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.
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.
Steinco
13 days ago