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
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