Brutalism is magic.

December 23, 2019 8:21 AM

'Control' Imagines 'The X-Files' as an Eerily Thrilling Action-Horror Game [Vice Gaming] “It opens on a young woman named Jesse Faden arriving at the New York headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control. She’s searching for her long-lost brother Dylan, but beyond that we have no idea why she is there, or what this agency is that she thinks might know something about Dylan. You’re just there, in the empty lobby of an apparently empty brutalist office building. It turns out that Jesse has stumbled into The Oldest House, which is both headquarters to the Bureau of Control and a supernatural hellmouth that the bureau attempts to prevent from corrupting reality. It is, as one character puts it, the place where the apparitions and dreads of popular culture’s collective unconscious have been brought into being and imbued with arcane powers.” [Game Trailer]

• Control: a technical marvel, and an artistic achievement [Polygon]

“Control isn’t the first game to use ray tracing, the budding technology that promises to bring ever more realistic lighting to video games, but it’s the first game I’ve seen to demonstrate its artistic potential. While great graphics can’t make a bad game good, they can make a game better at the margins. I played Control on a Polygon-provided gaming PC with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080, and the lighting effects helped turn surreality into reality. Walking past panes of transparent glass only to see perfectly rendered reflections of the environment behind me was stunning, and I kept finding new areas and new uses of the technology that made me stop and gawk at the visuals. Control remains an impressive game on consoles and modest PC hardware, but it’s also one of the best showpieces for ray tracing that Nvidia could have hoped for. I have no doubt it will sell video cards. Control’s dizzying, hallucinatory visuals exist in service of an experience that remains exciting from its opening hours until the credits roll and, without spoiling anything, that ending goes to amazing — and confusing! — places.”

• Control – a preposterous and unforgettable adventure [The Guardian]

“Right now, we need all the escapism we can get, and that’s precisely what Control, the latest game from Finnish developer Remedy (of Max Payne, Alan Wake and, most recently, Quantum Break fame) delivers – to a deliciously over-the-top degree. An immaculately conceived paranormal fantasy, it is built on several premises which are so preposterous that the writers of The X-Files would surely have rejected them, it somehow manages to feel simultaneously believable and beyond bizarre. [...] What subsequently emerges is at heart a third-person tactical shooter, with the odd detour into puzzle-solving, some fine boss-battling, a generous number of side-missions and even a hint of Metroidvania-style backtracking, as Jesse’s ever-escalating security clearance allows her to revisit areas of The Oldest House that she couldn’t previously access. If you had to compare Control’s gameplay experience to an existing game, you’d probably pick Arkane Studios’ Prey, although Control’s scope is much greater.”

• Control: “A game we’ll be talking about for generations” [GamesRadar+]

“But navigating the house is only part of Control's appeal. This is a Remedy game after all, and you wouldn't be here if you weren't utterly intrigued by Control's story. And, oh boy, you're going to want to strap yourself in. It'll sound like a cliché by now, but Control is best experienced going in blind. Just know that my emotions while playing it ranged from ‘well this is weird and cool’ through to 'what the heck is happening', until a point where I literally had to stop, put down the controller and text my boyfriend to tell him this game is utterly bonkers. Beautiful, but bonkers. Remedy really wasn't messing about when it said Control was allowing it to get strange. Building mystery and intrigue is just part of Remedy's DNA, and Control feels like the studio operating at its very best. It manages to create a surreal narrative that's capable of making even the ordinary feel extraordinary, turning your standard handgun into a shapeshifting omnitool, and managing to inject life into an everyday office block. It does all that, and casually gives you one of the best gameplay experiences at the same time.”

• It’s a twisted, haunting odyssey [Kotaku]

“In Control, you can pick up and throw objects with your mind. On PS4 this entails looking at the object you want to move and holding down the right shoulder button. During my time with the game I did this hundreds of times: sometimes to clear a path forward, other times to kill enemies, and often because of the sheer pleasure I got out of ripping up a piece of the world and watching it float beside me, patiently waiting for my next command. [...] I’ve thrown copy machines, trash cans, toilets, fire extinguishers, lamps, guard rails, oil drums, storage racks, office chairs, tables, potted plants, fans, and dozens of other pieces of debris. In addition to being able to grab hold of almost any object, nearly everything in The Oldest House can be destroyed. With a press of a button, wood splinters, rock crumbles, and stacks of paper detonate. The world eventually resets once you’ve wandered off long enough, which is part of the ancient power of The Oldest House. But the sumptuous sounds and visual detail of destruction never get old, whether hurling a filing cabinet at an enemy or just to see what kind of mark it leaves on the wall. It makes the world feel alive.”

posted by Fizz (28 comments total)

I frickin' loved this game! I think my favorite part was the ashtray maze with the music cranked. So good.

And I've mentioned it before, but it's the only game where I actually read/watched/listened to all of the extra bits you pick up along the way. If you like SCP and video games, you will like this game!
posted by Grither at 8:37 AM on December 23, 2019 [5 favorites]

Is this game good? It fizzled at launch but I keep hearing buzz about it afterwards. The OpenCritic ratings are strong. It's already on a meaningful discount, about $40 on PC and PS4. Any preference playing this on console or PC?
posted by Nelson at 8:45 AM on December 23, 2019

Thanks for this post. I bought a PS4 in part because of a good sale a few weeks ago, and in part because I thought I would really want to play this if consensus was that it was good. Gotta get through God of War first, my brain can't handle memorizing two different controls schemes at once.
posted by schoolgirl report at 8:45 AM on December 23, 2019

I recently finished Control’s story and was blown away. It was amazing in both gameplay and story, with scads of style.

It was frustrating at times, and there were certainly boss fights and major battles that I had to go back to again and again, but fortunately, when you die, you don’t lose anything much significant, since your weapon’s ammo and psychic abilities’ energy are constantly regenerating, and your health is entirely refilled at Control Points, which serve as both checkpoints and fast travel nodes. (You do lose some of a resource called Source, which you mainly
use to unlock new modes for your weapon, but you earn it back by killing enemies.)

I still have a couple of optional side bosses to go back and beat, perhaps after exploring more of the Oldest House. A new timed trial mode was just released, but it’s probably too hard for me, so I look forward to the first story-based DLC dropping in March.

Regarding console or PC: by all accounts a console is preferable, both because you can have better graphics hardware for the raytracing mentioned above, and also because the PS4 has some frame rate issues. Disclaimer: I played on a PS4 (non-Pro, even) and the frame rate never bothered me one whit.
posted by ejs at 8:50 AM on December 23, 2019

Is this game good?

I rather enjoyed it; the combat is a bit repetitive but very kinetic, and once you get powered up it's a lot of fun to levitate around flinging shit everywhere. As I mentioned in another thread, I wish it had leaned harder into being Weirder (instead it leans into being... Finnish?) but that's a personal preference I guess.

The graphics are incredible, and made my GTX 970 cry even on Medium settings. Play it on console unless you have a pretty beefy gaming PC.

(I also appreciate that it joins the hallowed ranks of Deadly Premonition in having the player be an entity inside the main character's head. Have you played any other games that do this, Zach?)
posted by neckro23 at 9:29 AM on December 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

I love how beautiful and stark the design of this game is. It's very jarring. I wish I had the option to just walk around in this maze of a building and not have to be griefed by the Hiss, but that's an argument we've had in multiple gaming threads and for another day.

I'm not very far into the game but I'm off the next three days. I plan on diving into a number of games that have been in the queue. This is one of them.
posted by Fizz at 10:46 AM on December 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

I played on a PS4 (non-Pro, even) and the frame rate never bothered me one whit.

There was a performance patch for PS4 a week (few weeks?) after the game launched - that may be why it was good for you. Pre-patch, some of the wide-open fights with many participants reduced my PS4 to seconds-per-frame instead of the reverse.

But I would still recommend the hell out of this game. Read EVERYthing.
posted by Paladin1138 at 11:40 AM on December 23, 2019 [2 favorites]

I loved the hell out of this game, it's easily my favourite of the year.

It's at it's weakest when it's Being A Videogame - go here, shoot these guys, collect the MacGuffin - but the environment, atmosphere, story and world building are so much better, interesting, well-conceived and realised than nearly anything else I've played in recent memory. There's a really delightful moment[1] in the opening half hour that made me go "Hey, wait, didn't I just... waaaaait a minute...." - the game doesn't draw attention to it, and if you're not paying attention it's probably easy to miss, but it was such a perfect detail and encapsulation of How Things Are Going To Work Around here, it instantly hooked me. It's SCP: The Game, and I can't wait to see what they do with the world in the expansions (and hopefully sequels).

[1] ROT13 spoiler: Gurer'f n ohvyqvat fuvsg nf lbh'er zrrgvat Nugv sbe gur svefg gvzr, juvpu zrnaf jura lbh trg onpx gb gur ngevhz, gur cngu lbh unq cerivbhfyl gnxra ab ybatre rkvfgf.
posted by parm at 12:01 PM on December 23, 2019 [5 favorites]

I watched a few hours of playthrough last night and this game looks great. I was curious can you boost your launch ability until its strong enough to pick up bad guys and launch them at other baddies?
posted by hoodrich at 2:35 PM on December 23, 2019

Just got this game yesterday, randomly. Love the aesthetic. The Board kind of reminds me of the AIs in Hyperion.
posted by miltthetank at 2:37 PM on December 23, 2019

Hoodrich: Yes you can, but only when enemies have been weakened first. I really enjoyed this game as well (PS$).
posted by Gneisskate at 2:53 PM on December 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

This game looks really excellent. It's definitely on my list after I figure out if my current machine is up to handling it.
posted by rmd1023 at 5:46 PM on December 23, 2019

I've played through the main quest and everything else except for three side bosses.

It's beautiful and well written and acted and trippy. If you need some escapist horror action metroidvania with a side of silly surrealism, play it.
posted by panhopticon at 9:51 PM on December 23, 2019

As a long time fan of SCP, this game rocked my world. It was an excellent way to bring my partner into the fold, too. It's really astonishing, how well crafted Control is, it feels like every detail was created with actual love.
posted by foxtongue at 10:25 PM on December 23, 2019

I played through it recently, and described it to Mrs. Example as "Like someone rammed together The X-Files, Twin Peaks, H.P. Lovecraft, and a superhero movie in a particle accelerator".
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 2:21 AM on December 24, 2019

I've been debating between this and the Outer Worlds as my holiday gift to myself, and now I'm definitely leaving towards this. As a huge SCP fan but not a fan of normal horror, this looks to be right up my alley.
posted by Hactar at 8:23 AM on December 24, 2019

I've played through the main quest and everything else except for three side bosses.

I don’t think I beat a single side boss or mini-boss without resorting to a walkthrough for tips. The two bosses I have left are apparently the hardest in the game. They may join General Raam from Gears of War 1 as a boss I never wound up beating.
posted by ejs at 8:55 AM on December 24, 2019

Is it actually not out on PC? I can't find it available on PC. Harrumf.
posted by rmd1023 at 9:32 AM on December 24, 2019

It's on PC on the Epic Games Store and is on sale for $40. Steam has a "coming soon" page for it.

Back to my PC vs Console question I guess the real question is: mouse or game controller?
posted by Nelson at 9:40 AM on December 24, 2019

Aha! Thanks! I saw it was "coming soon" on Steam and couldn't find it on AMZ or other retailers.
posted by rmd1023 at 11:18 AM on December 24, 2019

I was really excited to play this game as a fan of SCP, but it was just too hard. I’m no FPS pro so I usually play on an easy difficulty setting - but there are no difficult settings in Control and I just don’t have the time or patience to keep (slowly) reloading from checkpoints. Maybe one day they’ll relent.
posted by adrianhon at 12:23 PM on December 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

the real question is ssd vs hd

game is great but has loading issues
posted by inpHilltr8r at 12:20 AM on December 25, 2019

I picked it up on the Epic store and am DELIGHTED to find it doesn't tweak my simulation sickness (some games, I just can't play for more than 5-10 minutes without my inner ear becoming verrry unhappy).
posted by rmd1023 at 1:42 PM on December 26, 2019

There are some weird misses in the game. The half-baked and annoying mini-upgrade equipables will pull you out of the world to scrutinize. There's no real point to them. Similarly, the upgrade system itself kind of boils down to do you want 20% more health or to do more damage with throw? It's fine just kind of don't really need it in a game like this. They could've been a lot cooler by changing how the powers worked which I see to great effect in some games like Sekiro, Spiderman, God of War, etc.

You have to be ready for a Remedy game that wants you to stop, read something that's long or watch a video and then continue. That's not a criticism, it's just something you come to expect from their games that is not often in other games. The world building is so good that you will want to read/watch these IMO.

The environments are sometimes very empty. Shrug. But this is mostly noticeable only because they contrast the EXTREMELY GOOD and MINDBOGGLING other things. Having your mind boggled is good from time to time.

Remedy has perfected how to use music with action. They actually managed to upstage a classic Alan Wake scene in grandness. You'll know it when you're in it. It's one you'll never forget.

They never quite got the difficulty right in Quantum Break between too easy and ballbustingly hard and that wasn't much improved here. Your health just kind of disintegrates without much feedback. The only other game I can think of that bothered me as much was the new Wolfenstein.

But yeah, good game.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 2:39 PM on December 26, 2019 [2 favorites]

> I was really excited to play this game as a fan of SCP, but it was just too hard. I’m no FPS pro so I usually play on an easy difficulty setting - but there are no difficult settings in Control and I just don’t have the time or patience to keep (slowly) reloading from checkpoints. Maybe one day they’ll relent.

Do you mean this is one of those games in which you can't save/quicksave manually, and have to depend exclusively on the game's autosave?
posted by homunculus at 10:47 AM on January 13, 2020

That’s correct, yes.
posted by adrianhon at 11:44 AM on January 13, 2020

Dagnabit, I hate it when they do it like that. Thanks for the info, adrianhon.
posted by homunculus at 5:05 PM on January 13, 2020

Also, no obvious way to go into unkillable 'god mode' for boss fights, which I used a lot in Skyrim (Hi dragon, yes, yes, whatever, let's just get this over with.)
posted by rmd1023 at 8:52 AM on January 17, 2020