Control is an action-adventure game developed by Remedy Entertainment. Released in 2019, Control answers the question of what happens when a game doesn't answer any questions.

We play as Jesse Faden. The victim of a paranormal event when she was a child, she has been searching for her brother who went missing during the event for the past 17 years. Her journey has led her to the mysterious Federal Bureau of Control, a seemingly unremarkable building where she may find much more than she bargained for.

Gameplay is fairly simple. Run around, shoot things or, more likely, use random objects in the environment as lethal weapons. Solve puzzles, gain access to doors you passed awhile ago but forgot about and now you need to remember where they were. The usual.

The Good

It isn't often that I find myself wanting more when I finish a game. The story and delivery are well done, leaving me invested in the people and the world. To be able to pull that off and not leave the player feeling empty or disrespected is quite a feat. When a patient gamer gets impatient. I want more, damnit!

I appreciated that the side missions fit thematically and didn't distract from the time constraint of the main story. It's not like (warning: blasphemy incoming) Witcher 3 where you're so concerned about Ciri missing that you stop to enter a Gwent tournament. They get real weird with some of them which helps keep the game fresh and interesting.

The Bad

There are significant texture issues that are known about and were never fixed. You can try all sorts of dinking around using mods to tweak settings, using DX11 or 12, zoom in and pause then zoom out, etc... but it doesn't always work. As such text on walls is often low res and rocks are often untextured grey blobs which can interfere with some missions.

The Ugly

The art direction is certainly a choice. I get what they were going for and they nailed it...but while that grey brutalism can work in movies for setting a tone of a scene or two, having an entire game set like that can feel weird. Which is, again, kind of the point. It works but "I play games to relax" and "This game is designed to make you feel uncomfortable" can clash. It's not so egregious that it pushed me off the game but it did take a long time for it to grow on me.

Final Thoughts

Psychological horror games rarely land for me. Especially ones where you eventually get a grenade launcher. Fortunately Control seems to realize this and has enough else going on that once the 'oooh creepy!' feeling wears off there's plenty of world building to indulge in. It's not often that I look forward to journal entries to read to learn more about what's going on. it reminded me a lot of the first time I played Metal Gear Solid and that is a very pleasant feeling to have.

Interesting Game Facts

Connected universes are fun. I'd love for Remedy to somehow get the rights to Disco Elysium and then expand Max Payne to be in universe. Harry and Max in a anti-hero buddy cop adventure written by Alan Wake in the Old House would be a dream come true. Unfortunately James McCaffrey died late last year so we wouldn't get his sweet svelte voice in our ears again.

Thank you for reading! I'd love to hear about your thoughts and experiences!

My other reviews on patient gaming