Does the lack of checkpoints in Control get less frustrating?

[Folie]

I'm about 2 hours in, just got to the hotline and having died three times already and backtracking a fair bit, I'm losing the will to carry on. Really like the vibe, combat is meh, but starting to think I might just enjoy watching a playthrough on YouTube.

Does it get better or if it's annoying now, will that still be the case 4-5 hours down the line?

 

[ket]

I'd say it becomes less annoying because Jesse becomes more powerful as the game goes on (which likely means dying less frequently).

 

[TheMoon]

soon you'll realize it all wraps around and you get more movement abilities that make it more fun and faster to move around.

edit: also like above, you'll "git gud" and die less ...so, less backtracking.

this is not a "watch it on YT" game. this is a "you gotta do the cool shit yourself" game.

 

[metalgear89]

It doesn't get any better. Although there is a fair amount of control points and you generally don't have to travel that far to get back to where you died.

Focus on upgrading energy/launch and occasionally health and you will one shot some enemys.

 

[Paquete_PT]

No. Checkpoints and the map are awful in that game and one of the things that keep it from being GOTY-tier. But you do get more powerful and better at the game, so you die less.

 

[DixieDean82]

It's bad.

 

[EvilBoris]

I think it starts off tricky but it gets easier.

Make sure to level up the ability to throw things, then you are fundamentally OP

 

[Ravelle]

For normal encounters it gets better as you get stronger but for bosses it remains bad.

 

[Menchin]

Upgrade the throw first and then health

That'll make things waaay easier

 

[True Prophecy]

Being 2 hours in and saying the combat is meh is pretty lame to me... but to answer your question it gets better but yes some boss checkpoints should have been handled better.

 

[TheMoon]

Being 2 hours in and saying the combat is meh is pretty lame to me

Click to shrink...

use throwing more^^

 

[Dphex]

you died 3(!) times and "losing the will to carry on?"
thats a bit ridiculous, isn´t it? in some games you die, that is an integral part of playing games.

same with people in Souls games "i´ve tried the boss 5 times, i don´t want to try further!" back in the days we died hundreds of times and carried on

no wonder many games these days are undercooked when it comes to difficulty

to answer your question: no, it will not get better, the game relies on checkpoints that are sometimes a bit further away from where you have died...

 

[Dascu]

I loved the map and checkpoint system. Breath of fresh air compared to the linear level design of many other shooters.

 

[CharlesAznable]

Nope!

 

[alstrike]

Dude just throw everything, you will end up one-shotting pretty much everyone but the elites.

 

[kennyamr]

I didn't like it for those reasons too. I gave up.

 

[Transistor]

I never found it frustrating myself. I also think the complaints about the map are completely overblown. Got my platinum in it a couple of weeks ago and loved every minute

 

[matrix-cat]

I dumped all my upgrade points into Health as early as possible, and I just didn't die very often after that. I never went after any of the hard side quest bosses, though; I just stayed on the main story path.

 

[Zolbrod]

No it doesn't, and it gets especially bad when you start taking on some of the more frustrating optional bosses.
I really wanted to love this game but ended up hating it and I'm amazed it got as many GOTY awards as it did

 

[Decarb]

No but you can run past everyone from your bonfire to your last place where you died.

 

[marcbret87]

I remember the game being harder at the beginning, though there are a couple difficulty spikes towards the end. In any case, I didn't think the checkpointing was annoying except for some of the optional bosses.

 

[Black_Stride]

The game should have been called "Throw shit at people", once you understand that and start doing side quests and upgrading your Personal mods and weapon modes youll be fine.

P.S It doesnt change, you just get better and stronger to the point you actually rarely die and stop worrying about the checkpoint system.

 

[belairjeff]

I hate how the map feels like a maze. I get lost in this game so easily because there is nothing unique about the environments so far.

 

[shaneo632]

This is what's mainly stopped me from playing it tbh. I really hate games that do this.

 

[noyram23]

I don't remember the game being frustrating on my platinum run tbh, maybe I was just lucky on mods? Was there any difficulty setting?

 

[Oreiller]

Didn't have any issue with that, getting back to the boss is always pretty quick.

 

[Jolkien]

It's really easy to get ridiculously overpowered in this game. Throw is OP. The checkpoint are just as ''bad'' as From software games. You learn the map and if you die you don't fully reclear on your way back.

 

[K' Dash]

Weird, I never felt that I was backtracking large chunks after dying 🤷‍♂️

 

[giancarlo123x]

It gets worse, probably my personal biggest issue was the terrible checkpoint system. Its annoying but try and stick with it, such a great game.

 

[KLoWn]

I finished the game yesterday, and for me it always felt kind of annoying, so no, it doesn't.
Funny thing though, for the most part I don't have a problem with this stuff in Souls games, but here it just felt off.

 

[Dr.Osiris]

Does this game have a very easy mode?

 

[Deleted member 2834]

Stays the same. It's pretty much the bonfire system. The game is pretty easy though? I don't ever play shooters but I got through this one without breaking a sweat.

 

[Acquiescence]

Control is my biggest gaming disappointment of 2019. For a game that I expected to love going into it, I sure did kind of hate it.

To answer your question, they get MORE frustrating. The game's performance starts to tank more and more as you play, and combined with new enemy types that take off a large bulk of your health with one hit, the lack of checkpoints becomes a major fucking annoyance. There's a specific area in the penultimate chapter where you have to direct some beams away from [spoilers], and towards the end of that objective with the last beam, a new wave of powerful enemies spawn and absolute destroy the game's performance, rendering it unplayable for a short while. I died on this part so much that in the end I had to get as far away from them as possible while still being able to shoot them. It took me fucking ages.

I thought maybe people were exaggerating Control's technical issues when going into it. They aren't. It performs like utter shit on a base PS4. And that's coming from someone who rates The Last Guardian as their game of the generation. And don't get me started on the map.

 

[Chaos2Frozen]

Unless you're fighting one of those optional bosses, you got no business dying in regular encounters.

Certainly not enough for it to get "frustrating".

EDIT: There's a good chance you probably missed a couple along the way. There's usually one in every 'main' area.

 

[Deleted member 679]

Didn't find it frustrating at all. You can get places very quickly, Jesse is really fast and has no movement stamina. It's much less annoying than having to redo everything you did since your last save, like getting collectibles redoing dialogue and such.

Always felt that way about Souls, too. Everything stays the same, with the exception of you having to run a little, and you'll constantly find little shortcuts in the way of elevators and such that will take you closer to another checkpoint.

The levels are small enough that I would run through all the floors again every time I got an upgrade to my security level, to see if there were new places I could access.

The worst thing about dying in Control is the loading in DX11 mode, not sure if it's as bad on consoles, but at least in DX12 it's very quick.

 

[ShaggsMagoo]

The only places that it got frustrating for me is during the big set piece right before the endgame begins and the final battles. I'm not going to say what the first spot is, but you will know when you get there. That was where I started to get annoyed by the checkpointing.

 

[TheMoon]

I hate how the map feels like a maze. I get lost in this game so easily because there is nothing unique about the environments so far.

Click to shrink...

The map or the levels? The map I would agree with, it's not the greatest, especially with height differences.

 

[thewienke]

It's basically somewhat a horror survival game at first so yeah you die a lot. You'll eventually "tip" over into an unstoppable killing force as the game progresses.

My strategy was to alternate getting headshots with the grip and using the throw. So upgrading both along with your health and focus was essential for me.

 

[hey it's that dog]

I think I'm in the last 25% of the game and I've only found checkpoint locations bothersome in a couple of key spots, in which it is extremely annoying. The optional boss you can reach from the research area is both very hard and very distant and it's making me mad. Loving the game otherwise.

I rarely die in normal encounters. My advice is to use a health pickup boost personal mod. Don't waste slots on energy efficiency mods, just upgrade your energy and get good at using guns and throwing shit alternatingly. Power up telekinesis, it's quite strong. Equip an energy recharge mod when it becomes possible. I rarely had issues with stamina depletion during combat.

Other than that, approach combat cautiously in the early hours. You'll feel much more powerful eventually.

 

[Flipyap]

I didn't find it frustrating until I had to run back to an optional boss later in the game, with Jesse repeating voice lines as if she's discovering the area for the first time.

Does this game have a very easy mode?

Click to shrink...

It doesn't have any difficulty options. I honestly don't understand why the devs would do this when they know that many people play their games for the story. These games should be made as accessible as possible.
And Control isn't a game where the designers can take pride in their carefully crafted balance on its default (and only) difficulty setting because later in the game you're either always at full health and just mowing through enemies, or something blows up in your face and you're one shot away from dying.

 

[Deleted member 10908]

I stopped playing the game 6 hours in because of the checkpoints

 

[Aztorian]

no

 

[Phendrana]

Wait, what? I didn't think the game lacked checkpoints. If anything I thought it was a little too generous lol.

 

[The Unsent]

Reminds me of Metroidvania checkpoints, not very forgiving, but good game overall.

 

[ThreepQuest64]

Nope, it won't unfortunately. My only and biggest complain with the game. It didn't bother too much but there were occasions where it was tedious.

 

[bushmonkey]

I'm not great in combat situations in most games, having less than stellar reactions but I persevered in this game and I'm glad I did. The combat gets amazing once the loop clicks and you get more abilities. The checkpoints never really bothered me and I died plenty of times. Some bosses do get really annoying though, I'll admit.

 

[AllThingsPurple]

I've just completed thr first area and now in the second one, I've not found the checkpoints a problem personally but the map is super hard to navigate.

I'm digging it so far though myself.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

The only time I found this annoying was when I quit out the first day I played thinking it must save my location automatically. When I loaded back in I realised you need to save at the checkpoint locations and never had an issue since.

 

[OldDirtyGamer]

I think it's more annoying towards the end

 

[OnanieBomb]

I'm like 6 hours in or so and while it's a bit hit or miss, I haven't really struggled much outside of the one area I just cleared with

Spoiler

the ashy spore like enemies.

For whatever reason, there was one, a sniper probably, that just kept one shotting me and I could not figure out where it was coming from.