This one was a disappointment. Control has a premise with boatloads of potential, with it essentially being a big budget take on an SCP Foundation game, but it just doesn’t reach that potential. Combat starts out fine enough but it eventually gets more than a bit tiring once you reach your fifth hour of mowing down not particularly interesting enemies with not particularly interesting weapons and not particularly interesting powers. There is a level of fun inherent to hovering around the battlefield and grabbing chunks out of the surroundings to telepathically hurl them at enemies, but the thrill is gone very quickly. Considering this is the same studio that made Max Payne, one of the greatest shooters of all time, the combat on display here is a giant let-down. You’ve also got a ton of really boring side missions to make your way through, and I’d recommend skipping them unless you really want to get ability points to fill out an extremely uninspiring skill tree.

While we’re talking about things this game does worse than Max Payne, the writing here is pretty weak. I really wanted to like Jesse Faden, the main character, but she’s like if the color beige was person. No wit or charm or anything sort of personality about her. She shares Max Payne’s affection for internal monologue but unlike Max she forgets to say anything interesting. Though I can’t be too hard on her, because so did the rest of the game’s cast. The only character here I actually grew to somewhat like is one you see exclusively through video tapes. The lore about this foundation you find yourself in hints at some really interesting stuff but only just hints, as the game seems more preoccupied with being mysterious than with actually giving you anything of substance.

As for some positives, Control is a very pretty game. The environmental destruction here is great, and if you’re a fan of brutalist architecture and liminal spaces you’re going to love this game’s style. Aside from that, Control gets a big ‘ol “meh” from me. I really wanted to like Control, I pushed through it hoping to find the game that everyone else had played back in 2019, the one that had received so much hype and acclaim. Instead all I’m left with is a forgettable game that wastes an incredible concept. Hopefully Remedy does better with Control 2, whenever that finally comes out.

Chaos;Child is already five years old and yet its social commentary is still as relevant and real as ever. Cleverly subverting the trend of teenagers solving with their youthful confidence conflicts greater far than them (de facto rendering steins;gate, from the same series, far more stupid than it already was), the story of chaos;child revolves around a chain of horrifying murders and the shocking truths that supposedly hide beneath the surface of a modern day media sensation.

Yet, that is indeed just the surface. Chaos;Child ventures into many different territories but at the core it is a work on the excessive power of mass media, internet noise, information wars and the terrifying coldness and the feeling of lack of purpose in modern times. While maintaining a coherent flow, sometimes slowing its pacing by giving the readers many moments of characters interactions, insight and respite to breath in and assimilate the many events transpiring, the plot always moves forward, asking relevant questions about the contemporary world and letting its characters answer them as they see fit. Are those the right answers? The wrong ones? It is hard to say. Living through difficult times is such an idiosyncratic experience that it is tempting to judge and impose our external views upon them, but even though we can express judgment is it really more important to understand and explain than to just simply understand?

Chaos;Child looks upon its characters, their struggles, their decisions, their successes and failures and, like an indifferent, omniscient eye, witnesses the worst inhumanities and never relents. When something bad happens there ain’t no silver lining or positive angle; characters might suffer and then have to deal with the consequences, even accepting their own mistakes, recognize their own flaws and act upon them, trying to better themselves or keep on running away. The underlying heroism in chaos;child does not equates to saving the world, sometimes it is just enough to accept our own limitations and do the best we can to make things slightly less worse for those we care about. As said before, there are no easy answers about what can be done to solve every problem; a tragedy is the misfortune brought upon oneself as a result of one’s own action. Oedipus was a tragic character because he killed his own father and married his mother as a result of his beliefs; Milton’s Satan was a tragic character because he decided to rebel against God due to his own hubris; Miyashiro Takuru is a tragic character because… well, that is the story to be found in Chaos;Child.

The production values in the visual novel are also amazing. The characters’ sprites are expressive, well-acted, Matsuoka Yoshitsugu probably gave his performance of a lifetime as Takuru. The sound design and soundtrack are eerie, creepy, haunting at times; there are many genuinely tense and scary moments, where the tension is so fully realized by combining sounds, writing and acting performances, reading on for too long in those moments might prove painful, yet one can hardly stop as long as the rhythm doesn’t relent.

Chaos;Child should be on everyone’s read-list for the sheer importance of the story, for how well it understands what is fundamentally nonsensical about the culture in 21st century and for how, rightfully so, it has proven to be the heir we were waiting for to the likes of serial experiments lain or kon satoshi’s works.