O gameplay oferece uma jornada envolvente; apreciei particularmente a forma como o jogo se desenvolve à medida que novas habilidades de ataque e defesa são desbloqueadas, quase transformando-se em um jogo do estilo metroidvania, exigindo que o jogador explore e revisite áreas conforme avança na trama. Embora o sistema de progressão de habilidades que permite upgrades não seja dos melhores e o mapa inicialmente confuso, esses são apenas pequenos deslizes em meio a uma experiência predominantemente positiva.

A história é muito boa.... para quem presta atenção 😂. Admito que, ao longo da minha jogatina, me concentrei mais nos aspectos técnicos do que na história, o que resultou em momentos de confusão sobre os eventos em curso. Control segue a tradição da Remedy, exigindo foco e atenção aos documentos e diálogos para que a trama seja plenamente compreendida. Alternativamente, é possível recorrer a vídeos explicativos disponíveis no YouTube, que não apenas esclarecem a história, mas também estabelecem conexões com o universo de Alan Wake.

Incredible game play; I love the skill tree. The story starts very strong but the ending is bland.
DLC on Alan Wake 3/5.
DLC on Foundation 5/5 (tho some parts are tedious af), given a proper ending to the game.

(This is probably just for PS players) The game has some serious lag issues when you open the menu. Also terrible that if you reload a mission after the endgame, you lose all the progress you have done (post-final mission) and there is no in-game way to differentiate that. Why would you want to do that (besides replaying a mission)? Well there is a trophy on AW DLC which is bugged, so you may have to reload. (You can use cloud saving to fix this).

Would have been 4.5/5 without these technical problems.

Dipped back into Control to do the Wake DLC, after putting it down in February 2021. Without realizing it, I only had two missions/levels left in the game to go, so I finished them as well. Like in replaying Alan Wake, I kind of got tired of the sheer number of fights, but there's so much more here to play around with. The fights are a lot of fun but it feels like they can turn in the enemies favor frustratingly quickly, and I found myself repeating fights an annoying number of times. Granted, I returned to endgame content after two years of not playing it at all, so maybe I'm playing it wrong, or I've invested my ability points wrong, but Jesse is such a squishy character, as powerful as she is. Still I had a good enough time that after finishing it I wanted to start the game on a current gen version. I finished the PS4 version, which looked good and played well enough on my PS5; I did encounter one annoying bug which is that button prompts, or half of them, would randomly stayed glued to the screen until they disappeared just as randomly. If there's a way to move the last gen saves to the upgraded version, I could not find it. The action is very strong and a lot of fun, and the game essentially has infinite content if you want to keep plugging away at it. What's most attractive to me about this game is its vibe and characters, and it was really fun to see Jesse interact in the usual dreamlike way with Alan Wake. Really looking forward to AW2 later this month.

As video games are becoming increasingly more sophisticated over the generations, one thing I've been valuing more and more is atmosphere and ambience. In my opinion this was Controls strongest aspect. When I play games, I do so in my dark room with my big TV and surround sound headphones to try to get as immersed into the experience as possible. I feel as though that method of gameplaying was heavily rewarded by this game. It had a fantastic aura about it.

The story in this game was successfully intriguing enough to keep me interested throughout my runtime. I felt compelled to read every collectable document I came across and was rewarded for doing so with not only funny moments, but insight that helped me understand what was happening. The worldbuilding was done well; there are a ton of names, ideas, and acronyms thrown at you, but I was able to keep up and I think that's a testament to good, disciplined writing. Unfortunately, the ending didn't land as cleanly as I would've hoped. There were still things I wasn't clear on and questions I had that went unanswered, but I suppose that leaves room for a sequel. Still, even though the destination wasn't as satisfying as I would've hoped, the journey still made the game well worth playing.

Like I said before, this game excels in atmosphere. It wasn't a "horror" game per se, but that didn't stop me from being spooked out on numerous occasions. There were a few chilling moments that made me pause and take a breather. There was also a lot of detail put into its lighting and sound design which amplifies the immersion. I really appreciate stuff like that. I also kind of loved the setting; the Oldest House, a bureaucratic government agency cursed with incalculably shifting corridors is a funny self-juxtaposition. This game had a lot of fun playing around with paranormal ideas and there were a ton of cool moments that stemmed from those ideas.

The engine in this game was surprisingly polished and innovative. A few things I want to highlight that I thought particularly impressive:
- It had a robust destructible environment engine, for no reason.
- The lighting engine was impressive; there are projectors in the game that, when moved around, will still project the image as if it would in real life. Never seen that before and thought it was really neat.

The gameplay in this was serviceable but wasn't anything too special. There wasn't much besides combat, which was fun for a time but didn't evolve much and the difficulty was only hiked by bullet sponging the enemies. There was one particularly memorable boss fight: The Former. I wish the game had more boss fights like this. It's a shame it was just part of a side mission. But thankfully this games other aspects were strong enough to keep me wanting to play. Oh and the skill tree was uninspired and I didn’t really care for the mod system.

I put the game down after completing the main story. I didn't do many of the side quests and I don't think I'll play the DLCs. I wish that I wanted to, especially since my favorite gameplay moment (The Former Fight) is in a side mission, but there are too many other games on my backlog and I feel content with what I played.

77/100

Man I really loved the gameplay, it felt fresh and absolutely fun. Huge improvements when it comes to gunplay and gameplay mechanics over Remedy's previous release Quantum Break. Oddly enough the gameplay was very reminiscent of all the superhero powers you had in Saints Row 4 but way better. Also game has some of the best setpieces, I was rendered speechless during the whole Ashtray Maze segment, easily the best part of the game. Side missions had better boss varieties and generously rewarded skill points. I liked the navigation in the game, having to look at sign boards instead of the game pointing it out to you, but that still didnt stop me from abusing the control points to fast travel between locations. also its kinda frustrating how you end up next to the nearest control point instead of a standard checkpoint system resuming close by to where u died. Its frustrating because of the fact that you have to travel long distances usually from the control point to the mission location. Visually the game was gorgeous to look at, ray tracing feature was fine but its like it wouldnt have bothered me if I had kept it on off with SSAO. And since I had RT on, I did experience frame drops in certain locations sometimes touching as low as a 24 fps avg, but for the most part the game ran smooth with 60-70 fps even at parts when the game couldnt have looked more gorgeous. But I did have this issue of blurry textures, no matter what setting texture filtering was set to, luckily could fix that issue owing to a youtube video.
Again I couldnt stress enough about how fun the gameplay was, how exciting it was to fight, die and learn, they really addressed and improved on Quantum Break's disappointing gameplay. But at the same time I couldnt care enough to pay attention to the story, like QB Remedy did a good job here as well when it comes to presenting the lore in the form of video, documents and other collectibles, but the story just did not feel good to me. The dialogues, inner monologues of Jesse needed better writing as well. And the ending was a bit anti climatic as well, having found the game so fun for its gameplay, I could also not wait for the game to be done, thats how underwhelming the latter part of the game is. But thats not to say they were lethargic to tell a good story, it did have potential, it just feels like it lacked proper presentation. I hope the Story next time around with the sequel is good and now onto the DLCs and Alan Wake. Remedy's got a S tier catalogue with games like Control, Quantum Break and Max Payne 3. I feel like after playing these 2 games, Remedy's got to be the best developers when it comes to Sci-fi games. After watching that Tenet esque side mission where Jesse fights an alternate version of herself, I would literally cream if Christopher Nolan collaborates with Remedy to make a Sci-fi game.

this would be one of the coolest games of the decade if the pacing wasn't so bogged down by wave after wave of enemies. the gameplay is incredibly fun, but the combat loop is unfortunately tedious at many points. i found myself exhausted by the third act. your health melts before you know where the enemy is and by the third act you're most likely relying on the throw ability (which i recommend upgrading first.) assisted mode can alleviate some of the annoyance, but it feels like a band aid on an unbalanced game. the atmosphere is incredible, especially with headphones. the story is confusing, but still engrossing and gives you a lot to think about after the credits. unfortunately combat encounters more often feels like an interruption, than a fun challenge. i feel better checkpoints would've gone a long way to keep the pacing fresh. i do plan on playing the dlc, especially for the alan wake connections. despite my complaints, this game is definitely worth playing. so many cool ideas, just a lot of frustrations that come with them.