This review contains spoilers
I really, really wanted to love Control. I love its atmosphere, its aesthetics, its setting. Every set piece it throws at you is meticulously crafted to amaze and unsettle you, every text blurb scattered across its levels is a joy to read. It's the kind of game where you can tell there was a team of people involved: every little detail is so full of life, overflowing with passion for this world.
For starters, its opening is, in my opinion, one of the best openings I've ever experienced in a game of its kind. You're instantly aware of the protagonist's motivations and emotions, and you're right away in her shoes, trying to figure out what the hell is going on. But then its ending is so abrupt that it might as well be a movie that jumpcuts to a paragraph explaining what the characters were up to after the filmmakers ran out of money and couldn't film a proper ending.
However, I can tolerate a rushed ending, I can even tolerate a bit of an incoherent plot. What really ruined this game for me was the dialogue, especially the main character's dialogue.
Jessie Faden, the protagonist, could've easily been one of my favorite women in a video game of this kind. She's not played up to be strong, and is honestly just a girl figuring her shit out after some hardcore childhood trauma. Her backstory feels so human, and every little crumb we get of it is among some of the best writing in the game. The way she talks though? Un-fucking-bearable. By the time I was nearing this game's ending I was saying out loud "Oh my god, shut up" several times. She has a terminal case of AAA game dialogue. She talks like a child. She has to give you the solution to every puzzle the moment you start looking at it. Every single kinda weird thing that happens in front of her has to be immediately followed up by some variation of "Wow, that's weird", even though it is established pretty early on that this woman was at the center of possibly the most terrifying and otherworldly supernatural event ever described in the game. It is utterly baffling to me that this grown-ass woman is written like a teenage girl, completely squandering the potential she had.
As for the rest of the cast, a few of them are spectacular (Trench and Darling are simply unforgettable), and the rest are pretty subpar. Mediocre writing paired with mediocre performances really take the wind out of some story beats, especially Jesse's brother, who is built up as this very important character but is never actually allowed any room to breathe and define himself as something other than a one-note character. Even one of the most captivating characters, Ahti, never feels like anything more than a played out trope.
I cannot emphasize enough how much I wanted to love this game, and how tired of it I was when credits rolled. I was really expecting Remedy to iron out Alan Wake's flaws and go to town on sci-fi horror with a good female protagonist. But all I got was all of Alan Wake's flaws, just with better gameplay.
For starters, its opening is, in my opinion, one of the best openings I've ever experienced in a game of its kind. You're instantly aware of the protagonist's motivations and emotions, and you're right away in her shoes, trying to figure out what the hell is going on. But then its ending is so abrupt that it might as well be a movie that jumpcuts to a paragraph explaining what the characters were up to after the filmmakers ran out of money and couldn't film a proper ending.
However, I can tolerate a rushed ending, I can even tolerate a bit of an incoherent plot. What really ruined this game for me was the dialogue, especially the main character's dialogue.
Jessie Faden, the protagonist, could've easily been one of my favorite women in a video game of this kind. She's not played up to be strong, and is honestly just a girl figuring her shit out after some hardcore childhood trauma. Her backstory feels so human, and every little crumb we get of it is among some of the best writing in the game. The way she talks though? Un-fucking-bearable. By the time I was nearing this game's ending I was saying out loud "Oh my god, shut up" several times. She has a terminal case of AAA game dialogue. She talks like a child. She has to give you the solution to every puzzle the moment you start looking at it. Every single kinda weird thing that happens in front of her has to be immediately followed up by some variation of "Wow, that's weird", even though it is established pretty early on that this woman was at the center of possibly the most terrifying and otherworldly supernatural event ever described in the game. It is utterly baffling to me that this grown-ass woman is written like a teenage girl, completely squandering the potential she had.
As for the rest of the cast, a few of them are spectacular (Trench and Darling are simply unforgettable), and the rest are pretty subpar. Mediocre writing paired with mediocre performances really take the wind out of some story beats, especially Jesse's brother, who is built up as this very important character but is never actually allowed any room to breathe and define himself as something other than a one-note character. Even one of the most captivating characters, Ahti, never feels like anything more than a played out trope.
I cannot emphasize enough how much I wanted to love this game, and how tired of it I was when credits rolled. I was really expecting Remedy to iron out Alan Wake's flaws and go to town on sci-fi horror with a good female protagonist. But all I got was all of Alan Wake's flaws, just with better gameplay.
kediny
10 months ago