Developer: Remedy Entertainment
Available on: Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4, Xbox One, Luna, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 5, Xbox Series X/S
From the moment Jesse enters the building, the tone of the game is set. Control is not a silly game.
The camera cuts to the words above the front desk: “Federal Bureau of Control”. It then pans down to its seal on the floor: an eagle above a prison wall holding a sword and a key in its talons. The game gives you a little bit of context at this time. Jesse Fardon has been looking for this secret government organization for 17 years in an effort to save her brother, and she just found its headquarters.
Control is a third person shooter and somewhat of a Metroidvania. In it, you, Jesse, explore a massive building where the FBC (Federal Bureau of Control) operates, collecting documents that contain information on the many secrets it’s been hiding and fighting enemies that stand in your way. Periodically the game also grants you new abilities to help you out in combat and exploration. There are also a fair number of side quests in Control, some of which are interesting and fun, others of which are tedious and boring.
The writing and art style are both great (and difficult to talk about without spoiling any of the experience). As you quickly discover, the building you’re in is a strange place where lots of supernatural things happen. The documents you pick up, which consist of official reports, internal communications, video presentations, etc., do a great job breaking everything down for you in a way that keeps you engaged and interested. You get to slowly piece together much of the Bureau’s history and its research into all of the supernatural objects and abilities they’ve come across.
Though documents are your main source of information, the office spaces themselves help reinforce the world that the documents describe. There are bulletin boards and colorful posters everywhere that paint a picture of what it’s like to work at the FBC and the sorts of precautions employees have to take.
Also great is the technology behind the game. The graphics are fantastic. Control supports ray tracing, and it’s the first time I’ve ever experienced a game with ray tracing. I couldn’t help but periodically admire just how beautiful and realistic all of the reflections look. Even the light from projectors displaying images behave as it would in real life.
Environments in Control are also destructible. Almost every object and wall can be at least partially destroyed by shooting them or launching objects into them. I even noticed landing on certain objects like vents from a fair height is enough to put big dents in them. The destructiveness is not quite on the same level as Battlefield where you can even punch holes through most walls and bring most buildings down, but it’s impressive nonetheless and it makes the world you’re in feel more real.
The combat in Control is fun for the most part. Jesse starts out with just a handgun, but with resources picked up from dead enemies you can construct new weapons and upgrade existing ones. The controls are simple and easy to pick up and fighting enemies is pretty satisfying at first. The PS5 version of the game, the one I played, takes full advantage of the controller’s adaptive triggers. However, as the game progresses and becomes more difficult, some problems begin to emerge.
In general, the game can’t really decide if it wants to be a tactical game in which you take cover and advance slowly or a fast paced game in which you fight in the open and stay alive by moving quickly. Jesse can crouch, but she can’t aim, shoot or perform any other actions while crouching. Fairly early on you unlock a dodge ability, but dodging consumes energy, effectively limiting your offensive capabilities. Dealing damage to enemies causes them to drop blue crystals that heal you, but getting to them often means leaving cover and exposing yourself to danger (which matters a lot when you’re low health).
These issues wouldn’t really matter if Control wasn’t the kind of game that tries to offer challenging and intense gameplay, but it is. It’s a game that’s pretty eager to punish you and its finickiness can become frustrating at times. Its saving grace is that it has a system in which lethal blows will often put you at 1HP before outright killing you.
There’s also a problem with the visual contrast between enemies. In action games, especially shooters, it’s important to have very clear contrasts between different types of enemies. Control doesn’t quite do this. For example, enemies with normal rifles look almost identical to enemies with rocket launchers. Additionally, early on they introduce an enemy that floats and throws objects at you, then late in the game they quietly introduce a near identical looking enemy whose gimmick is he periodically slams himself into you at mach one, usually bringing you down to 1HP.
In spite of these issues though I still really enjoyed this game. Jesse proves to be a good protagonist, and the game’s writing and plot kept me interested and engaged to the very end. I wasn’t as impressed with the DLC content, but we’ll talk about that another day.
Summary
There’s a lot of things Control deserves praise for. The writing, the art, the plot, the graphics and the destructive environments are all great. Its gameplay doesn’t quite live up to the same level, but it’s still fun nonetheless.