The Combat in Control Is so Freakin’ Good
We got hands-on time with Remedy’s upcoming title on two separate occasions, and both times, we were left feeling very excited and happy with what we got to play, especially when it comes to the combat.
The abilities that main protagonist Jess has access to is super diverse and so you really have multiple options when it comes to combat. Her special pistol is modifiable, too, letting you place mods and switch between different styles on the fly.
Need a shotgun-type weapon to take out a group of enemies? Her pistol can do it almost immediately. There are also sniper-like mods and a quick-firing one as well.
The farther you progress in the game you’ll unlock more supernatural abilities that let you fly around in the air, smash the ground like Thor, and use debris as a shield or as an attack to distract your foes.
It’s all very improvisational, allowing the player to choose how they want to approach combat and it doesn’t matter what you decide to do, everything feels super smooth and satisfying to pull off.
Jesse becomes stronger and stronger as she finds herself becoming more comfortable in her new role as the director of the FBC and I’m sure by the end of the game, you will find that she is a force to be reckoned with.
The Oldest House Is Just Begging to Be Explored
The setting Control is also one of the most intriguing parts of the game. The Oldest House is not just a big ol’ facility with gray walls and empty spaces, it’s ever-changing and unpredictable. Sections of the House are constantly morphing and strange things appear/disappear right in front of your eyes.
If you’ve watched the trailers, you might think that the game seems boring and/or uninteresting due to the methods that Remedy chooses to explain the narrative.
They use imagery and out of context scenes to display what the game is all about but they don’t do a good job of actually telling folks what the game is.
Unless you really dig deep, it’s hard to tell what this game is about and what the player will actually be doing, gameplay-wise.
I’ve had to explain the way that this game works multiple times to several people and even then, they were left muddled or disinterested in what Remedy had to present to the world.
But there are so many little secrets worth checking out and strange characters that you’ll want to talk to really bring on the storytelling and open up the world a lot more.
The game seems to not want to hold the player’s hand, letting you explore as little or as much as you want. If you’re not into the story presented here, you can still enjoy blasting enemies around and using telekinesis to throw everything in sight and play this as a straight-up action game.
But if you want to dive deep into the lore, you definitely can do that as well by picking up audio logs and secret documents.
Control Can Be Beaten in a Weekend
I’m someone who’s a big proponent of smaller, bite-sized video games that release, games that can be beaten in 10-20 hours or so. I’m all for games that take up dozens upon dozens of hours of my time, but when developers reveal that their upcoming game can be finished in a weekend or so, it makes me very happy.
Our own Editor-in-Chief, Ed McGlone, wrote up an opinion piece talking about why he’s excited about how brief Control is comparative to the 40+ hour games that are so common today.
According to the team at Remedy, Control can be finished in about 15 hours or so, and when there are so many games coming out this month and the rest of the year, it’s great to have something that we’re not dreading to play.
You’ll all be able to take your time with the game and not stress about finishing it so that you can move on to the slew of other releases hitting us at the end of this month such as Astral Chain, Blair Witch, Man of Medan, Oninaki, and a couple of others.
We are so grateful for having a AAA game like Control that isn’t 100 hours long in a time of release after release.
It’s Remedy, Guys
Remedy Entertainment has graced the world with games like Alan Wake and Quantum Break. While some folks might not see these two games as being the be all end all of video games, they are truly special titles that broke the mold for game design.
Quantum Break was a video game that was tied to a television show of the same name, giving players a unique cinematic experience and Alan Wake was an engaging supernatural thriller that played out in an episodic format, leaving players with cliffhangers and suspenseful moments. While not quite a horror game, it proved to be quite spooky and cryptic.
Remedy loves messing around with the tropes that video games tend to fall into and they just love to throw together different genres and see what sticks.
Control will be no different as it will show people that Remedy is still going strong as a developer, constantly creating new mechanics and reinventing their style of games.
Look forward to Control when it launches on Aug. 27 for PC (via Epic Games Store), PS4, and Xbox One.
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