Is Control's difficulty fucked or am I just a really poor player?

[80s Old School]

It's always fun to hear from people who had no difficultly right?
I agree Op, Control is not hard game, but one that wasn't balanced right. It feels like there are multiple enemies that can take 35 to 75 percent of your health bar with one hit. Most of the difficulty spikes for me are situations when I couldn't get hit more than 2 times in an encounter before death. Then game feels like they used trial an error balancing. You run in an area, die a few times because one enemy had your health so low from the first hit you are afraid to run for health. After about 2 to 3 deaths, you figure out the fight and win without taking any damage. Its crazy. It makes the game frustrating more than hard. Jessie takes damage Iike she has regenerating health. Also heaven forbid you get into a long range battle, no heals for you.

 

[NTGYK]

The game's director was responsible for that decision, with Sam Lake's approval.

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Goddammit Sam you're killing me here

 

[EVA UNIT 01]

I found it easy. I guess git gud but im not trying to be a dick i just didnt find it difficult personally

 

[Gorion's Ward]

Yeah, I heard awful things about difficulty and mostly checkpoints in the game. Was going to get it day one and now I'm waiting for either Game Pass or a <10$ price point.

 

[Deleted member 3183]

I know exactly what you're talking about and that part ruined me as well; and I really didn't have a ton of problems with the optional bosses.

 

[Dr Pears]

I feel like most of the time I died because some explodey/shotgun blast enemy spawned next to me but I couldn't see my surroundings while aiming

 

[leng jai]

The game is definitely challenging if you're not used to run and gun gameplay.

 

[matrix-cat]

How's your upgrade skill tree looking, OP? I pumped all my XP into health upgrades from the start of the game, and then I felt like I'd unbalanced the game because I never died again until one of the last big fights in the story.

I hear all the optional bosses are frustratingly difficult, though, and I didn't do any of those.

 

[Ringten]

I think the games difficulty really depends on what skills you unlock. Launch is your friend. Crazy increase in damage with each upgrade

 

[Sei]

The game never tells you, but you should definitely try to get the shield asap and give priority upgrading.

This is a problem with metroidvania design. How do you balance abilities and bosses if different players get them in different orders.

 

[MazeHaze]

The game never tells you, but you should definitely try to get the shield asap and give priority upgrading.

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The shield and mind control being locked behind sidequests is also dumb as fuck

 

[Mg.]

The difficulty is all over the place in this game. Especially the Mold-1 boss can fuck right off. It's the only part in the game where I cheesed it.

 

[Arklite]

I say upgrading your energy meter to make it bigger and then dashing all over is a better strategy than shield, given that enemies drop health bits on death. OP is at end game though, so most stats are probably high.

 

[Duxxy3]

My first suggestion - move dash to L1/LB. It is far more important to have easy access to that than to shield. Don't aim down sight too much. That just slows you down and makes you an easy target. Run everywhere. Take over as many people as you can. Throw to take down shields. Don't use the big slam move.

 

[bodine1231]

After hearing all the complaints about the spikes,I havent played after the first boss. I get frustrated pretty easy and at this point I might as well wait for a balance patch.

 

[spam musubi]

I'd say there is definitely a wrong way to play this game. Telekinesis is much stronger than shooting and relying on it as your primary damage dealer and using guns while your energy recovers is much more optimal.

 

[Mirage]

Control's first boss is the only thing that is annoying to deal with if you go the shooter route

You don't need to shoot your gun to wipe everything in the game, just throw stuff with telekinesis, its utterly broken

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I started this yesterday and yeah throwing stuff is my main way of dealing with everything lol.

 

[LavaBadger]

Games should make liberal use of difficulty sliders, going from practically impossible to die, to one shot deaths. They don't have to be "balanced", they don't have to "respect the artistic vision"; they should just exist.

Control was yet another game in a long train of games where my life was in love with the story and aesthetic only to end up glumly handing me the controller when her gaming chops failed to allow her to progress any further on her own.

Difficulty sliders devs. Just do it. For games with health and damage, this is not rocket science.

 

[spartan112g]

Is it bad that I thought this fight was crazy fun because I got to use every ability at my disposal? I was hyped during this whole fight.

 

[Deleted member 23046]

The sniper gun mod is extremely useful against shielded or armored foes, or just to safely clear an area from a distance,

 

[Mirage]

Games should make liberal use of difficulty sliders, going from practically impossible to die, to one shot deaths. They don't have to be "balanced", they don't have to "respect the artistic vision"; they should just exist.

Control was yet another game in a long train of games where my life was in love with the story and aesthetic only to end up glumly handing me the controller when her gaming chops failed to allow her to progress any further on her own.

Difficulty sliders devs. Just do it. For games with health and damage, this is not rocket science.

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Not really sure why they took it away when previous games had it. I'm happy with the difficulty myself but that doesn't mean others shouldn't get options for it to fit what they like.

 

[John Rabbit]

Yeah the difficulty is pretty wayward, especially if the framerate tanks. Things are alleviated somewhat by upgrading the throw ability damage and energy/health. Upgrade Grip and the Charge gun if you can.

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WHO ARE YOU WHY HAVE YOU STOLEN MY FACE.

On-topic: It's fucked, OP. I had the same issue(s).

 

[lacer]

lmao, i had the exact same question when i got to that part. "do i... do i just suck at videogames now?" took me like an hour, maddeningly frustrating. it's a really oddly poorly designed section with curious placement in regards to pacing. really the only low point imo, but definitely a knock against it.

 

[ToddBonzalez]

It's hard if you don't play it "right". Always keep on the move (reduces enemy accuracy) and make sure you alternate between the service weapon and throw ability. You should never really be waiting for an ability to recharge.

 

[Duxxy3]

Oh one other thing. Pay attention to what you're grabbing and where you want to throw it. You don't always need to take it all the way back to yourself. Your telekinesis throws the object at the target wherever it is. So it can go from one side of the screen to the other. Or from five feet away to the enemy right to the enemy, without coming back to you first, saving you precious time.

 

[Resetta Stone]

WHO ARE YOU WHY HAVE YOU STOLEN MY FACE.

On-topic: It's fucked, OP. I had the same issue(s).

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Hahahaha, It's been a long time...Brother.

On topic: Be sure to keep moving and levitating in big arenas too.

 

[Arkeband]

It's not very well balanced and the optional bosses that give you no way to heal yourself are just asinine. But the ending gauntlet isn't that difficult if you just use some hit and run to whittle down the horde slowly.

 

[Cloud-Strife]

I found it easy. I guess git gud but im not trying to be a dick i just didnt find it difficult personally

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Same for me.. not hard at all if you are used to 3rd person shooters

 

[daybreak]

Never had a problem with it, although I did die once or twice where you are - mainly from falling off the level, though. Utilize the shield more is my only suggestion, the game got pretty damn easy once I mastered using the shield and headshotting enemies with Pierce.

 

[JohnTruckasaurus]

For me, the most annoying portion happens after that sequence, where you

Spoiler: FINAL MISSION

have to fight your way across the world's reddest environment in giant floating space to get to Dylan. I thought I was done with this shit after Astral Chain. Yes, you get your abilities cranked up to 11, but I managed to die twice by falling right the hell off the *last* combat arena while dodging, which is exacerbated by everything being the color of florescent blood. And if you fall off at the end, you gotta start all the way over. Three tries to get it right is by no means unfair for a final mission, but geez is it not fun to slog your way back to where you were, even while it's vaguely trying to be a power fantasy that the Ashtray Maze so much more succeeds at being.

I love the majority of Control, but the combat waves of the last two story missions really try hard to rob you of the good will the game's earned to that point.

 

[KernelC]

in all honesty, the game being harder than I expected is kinda the reason I dropped it. Game wasn't difficult in a fun way for me, not a fan of the shooting

 

[Reinhard]

It's mostly the optional bosses that had huge difficulty spikes. Luckily, one of the optional bosses you can hide up on a 2nd level crosswalk during pretty much all of the battle so you can kill the adds that run to you (including an invisible beast), otherwise it would be hell. With the right build/weapons the normal mobs/bosses aren't too bad. One nice addition is getting the mod that gives unlimited ammo on the starter weapon as long as you hit a creature, and be sure to upgrade that weapon to the max plus add damage mods to it.

 

[GarthLordOfTheSith]

It's an interesting game but I honestly don't have the patience for it. I wish it had difficulties so I could put it on easy and just experience the crazy story.

 

[TubaZef]

Yep, it's hard, get used to using your abilities and moving a lot. You can always go back and do some optional stuff for better skills and stats, that should make things a bit easier.

 

[medyej]

Console or PC, OP? Control seems like the first game Remedy truly made for the PC since Max Payne 2. What I mean by that is first off the technology level that really pushes limits and shows future graphics, but the game design seems really based around m/kb more than any of their other recent games. You really are a glass cannon in Control, you take high amounts of damage from even basic enemies but you can also dish it out and are very mobile. You are supposed to be constantly on the move instead of sitting behind cover and juggling multiple abilities and weapons all at the same time to win.

The way the health recovery works is also the 'push forward' mentality that DOOM had, where instead of regen you are supposed to push into the enemy to keep your health up. There is also the fact that hipfire is really strong in this game so you can really run and gun to avoid getting hit while still dealing out damage.

The game is tough but I think it's fair and really makes use of better input devices like m/kb and better framerates, so I don't doubt that people playing on consoles for this title could have a rough time.

 

[K' Dash]

It's really easy to cheese that part, just do it.

 

[NTGYK]

I don't have Shield, and I made it through most of the game fine without it but it's bad game design to lock necessary gear/skills in optional side content. You should be able to use whatever mix you dialed Jesse into to succeed allowing a wide variety of playstyle versus having it so there's really only one way to succeed (at least that's how I'm feeling right now)

Console or PC, OP? Control seems like the first game Remedy truly made for the PC since Max Payne 2. What I mean by that is first off the technology level that really pushes limits and shows future graphics, but the game design seems really based around m/kb more than any of their other recent games. You really are a glass cannon in Control, you take high amounts of damage from even basic enemies but you can also dish it out and are very mobile. You are supposed to be constantly on the move instead of sitting behind cover and juggling multiple abilities and weapons all at the same time to win.

The way the health recovery works is also the 'push forward' mentality that DOOM had, where instead of regen you are supposed to push into the enemy to keep your health up. There is also the fact that hipfire is really strong in this game so you can really run and gun to avoid getting hit while still dealing out damage.

The game is tough but I think it's fair and really makes use of better input devices like m/kb and better framerates, so I don't doubt that people playing on consoles for this title could have a rough time.

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Console.

 

[Balphon]

Just spam Launch, it's far more powerful than anything else.

 

[mescalineeyes]

OP I quit at the same boss fight, even though until then it was almost my GOTY.

Just miss me w/ that shit.

 

[Qrusher14242]

I didn't care for the fact u couldn't regain health unless u killed enemies. I didn't like the shooting or the whole dark souls like checkpoint system, so ended up dropping it after about 5 hrs or so. Got tired of having to fight my way back to the boss every time i died.

I do wish it had a difficulty setting like Alan Wake though

 

[Elandyll]

I've platinumed it, and yeah there are definitely weird difficulty spikes that can be extremely frustrating at times.
If it helps, it gets better as your powers increase (until the last mission where the difficulty and a badly designed checkpoint makes for a rough gauntlet), and Launch in particular wrecks.

In spite of this, Control is probably my Goty.

 

[Strings]

I thought the game was on the easy side outside of a single optional boss (the rematch with Tomassi, which killed me twice with random add spawns), so I would have liked a way to select the difficulty.

 

[Zekes]

That mission I just sat back and cheesed it by sniping and whittling down the Hiss

 

[F4r0_Atak]

It is difficult, but not crazy difficult. Maybe your problem is that you could play it like a traditional cover-based TPS. Just like Vanquish, you need to keep moving. Or else they will f*** you up. 🤔😏🤣

It will get easier as you obtain more abilities/Objects of Powers.

 

[Net_Wrecker]

The only real difficulty spike I found in CONTROL was the infamous super late game optional boss fight. I've been baffled since day 1 as to how people found any encounter in this game frustrating to the point of asking for direction or holding it against the overall experience. You are a glass cannon, for sure, which means that only a few mistakes can lead to death if you're sloppy, but I found with juggling all my available options, including mind control to take some pressure off, no one standard encounter was all that difficult. The climactic encounters being a roadblock is especially puzzling to me as those are where the game begs you to let loose and use everything available. As long as you have a decent amount of the skill tree unlocked, you easily outmaneuver enemies by running & gunning with your abilities.

Pierce, Launch, and Seize make you a powerhouse.

 

[The Silver]

I constantly forget I have the shield power, the only time I really felt like I had to use it was the 2nd Tomassi fight

 

[Jarmel]

Hedron Chamber is like the climax of the game action-wise so I can forgive it for being harder than the rest of the game. Most of the game is pretty easy outside some of the side bosses.

 

[imbarkus]

I constantly forget I have the shield power, the only time I really felt like I had to use it was the 2nd Tomassi fight

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It got me through the mold boss, mostly.

 

[DrFunk]

Nah

It can be really fucking difficult at times. Add the bad checkpoints and the game can be really frustrating

 

[Witness]

Well this topic was scary to see after I just bought the game. How can there not be difficulty options?