Control is good. Really good actually. But it is still my least favorite of all the Remedy Games I have played, and just barely managed to achive an 8/10. I almost gave it a 7 and decided at the last moment that this was too harsh.
But lets start with the positives. Remedys trademark hypnotic and almost psychedelic writing style is here and it is a good as ever. The cross references are always clever, amusing and engrossing and bridges the gap between the other works of Remedy. I especially love the out of nowhere inclusion of the Old Gods of Asgard. But even aside from all that frosting, Controls story is just great. It's greatly paced, has great reveals, great characters and a great conclusion.
The aethetic is great too! To focus on brutalism was a daring choice and it paid off! A lot of the enviorments look slick and stylish. Not as differentiable or diverse as I sometimes would have liked, but still commendible!
The gameplay of Control is the main issue. And no, the problem is not that Control is an undercooked third person shooter. Quantum Break was that. I could live with that. No, the problem is that the game wants to be more than an undercooked third person shooter and just fails at every turn. This game introduces an open map right away and wants to be a metroidvania, for some reason. And it just fails at every level, because the games mechanics, save for one or two exceptions, are just an awkward fit for a metroidvania and the games structure is way too linear, constantling steering you back the the main plot to put you on railroads. So here we have a game that wants to be a metroidvania, but whenever you want to try and play it like a metroidvania and explore, it kicks you in the teeth and makes you apologize. Also, in general, the gameplay is way too handholdy for a Metroidvania. It gives you the map right away, it drops an assload on questlogs and sidequests on your head and constantly shows you icons to where you need to go and interrupts you all the time with its awkward "emergency quests" that are time limited and way too similar to one another. It's just uncomfortable. I would have enjoyed this game a lot, a lot more if it just were a regular, linear third person shooter, especially since the gunplay is the best part of the gameplay by far and exploration is by far the worst.
Aside from this massive problem, the game does everything else quite well, it is polisihed, looks great, sounds great and has a great story that is greatly told.
But the gameplay mechanics is constantly at odds with each other and akward a lot of the time, so an 8/10 is the highest I could give.
But lets start with the positives. Remedys trademark hypnotic and almost psychedelic writing style is here and it is a good as ever. The cross references are always clever, amusing and engrossing and bridges the gap between the other works of Remedy. I especially love the out of nowhere inclusion of the Old Gods of Asgard. But even aside from all that frosting, Controls story is just great. It's greatly paced, has great reveals, great characters and a great conclusion.
The aethetic is great too! To focus on brutalism was a daring choice and it paid off! A lot of the enviorments look slick and stylish. Not as differentiable or diverse as I sometimes would have liked, but still commendible!
The gameplay of Control is the main issue. And no, the problem is not that Control is an undercooked third person shooter. Quantum Break was that. I could live with that. No, the problem is that the game wants to be more than an undercooked third person shooter and just fails at every turn. This game introduces an open map right away and wants to be a metroidvania, for some reason. And it just fails at every level, because the games mechanics, save for one or two exceptions, are just an awkward fit for a metroidvania and the games structure is way too linear, constantling steering you back the the main plot to put you on railroads. So here we have a game that wants to be a metroidvania, but whenever you want to try and play it like a metroidvania and explore, it kicks you in the teeth and makes you apologize. Also, in general, the gameplay is way too handholdy for a Metroidvania. It gives you the map right away, it drops an assload on questlogs and sidequests on your head and constantly shows you icons to where you need to go and interrupts you all the time with its awkward "emergency quests" that are time limited and way too similar to one another. It's just uncomfortable. I would have enjoyed this game a lot, a lot more if it just were a regular, linear third person shooter, especially since the gunplay is the best part of the gameplay by far and exploration is by far the worst.
Aside from this massive problem, the game does everything else quite well, it is polisihed, looks great, sounds great and has a great story that is greatly told.
But the gameplay mechanics is constantly at odds with each other and akward a lot of the time, so an 8/10 is the highest I could give.