I'm so sorry, Remedy - I was wrong about Control

[BoJack]

I remember when I saw the reveal trailer, I thought it was a sequel to Quantum Break and they just changed the name so they can release it on PS4. The game looked so similar to QB in EVERY aspect. So I didn't follow anything about it, until I saw them winning so many GotYs and decided to see what's all the fuss about.

Last week I got my hands on this game and last night I beat it, after +15 hours and doing a good chunk of side-quests, and I loved the whole experience.

This is one the weirdest games I've ever played. The story is so engaging and makes you "think". The dialogues are cheezy most of the time, but I really liked the story. Side-quest and collectibles have a HUGE role in the game and you have to dive into this world if you want to know more things about it. Gameplay is a fucking blast and offers a very fun way to play. You'll be thirsty for more encounters and more flying and throwing stuff at enemies. Level design is really thoughtful and when you combine it with these environments and art design - which is hands-down, one of the best in this gen, up there with Bloodborne - you have a juicy combination that will hunt your mind.

I wish they made this game with bigger budget tho. It has massive frame drop issue and unfortunately, it had a huge effect on my experience. Cut-scenes are not as impactful as they should be, and acting could be better with more money and better cast I guess. I hope after this success, they find a big publisher with bigger budget and total freedom, cuz I want them to do whatever they want to do, and stay weird and strange.

Now, if you haven't played this game, and you like an existentialism piece of art, fun gameplay, gorgeous and hunting world, creepy soundtracks, and flying, please don't miss this game. Please support their courage and believe me, if you're a Porcupine Tree fan like me, you'd be blown away at some point of this game.

 

[DeckardWintermute]

Control is incredible, it's one of if not the best game made this year.

 

[marcbret87]

I bought it now during the EGS sale and man, it had been a long time since a game absorbed me so much to the point of finishing it in a few days. Can't wait for the expansions.

 

[Haze]

This game is fantastic and playing it with RTX on was truly a next-gen experience. I can't stress enough how insane raytracing is when implemented well.

 

[ara]

Super excited to check it out when it hits Steam for sure. I wasn't initially THAT interested in it, but damn if all the praise it's getting isn't doing it for me.

 

[Infcabbage]

Its pretty good! Played a couple hours of it and while the gameplay can often be pretty clumsy I love how it feels like an old PC game.

 

[Dr Pears]

I liked it enough to have Platinumed it, but found combat to be annoying on base PS4 with all the framerate issues. And also felt the bosses could be designed better? I feel like 90% of my deaths during the bosses were due to me falling to death or due to mob enemies spawning right next to me, and most of the time killing me instantly, or eating my health so much the screen goes red and I just can't react.

 

[Cabal]

I finished it yesterday. It definitely will be in my top 5 for 2019. The combat was great once you unlock all the powers. The story was bizarre; I liked it but so much understanding relied on reading the massive amounts of documents you pick up. I'm not sure I've seen a game more densely packed with 'stuff'. It has a real X-files/Twin Peaks story which is pretty cool but like Twin Peaks, it's not really told in a straightforward manner.

Even on xbox one x there were times when it slowed a little but it mostly performed fine. Would love to see it on a 2080TI though.

 

[Dark_Chris]

It's great game, but has enormous flaws that keeping it from the top imo. Horrendous checkpoint system, frame drops, freezing after exiting menu, etc... Btw the game just...ends. I didn't feel like it builds itself to ending and it suddenly happens. At least there's that fake out...

 

[BoJack]

I liked it enough to have Platinumed it, but found combat to be annoying on base PS4 with all the framerate issues. And also felt the bosses could be designed better? I feel like 90% of my deaths during the bosses were due to me falling to death or due to mob enemies spawning right next to me, and most of the time killing me instantly, or eating my health so much the screen goes red and I just can't react.

Click to shrink...

I agree. And the backtracking was kinda stupid sometimes. The game wants you to go back at certain points of the game, and you don't have to actually go there by yourself. You can just die and the game will respawn you at the last control point. They should've put a death penalty in the game to avoid this issue.

This game is not flawless and if I had to give it a score, I think 8.5/10 would be fair. But it was the surprise of the year for me.

 

[adumb]

Weird to see a game I loved so thoroughly sold to me so poorly.

 

[Coztoomba]

Bought it through the EGS sales. Going to start tomorrow!

 

[dunkzilla]

My favourite game of the year. My favourite of the last god knows how long too

 

[Truant]

Good of you to see the light, OP. My super-power is that I can tell if I will like a game based on early gameplay trailers (seriously, it's creepy. I'm almost never wrong) so I was down with Control from the start.

 

[Prine]

I'm waiting for it to go to Gamepass to give it a go. Still not convinced with the combat but I'm eager to try it out.

 

[Mars People]

I wish there was a demo of some kind.
I'm not willing to don't top dollar without trying it myself.

 

[BoJack]

Good of you to see the light, OP. My super-power is that I can tell if I will like a game based on early gameplay trailers (seriously, it's creepy. I'm almost never wrong) so I was down with Control from the start.

Click to shrink...

Yeah that's exactly me. This game was pretty much the first game that turned out to be the opposite of my thoughts. That's why I made this thread tbh.

 

[grosvenor92]

Played it on PS4 and enjoyed my time with it. May double dip when it comes to Steam

 

[Deleted member 8861]

It left me wanting more when it comes to every single aspect. More areas, a deeper story, more weird-ass lore...

It's a great base on which Remedy could build an ASTOUNDING sequel, I can't wait.

 

[Daniel Westlake]

"Thought it was a sequel to Quantum Break"
Weird thing to theorize but okay

 

[Mg.]

You can't convince me there's a game out there with lore I'll enjoy more than Control's. It's perfect and I really, really, really can't wait for the DLC to explore more of Bureau.

They even added a tidbit to the Expedition update. Gave me goosebumps for some reason.

 

[Marble]

One of my many disappointments this generation. Dropped it half way through when I needed to fight a clock spitting orb and a refrigerator (I mean, really?). The game just ramps up enemy numbers and makes stuff artificially difficult (like dropping random holes in the floor during a boss fight, so you fall to your death). Enemy variety was nowhere to be found and the gameplay gets repetitive really fast. Also the environments get boring. The story is totally wack and lost me after an hour (a new record).

What I absolutely loved about the game was the insane amount of destructability. Almost everything in the game reacts to you. Without it I would've probably dropped it a lot sooner.

 

[FLCL]

It left me wanting more when it comes to every single aspect. More areas, a deeper story, more weird-ass lore...

It's a great base on which Remedy could build an ASTOUNDING sequel, I can't wait.

Click to shrink...

THIS! I bought it during this PSN sale and finished pretty quickly. Got lots of side stuff though which is gonna be fun... Every area of the game was great BUT it just left me wanting more. Felt like the game had just begun when it ended. It really needs a sequel with more of this stuff.

 

[Daniel Westlake]

One of my many disappointments this generation. Dropped it half way through when I needed to fight a clock spitting orb and a refrigerator (I mean, really?). The game just ramps up enemy numbers and makes stuff artificially difficult (like dropping random holes in the floor during a boss fight, so you fall to your death). Enemy variety was nowhere to be found and the gameplay gets repetitive really fast. Also the environments get boring. The story is totally wack and lost me after an hour (a new record).

What I absolutely loved about the game was the insane amount of destructability. Almost everything in the game reacts to you. Without it I would've probably dropped it a lot sooner.

Click to shrink...

I mean the entire story of the game is based around mundane items becoming imbued with supernatural abilities so it's not like they don't adequately foreshadow the fact that you might end doing battle with a fridge monster at some point.

 

[Fat4all]

control is pure Remedy

aka, pure greatness

 

[Marble]

I mean the entire story of the game is based around mundane items becoming imbued with supernatural abilities so it's not like they don't adequately foreshadow the fact that you might end doing battle with a fridge monster at some point.

Click to shrink...

Definitely original, but silly is what I think of it. Just give me a good third person shooter like Spec Ops The Line with this kind of destructability and I'm content.

 

[The Praiseworthy]

Game is amazing and the level design is incredible smart, and the atmosphere is close to the classic Resident Evil games in terms of being spot on.

Deserves much more attention and sales.

 

[Elven_Star]

It's the next game I'm going to play on my CRT (once I've had my fill of Assassin's Creed Odyssey). Can't wait.

 

[SofNascimento]

Not to be rude op, but when your opinion of Controls is that it looks just like a Quantum Break sequel with nothing new to offer of course you gonna be wrong! They even talked about in the Era's Q&A how they have to rework a lot of the engine...

Anyway, I'm very, very happy you gave it a chance. And I hope with time more and more people do too. Control is a fantastic game and you won't find things like it out there. You do have the past Remedy games, but Control feels their philosophy finally coming together perfectly.

I disagre about the need for a better cast though. I do think the facial animations could have been a little more expressive with a bigger budge, but there would be no need to change anyone. The cast of character in the game is excellent, and considering some of these characters only appear for maybe 5 or 10 minutes, it's incredible how all of them feel singular and flashed out.

 

[Ahti]

The game surprised me as well. I knew it would be a good game (because Remedy) but I didn`t expect it to be their best work since Max Payne 1.
Kudos to the team!

 

[BMW]

It doesn't interest me due to the office building setting.

 

[Deleted member 679]

Incredible game, overall Remedy's best title, even if I still desperately want an Alan Wake 2.

After hating Quantum Break, I wasn't so sure about Control, but I'm very glad I played it. It feels like pure Remedy, which is just amazing.

Played it for 59 hours already, did the free DLC content, and can't wait for the expansions.

I hope they provide an ending that gives a little more closure, though. Alan Wake's ending had me thinking about it and discussing it for years, Control's ending just makes me think "ok, can't wait for the DLC". It feels more like a necessity than a desired expansion. In fact, the parts that entice my imagination the most in Control are precisely the Alan Wake connections.

Loved the enemy variety and design, as well as the boss fights. I really hope they introduce a few more foes in the DLCs.

 

[AgentOtaku]

Amazing game... But where's the season pass on Xbox already? :(

 

[Megamind.]

Hmmm, I've been hearing a lot about it. I'll get it when it's on sale for super cheap. And hopefully they would have patched it up even more.

 

[PeskyToaster]

Control is awesome, everyone should play it.

 

[LiK]

I told you so.

 

[ArcLyte]

Incredible game. Don't just mainline the story, though. Make sure to explore and find as many of the lore secrets and videos as possible, and read every sentence. That's where the amazing world they've built shines through.

 

[plagiarize]

"Thought it was a sequel to Quantum Break"
Weird thing to theorize but okay

Click to shrink...

It's not that weird. Given that it's a sequel to Alan Wake.

 

[LiK]

It's not that weird. Given that it's a sequel to Alan Wake.

Click to shrink...

Damn, this new spoiler tag makes it blurry instead of black bars? Pretty nice effect.

 

[FuturaBold]

Combat is fantastic but the puzzles are a little annoying. Getting to Black Rock was a pain in the bum.

 

[Greywaren]

I'm playing it right now and I'm having so much fun. The setting is super weird, but very intriguing, and the gameplay is amazing. I'm always looking forward to facing more enemies.

 

[Lightning Count]

Control is great, I loved it. I just hope that after this we get a new Alan Wake game, Remedy wants to do it.

 

[Messofanego]

I could see only two reasons for a bigger publisher - marketing and technical testing. It's been a while since a game of this scope fully embraced its wideness. Well other than Death Stranding. No surprise Sam lake and Kojima are fans of each other.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Finished it a couple days ago and it was amazing. I loved every minute of it and bought the season pass right away. I love the world building.

 

[Thomas Puha]

Thank you. Nice to see post like this :) Glad people are enjoying the game.

The amount of QB comparisons after the first trailer at E3 2018 (we always wanted to go with a gameplay trailer as opposed to CGI to prove a point that we are making a video game, not a game/movie like QB) caught us by surprise, but we were pretty deep in making Control at that point so you are blind to these things. We were pretty confident we had a solid game, so as long as people would try Control, I thought we'd be fine. We did actually have total freedom to make the game we wanted from the publisher and since we had a solid vision from the beginning, we were able to get a game done in a little over three years. Sure, you could always use more time, but you gotta ship at some point when there's a window of opportunity.

Trust me, devs like us know whats ok and especially whats bad in the game and it hurts us the most when there's stuff we know could have been better. We tried our best.

Thanks for all the support in 2019. 2020 is gonna be busy for Remedy!

 

[Fatoy]

As a counterpoint, I expected a lot more from Control.

Alan Wake is one of my favourite games of all time for the narrative and sense of place, and Remedy's two Max Payne games are up there near the high watermark for third-person combat. Control, for me, doesn't do either terribly well.

The Oldest House starts off feeling cool and distinct, but as someone who's read a fair amount of SCP entries in his time, that shine quickly rubbed off and turned into a limp cover version. I never read a piece of collectible material and came away disappointed, exactly, but neither did I ever feel as though any of it was striking in any way. I wanted to see the "weird" factor dialled way, way up.

The combat followed the same trajectory, really. It never felt bad, but even with the ability to basically fly, possess people, and shield yourself in concrete shards, none of the encounters was especially memorable - apart from the unnecessarily difficult ones.

And that's without talking about the completely pointless timed alerts and material-based upgrade path. The game would have been far better giving you new Service Weapon forms at set intervals in the story and doing away with the different materials types completely. If any game didn't need to follow the "everything's a half-assed RPG now!" trend, it was a narrative-driven Remedy game.

I'd still class Remedy as one of the gaming industry's smartest studios, but Control seemed like such a passion project from the previews, but was - at least for me - really lacking in passion when I actually played it.

 

[LiK]

Thank you. Nice to see post like this :) Glad people are enjoying the game.

The amount of QB comparisons after the first trailer at E3 2018 (we always wanted to go with a gameplay trailer as opposed to CGI to prove a point that we are making a video game, not a game/movie like QB) caught us by surprise, but we were pretty deep in making Control at that point so you are blind to these things. We were pretty confident we had a solid game, so as long as people would try Control, I thought we'd be fine. We did actually have total freedom to make the game we wanted from the publisher and since we had a solid vision from the beginning, we were able to get a game done in a little over three years. Sure, you could always use more time, but you gotta ship at some point when there's a window of opportunity.

Trust me, devs like us know whats ok and especially whats bad in the game and it hurts us the most when there's stuff we know could have been better. We tried our best.

Thanks for all the support in 2019. 2020 is gonna be busy for Remedy!

Click to shrink...

Just gimme dat Story DLC asap.

 

[Daniel Westlake]

It's not that weird. Given that it's a sequel to Alan Wake.

Click to shrink...

That's like saying Captain America sequel to iron Man, no they take place in the same world with some shared characters.

 

[bonch00ski]

Thank you. Nice to see post like this :) Glad people are enjoying the game.

The amount of QB comparisons after the first trailer at E3 2018 (we always wanted to go with a gameplay trailer as opposed to CGI to prove a point that we are making a video game, not a game/movie like QB) caught us by surprise, but we were pretty deep in making Control at that point so you are blind to these things. We were pretty confident we had a solid game, so as long as people would try Control, I thought we'd be fine. We did actually have total freedom to make the game we wanted from the publisher and since we had a solid vision from the beginning, we were able to get a game done in a little over three years. Sure, you could always use more time, but you gotta ship at some point when there's a window of opportunity.

Trust me, devs like us know whats ok and especially whats bad in the game and it hurts us the most when there's stuff we know could have been better. We tried our best.

Thanks for all the support in 2019. 2020 is gonna be busy for Remedy!

Click to shrink...

fucking loved Control until I had to "cleanse" certain things in succession under waves of increasingly difficult enemies only to die and have to start over at the control point at the bottom, that eventually became just a chore...so I deleted the game.

 

[Sloppyjoe_Gamer]

Just picked this up too over the weekend, and it's fantastic!!!

Loving the weird vibe and not having a clue where the story is going right now, but the combat, and controls and moves are super slick!!! Doesn't hurt that the game is gorgeous on my PS4 Pro too!! Can't wait to see where the story goes!! So far, definitely one of my favorites for 2019!!