Control and difficulty spike issues

[Net_Wrecker]

People tend to forget to use the Shield so it's no surprise that they not only buffed the shield in The Foundation update with another offensive capability, but also designed new enemies and a new setpiece totally around the shield being your only defensive option. As someone who rarely used the shield before this DLC (but also didn't find the game all that difficult anyway), use the shield. It makes your life so so so much easier.

There's also a new Health On Launch Hits mod that's amazing. Pray to the RNG gods you can find it early

 

[flyinj]

Personally I just happened to decide to upgrade throw, and played the entire game just dodging and throwing pieces of the floor and walls. It was pretty easy going, even with tons of enemies.

Trying to play by hiding behind cover and shooting seems like it would be impossible. I used my gun for like 5% of my attacks. It seemed weird that there were so many different guns when they seemed pretty useless.

 

[AWizardDidIt]

Funny, I thought the dlc was easier than than anything in the base game because they removed falling out of bounds being an instant death which was by far my most common cause of death in the base campaign.

Watching others play it, the only thing I can suggest to people having difficulties is to use shield more often, seize *everything* that gets to a quarter or less health, and that when you get levitate, you should be spending about 80% of every single battle in the air. Enemies just don't seem to target you as well with projectiles when you're floating. I don't think Control is an overly difficult game, but I definitely agree it doesn't really *teach* you how to play it very well either and it's easy to fall into certain modes of playing the game that work fine in 75% of encounters but then will get your ass killed *quick* in the other 25%

 

[Deleted member 18502]

Turned on the unlimited health mod and still didn't like the combat. I ended up throwing more stuff than shooting and decided that was the time to give up on the game.

 

[Psychotron]

Mold-1? Yeah fuck that boss, it was so hard to see what was happening and the hitboxes were awful.

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oh yeah, lol, it's been a while so I forgot the name. I ended up getting all achievements on the game but I remember that part really annoying me.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

The combat sounds like everything I hate about Alan Wake and Quantum Break, especially with the ridiculous checkpoints.

 

[SofNascimento]

I uninstalled Control after about 5 hrs bc of this bullshit. The worst part is in the beginning of the game, when you dont have all your powers, and you literally CANNOT fight back in the way the game wants you to, so you just have to crouch behind cover and hope that someone doesnt oneshot you from across the room.

Even with powers, deaths still felt like bullshit for a lot of the time. Honestly, I hated what I played, dont understand the love at all.

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That's incorrect. The first defensive powers you get is dodge and it's very early into the game. There is one boss fight which can be frustrating without it but that's it. Most enemies you fight in the early game are simple gunmen which can be easily avoided by simply running. Not to mention I think you can ever be oneshoted in Control. If you have enough health, you will always survived at least one hit. And the enemies that can hit that hard only come later into the game after you have dash and shield. Further, they very clearly telegraph their attacks, no only visually but with sound.

Control gives you the tools to survive in the open field.

 

[Bradbury]

I loved everything about Control except from this, the die quick is not a issue for me, but together with long ass loadings and bad check points it become annoying enough that I droped the game

 

[Bastos]

Stop hiding and play it like Vanquish.

Also use your shield.

But really, it's all about dodging.

But also, yeah everything does a ton of damage, especially the flying Hiss.

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Yep.

Had no problems at all with the game's difficulty.

Just be aggressive 100% of the time, focus on dodging, not hiding and enemies won't even have a chance to strike back.

You are hunting the Hiss, not the other way around.

 

[George Romero]

game is pretty easy, you must be always in movement, never stop, only cover if you take too much damage.

 

[elenarie]

The game tells you at one point that moving causes enemies to miss more often. Do not hide, never use the crouch ability. Always move and maximise using your Control abilities rather than your weapons.

 

[Maligna]

I agree with this. But the flying enemies that dodge everything can go to hell.

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They only get one dodge before they have to wait to do another.

Launch something at them, they dodge it, then quick launch something else (aka don't let the object fly all the way over to you). The second thing you launch will hit them.

 

[Dever]

I never beat the mold boss because I simply couldn't stand running back there over and over again. So the boss was hard, but the checkpoint location was the real wall for me.

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A few times some of the mobs you have to run past followed me into the boss arena and killed me. Good stuff.

 

[Deleted member 41520]

I've played to chapter 5 so far.

Veryyyyyy disappointed with this game. It's such a bore. I've tried to play it like it stated in that you have to constantly move but I'd always be punished. So I just went with the classic peek style of TPS and it worked for me. It just makes the game a slog.

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This is probably something which changes as you progress and get more powers, some of which are OP

 

[Mirage]

The game tells you at one point that moving causes enemies to miss more often. Do not hide, never use the crouch ability. Always move and maximise using your Control abilities rather than your weapons.

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I feel like levitating makes them miss even more. Like after I got that ability I just spent most my time levitating and always moving around in the air. Seemed pretty safe like that most the time.

 

[Kyrios]

Stop hiding and play it like Vanquish.

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Yup, Control is one of those games where you have to constantly keep moving since a lot of enemies do a ton of damage (and your powers work better on the move). Ironically I found your first ability, Launch, to be the most OP move lol

 

[kyle mechlachlan]

I remember reading a strat that they don't dodge your launch if you do it twice in a row, but that hasn't been consistent in my experience.

More reliable to keep shooting them. It also interrupts their big attack.

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This actually is consistent. I've tested it pretty extensively throughout the game. They always dodge the first, but never the second.

 

[elenarie]

This actually is consistent. I've tested it pretty extensively throughout the game. They always dodge the first, but never the second.

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Yes. Every mob has a cooldown on the dodge, so if you can chain two attacks, you will always hit the 2nd one.

 

[Iacomus]

Yeah, the tactics against them are inconsistent. Tomassi was the worst but ultimately I got through the game and it is very fun. Sticking to cover is the best and quickest way to die. You gotta keep moving, flying, dodging, after awhile it becomes second nature.

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Tomassi was the worst but not necessarily because of Tomassi but that invisible hiss. For the DLC I had to fight him again due to how my Endgame save was set up (I was missing some ability points) but the invisible hiss would mess me up as I kept missing the audio cue.

 

[Oleander]

Had this experience with the DLC over the weekend.

However, outside of a couple of incidents in my playthrough last September, I don't recall the base game being like this. I'm wondering if they have retooled the gameplay balance over the past six months, because if they did, I don't like it.

The Service Weapon feels weak and ineffective, only to do chip damage while waiting for energy to recharge so you can do some decent damage with Launch or Shield Rush. Enemies can remove massive swathes of health with single attacks, with some bosses just wrecking you entirely. The side quest in Foundation with the train was the most frustrating gameplay experience I had this year so far, with no checkpointing along the way, and a boss at the end that is a HP sponge that can be lethal in an area where there is limited manoeuvrability. And when you fail, you have to sacrifice another five minutes to get back to the point to where you can fail at the boss again. I had to use a cheese strat to win, and I'm not convinced that the cheese strat wasn't the designer's intended approach for the player.

Hopefully something Remedy will address in future.

 

[hey it's that dog]

A few times some of the mobs you have to run past followed me into the boss arena and killed me. Good stuff.

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That happened to me, too. I think that was when I quit.

 

[Chaos2Frozen]

This actually is consistent. I've tested it pretty extensively throughout the game. They always dodge the first, but never the second.

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I don't know, I was chaining launch as well. Does it have to be within a time frame of like 3 seconds or something?

 

[elenarie]

I don't know, I was chaining launch as well. Does it have to be within a time frame of like 3 seconds or something?

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Yes. Possibly even shorter on some mobs.

 

[kyle mechlachlan]

I don't know, I was chaining launch as well. Does it have to be within a time frame of like 3 seconds or something?

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Would assume so. If you wait long enough the dodge cooldown runs out. Can't say what it is, but if you launch something, then just immediately launch another thing they won't dodge the second thing.

 

[ThreepQuest64]

Also use your shield.

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I can't stress this enough. I used it very rarely at my first playthrough and only now realised it's perfect when you wait for your ammo to be refilled (and you don't have reliable cover).

Also, don't waste your powers on enemies you can't or don't need your powers for. From my experience it's all about resource management of ammo and energy.

Bosses are easy once you find out their pattern. Against one boss I thought I had to evade constantly to dodge his attacks while levitating around him with normal speed was fast enough to dodge his ranged attacks. Then comes an opening and you give it everything you got.

 

[kyle mechlachlan]

A lot of people tend to have problems with the Mold boss, but that is pretty easy with a certain set of powers. Shield basically negates the slam attack and you can take the boss out by standing in one place and spamming Shatter with some mods to buff the projectiles.

I would say a negative of the game is that it doesn't do as good of a job signaling what powers can be used and some trial and error may be needed.

 

[klastical]

Game does have a couple skill checks but it sounds like a lot of people are just playing the game wrong. Taking cover should be a last resort. I did use large objects to break line of sight and get the edge on enemies but after the first few hours the game is really all about movement.

Also can not be understated how important mind control was to me, not because of the damage they do but because they put another target on the did for the enemies to focus on.

 

[Mirage]

Would assume so. If you wait long enough the dodge cooldown runs out. Can't say what it is, but if you launch something, then just immediately launch another thing they won't dodge the second thing.

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One thing to keep in mind if anyone doesn't know is you don't have to wait for things to get all the way to you to launch them at enemies. If they're in the air and clear it's usually enough.

 

[Sloppyjoe_Gamer]

I got tired of it too and really just used launch for most of the bullshit parts.

 

[dancingphlower]

Tomassi was the worst but not necessarily because of Tomassi but that invisible hiss. For the DLC I had to fight him again due to how my Endgame save was set up (I was missing some ability points) but the invisible hiss would mess me up as I kept missing the audio cue.

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Yeah that fight was awful but it's mostly due to the spawning minions. My least favorite kind of boss design.

 

[Mg.]

I remember reading a strat that they don't dodge your launch if you do it twice in a row, but that hasn't been consistent in my experience.

More reliable to keep shooting them. It also interrupts their big attack.

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The trick is to launch at a flying Hiss as quickly as possible. Don't hold onto an object. Rather, just tap the launch button to immediately launch the nearest object.

But even better, when given the opportunity, tap launch on objects behind the flying Hiss. They can't dodge what they can't see.

 

[Alienous]

I played it recently and the bosses are built on a foundation of bullshit. It's a tedious journey back to the fight and a single attack that will knock away 90% of your health.

I would suggest playing defensively. If you focus on attacking and dodging simultaneously you're likely to get caught by a near instant-kill. Instead hang back, use your shield and attack in the space between a boss' attacks. Upgrading the strength of your throw attacks will probably help too, as those can be easy to sneak out in brief windows for attack.

 

[kyle mechlachlan]

Tomassi is very easy when you just fly up to the top catwalks and use Pierce to whittle him down. The adds have a hard time getting up there but I think they patched that because in my replay this weekend they were able to more easily. Wasn't much of a problem because you can just fly to the other side.

 

[MrChillaxx]

Bought The Foundation two days ago and just completed it, only had one "difficult" sidequest and really any difficulty spike in the main game is also in optional content, which is supposed to be challenging. The main story is extremely easy spamming launch with energy mods and using the Pierce most of the time.

The issue with launch people are having is probably due to being too slow, if you do two launches really quickly it staggers everything and you can land 1-2 headshots for good damage.

Now the optional content can be very much bullshit, no arguments there, but people talking about getting oneshot in the campaign are straight up lying. It's ok if you didn't like the game and/or didn't understand how play it.

 

[mclem]

I never beat the mold boss because I simply couldn't stand running back there over and over again. So the boss was hard, but the checkpoint location was the real wall for me.

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...which checkpoint were you using? it never struck me as *that* bad; a few corridors of Hosts (which you can do a little bit of sneakiness to lower the risk) and then you're there.

Edit: Wait, people were avoiding the Hosts? Just kill 'em! Or better still, mind control them.

 

[Kabukimurder]

I'm playing this for the first time right now and i can't say i was expecting to have to use 4-5 tries on every boss like i've had to so far. I have nothing against hard games in general but the problem i have with the type of difficulty in Control is that it's so little between you defeating a boss and just getting wrecked by it. I never get the feeling that i've "mastered" the fight even when i'm victorious.

It's ok as long as the fights are short. But later on when i have to rely on a longer series of coincidences to beat the bosses i'm not sure i will stick around for the optional content.

 

[hey it's that dog]

...which checkpoint were you using? it never struck me as *that* bad; a few corridors of Hosts (which you can do a little bit of sneakiness to lower the risk) and then you're there.

Edit: Wait, people were avoiding the Hosts? Just kill 'em! Or better still, mind control them.

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The whole point was to get back to the boss as fast as possible. That meant running past the enemies. Unfortunately that had unpredictable results as well. So I said fuck it. I still finished the game, I just didn't do that side quest.

I don't understand why there wasn't a checkpoint in the area with the lady's lab, underground. But I had to jump down the elevator shaft every time. Did I miss something somehow?

 

[psilocybe]

I agree and I think one of the causes not allowing to go guns blazing is how limited your dodge is. If you just run around you will easily get hit.

 

[mclem]

I don't understand why there wasn't a checkpoint in the area with the lady's lab, underground. But I had to jump down the elevator shaft every time. Did I miss something somehow?

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Yes. You missed the checkpoint in the area with the lady's lab, underground.

After her lab, where you would go *down* the pit, instead go to the area behind it; there's a Control Point back there; you need to climb up a bit to get to it.

I thought you had to get there for her earlier quest, but possibly not?

 

[wBENDERw]

I've been having trouble with "My Brothers Keeper"

 

[Menchin]

I found the base game to be almost triflingly easy when I upgraded Launch all the way

Now the expeditions and Foundation DLC are a different story

 

[hey it's that dog]

Yes. You missed the checkpoint in the area with the lady's lab, underground.

After her lab, where you would go *down* the pit, instead go to the area behind it; there's a Control Point back there; you need to climb up a bit to get to it.

I thought you had to get there for her earlier quest, but possibly not?

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I must have got it and forgot it about because I did do that mission.

Was that one functionally closer or do you have to run past just as many enemies?

edit: found a youtube of the route. seems like you have to go through most of the same hallways. but in any case i'll use that checkpoint if i ever reinstall.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Yeah i have one optional boss fight left to do because of that (it's a guy you also encounter earlier in the game).
Ironically it's not the boss that's hard. It's the enemies that spawn after his life bar hits near half. One of those guys hits you with a poison that takes all your life away and no defense system works. Evading or blocking...nothing. So i kinda gave up on it.

Also...this isn't 2000...which is where this checkpoint system came from.

 

[Gevurztraminer]

A few more tips for those having issues. Change your mods to suit your style. Yes, they're a bit rng reliant, but you will amass good mods quickly. Match your personal and weapon mods to complement each other, using base versions of weapons and abilities will get the job done but it'll be harder. It's not complex to the point of there being 'builds' but you can make significant changes to your capabilities.

There is a reason energy and ammo regens. Keep one charging while you use the other, it's a constant balance of resources. And now in the dlc there are mods that cross the meters, such as personal mod that gives ammo on Dodge.

And I'll stress alongside everyone else, you need to always be doing something. Even retreating to good cover to let regens kick in is fine, enemies are not as fast as you so you can absolutely create space in a fight.

 

[AWizardDidIt]

I feel like I'm the only person in the world to prefer Charge as my Service Weapon form of choice. Put a few damage mods on that thing and it I find it's game over for all small enemies. In the Foundation, one shot with charge put those melee Hiss right into Seize range so it was a perfect one two punch.

 

[Beedig]

Some of the bosses and the final shootout a side. I didn't really think the game was that difficult.

 

[PBalfredo]

Are there any straight-up cheats for this game? I have a friend who absolutely adores this game, and I totally dig the setting and tone, but the combat/difficulty is completely killing my motivation to play. I'm on PC because this game plays like ass on base PS4, but for whatever reason this game takes a solid three minutes to load after every death. So fuck trying to bang my head against this game where my health melts away in every encounter and there is no difficulty options.

So knowing that there are notorious difficulty spikes beyond even where I'm at? Fuck that. Just gimme some cheats.

 

[Necromanti]

I know people say to move a lot and to not hide, but I had a ton more success with the latter. Shielding is only useful for finding health or cover, since you can't attack effectively out of it. (The second you'd drop it, you'd get hit and finished off, and I'd rather use the energy on literally anything else.)

 

[cabelhigh]

That's incorrect. The first defensive powers you get is dodge and it's very early into the game. There is one boss fight which can be frustrating without it but that's it. Most enemies you fight in the early game are simple gunmen which can be easily avoided by simply running. Not to mention I think you can ever be oneshoted in Control. If you have enough health, you will always survived at least one hit. And the enemies that can hit that hard only come later into the game after you have dash and shield. Further, they very clearly telegraph their attacks, no only visually but with sound.

Control gives you the tools to survive in the open field.

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Hell no. You don't get dodge until at least an hour in, and it's an OPTIONAL side quest!! Like what the fuck, this fundamental part of the combat is locked behind an optional side quest. That's terrible design.

Also telegraphing attacks means nothing when the only way to regain health is going out into the field and trying to pick up the little blue health orbs. In the early hours without dodge, how are you supposed to do that without getting shot? You have no defense. I longed for something like a grenade

 

[Maligna]

I know people say to move a lot and to not hide, but I had a ton more success with the latter. Shielding is only useful for finding health or cover, since you can't attack effectively out of it. (The second you'd drop it, you'd get hit and finished off, and I'd rather use the energy on literally anything else.)

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Did you not get the Shield upgrade that blasts the debris outward as an attack when you drop your Shield?