This game was a blast to play through but it was far too short, preventing many of its great qualities from really shining. Control is a graphically beautiful game, which boasts a solid physics engine and destructible environments. It also does a lot of world-building through scattered classified documents that you can read, recordings that utilize 1980's-era video technology, and dialogue with a few important characters. All of these collectibles set the groundwork for a really mysterious and interesting story, though it sort of falls flat. As far as optimization and playability are concerned, I was able to run this game pretty well on high settings with ray tracing on, though there were many occasions where the game would crash abruptly. Combat was very fun, with a variety of special abilities, forms for the Service Weapon, and objects in the environment at your disposal. As you progress through the game and collect resources, the Service Weapon will become more versatile, capable of transforming into many different weapon types. Special abilities are unlocked by "cleansing" so-called "objects of power (OoPs)" found throughout the story or through side-missions, and these abilities will aid you in fighting certain enemy types or in traversing through the environment. The enemies you fight are personnel of the Federal Bureau of Control who are "Hiss-corrupted," with some possessing powers similar to those you are able to unlock. Each enemy type requires some strategic use of your arsenal. The building the game takes place in, "The Oldest House," is home to many different sectors with notable set pieces that were very fun to explore and fight enemies within. The architecture is very abstract and provides a lot of verticality to spice up enemy encounters. This game has two expansions available: AWE and The Foundation, both of which contribute to the lore and add some fun and distinct elements. AWE serves as a crossover between the new Control IP and the Alan Wake franchise, also by Remedy. I cannot really comment on the quality of this crossover as I still have not played the Alan Wake franchise as of the writing of this review, but from the perspective of Control, the new elements meshed well with the already established gameplay. In contrast, The Foundation is purely focused on a new threat taking place in The Oldest House after the events of the main campaign. This expansion provides more new abilities for you to use, though they are isolated, and unable to be used outside of the new sector that the expansion takes place in. In conclusion, this game was a very fun experience that gave me a lot to play around with. There were many unforgettable moments during this game that left me anticipating the sequel that is apparently in the works.

This entry in the Wolfenstein franchise was rather elusive as its Steam store page was no longer active when I was looking to play it, so I had to find other means of playing it. I think this game is only slightly better than the game it followed, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, in that it runs on a comparatively more modern engine. Many of the issues that plagued Return to Castle Wolfenstein are fixed, only to be replaced by new problems. One aspect of this game I did not like is the lack of a health bar which is something that is, from my understanding, very typical of the time that the game was released. Instead, if you consistently take focused fire for enough time, you will just end up dying with no easy way to measure how close you are to death. I think that a health bar adds a necessary sense of pressure and an ability to strategize, not enabling you to blindly go in and start killing enemies without a care in the world. Some other things I felt really detracted from this game's playability are the FOV, slow running speed, and slightly disorienting running animation. What is very disappointing is that the concept of this game is actually very interesting, and I can't help but feel that if this game were remade on a newer engine with the current standards of shooter games, it would be a really great experience. In this game, you play as William Joseph Blazkowicz, who finds a mystical item called the "Thule Medallion," which grants access to some "Veil Powers" that can aid in combat or help in exploring the environment. I liked how this game delved into the supernatural much like Wolfenstein: The Old Blood which came out a few years later, though here it was done to a much greater extent. In terms of completion the game was not too crazy, and looking for collectibles was not all that burdensome. I think that sometimes the levels could feel a little bit bland and non-distinct, however. Despite the many issues I have outlined, I still think this game is better than its predecessor as the problems in this game did not get on my nerves nearly as much. I think it is unfair to deprive fans of the franchise the ability to access this game on one of the biggest gaming platforms, and I think it should be brought back to Steam. There are many creative elements to enjoy here, and I feel this game would greatly benefit from a remake or perhaps an integration into the reboot series, somehow.

A game that I wish I could enjoy just as much as the majority of the fanbase does. The glaring issues I find in this game relate to the outdated UI, the combat system as a whole, and the way that stealth is implemented. Before I talk about the negatives, I want to mention the things I like about this game. The game excels at world building through the design of the various levels that you play, and it explores many of the fantastical elements associated with the Nazis like the obsession with the occult and their outlandish technological innovations. Sound design contributes greatly to the atmosphere, at some points being hectic while accompanying the slaughter of your enemies, and at other times accentuating the mystery and creepiness of the area that you are in. Starting off the discussion of the negatives with the least weight, the outdated UI can be circumvented by playing the game through a popular community mod for the game called "RealRTCW," which can also play various community-made campaigns (I will note that it was through this mod that I experienced the full game). My main gripe is that a game such as this should not require playing a mod just to play with a modern aspect ratio and resolution. As for the combat and stealth, I found these to be the biggest problems with the game, bogging down the whole experience. Enemy AI is very inconsistent, either going down very easily or absolutely destroying you. It was because of this issue that I found myself save-scumming far more than I would have liked to (a save system that is also not very good). The bosses were very limited and were just relentless bullet sponges, and the second boss in particular being the "Über-Soldat" with a disgustingly unfair hitscan weapon. After having played the other games in the franchise, I can definitively say that this game has the worst stealth system of the franchise, being very finnicky and unsatisfying. What is worse is that two levels require stealth just to proceed, and being spotted or noticed once sends you back to the start of the level. I found myself comparing this game to Half-Life a lot when I was playing as this game came out only a few years afterwards. While Half-Life has no stealth system, its combat and movement gave me some minimum expectations that Return to Castle Wolfenstein did not meet. I found this very disappointing considering the time gap that does exist between the two games and the missed potential for implementing something similar and improving on these systems. Perhaps it is the nostalgia factor for some, but I just cannot get myself to enjoy this game to the same extent as most other people that have played it.