Back when I was debating on whether or not to get a next-gen Xbox, one of my decision points was console Game Pass. I haven’t owned an Xbox since the 360, so I didn’t have a library that I cared about. However, I did want to play Game Pass games and the PC selection wasn’t as robust as on console. There were 2 primary games I wanted to play: Nier Automata and Control. Funny enough, it’s been a year since I got my Xbox and I hadn’t played either of them, at least until recently when I sat down to play Control.
I’ve heard its accolades for a long time now. Despite that, I was still being cautious. I played Alan Wake for the first time last year and the impression it gave was that of a solid title with incredible storytelling and world building, but just ok combat and weak open world segments. My expectations for Control were similar, but I was definitely not expecting it to be as good as it turned out to be. I didn’t intend for this title to be a 100%, but it really grabbed me and didn’t let go until the very end!
This is gonna be weirder than usual
My first true taste of what Control is came courtesy of the opening sequence. You arrive at the Federal Bureau of Control (which looks like any government building) and walk around until you find the Janitor. He directs you around the corner to look for an elevator, which takes you back to the beginning. Only that the building is slightly different and the security screens display building shift warning messages. I was briefly confused as I grasped what just happened and realized I couldn’t trust my senses on this adventure.
Then I came in contact with the service weapon and was warped to a strange empty area called the Astral Plane. It reminded me of Astral Chain’s Astral Plane. This is when I started to realize Control will give be abilities in the form of “common” objects and throw me into the Astral Plane for training. From the get go, it seemed much more interesting than Alan Wake, at least for me. A world that openly embraces the strangeness of the world instead of justifying it through the plot.
As the game progressed, I encountered increasingly odd items that gave me new abilities. Like the floppy disk that lets me throw stuff. Or the safe which gives me a shield. You can try to discern the ability from the object of power, but it was always exciting to see what new ability would be found at the entrance of the Astral Plane.
The world behind the poster
Even though the gameplay is quite fun, it isn’t anything special on its own. Don’t get me wrong, the gameplay feels really smooth and combat is quite polished, but it isn’t far from the experiences found in other games. What sets this game apart is the wrapping on everything. This world where paranormal events are at the center of it.
Rather than creating and entirely new world, Control takes our own world and give a new meaning to paranormal phenomena. Odd happenings like lights flickering or objects moving on their own are nerve wracking on the real world. On the Control world, however, such events are easily explainable by altered items and their influence on our reality.
This is what makes Control so interesting to me. I don’t need to build a world in my head to understand the world. Instead, the real world already on my head is given explanations to the paranormal. One example that comes to mind is the Havana Syndrome. It is a real event happened to the US Embassy in Cuba and whose exact cause remains unknown (and will remain that way for the general public). Control easily explains this event by the influence of an altered item and the government creating a story to cover it up. It is simultaneously an “Aha!” moment, but also one that makes you wonder if it might be in fact real.
A book in my game
With that being said, what drew me more and more to the game each day wasn’t the combat or the gameplay or the exploration. It was the files and memos. As weird as it sounds, what I enjoyed the most were the bits and pieces of lore scattered throughout the office. The explanation of mundane things as being caused by altered items or altered world events (AWE). Even Alan Wake’s entire story found reason as an AWE.
It wasn’t uncommon for me to be fighting a horde of the Hiss, only to find a document on the floor and start reading it instead of continuing the fight. Finding out more about the altered items and their origins was addictive. Control is a rare case of a game where I allowed myself to use a collectible guide, not because I needed help, but rather because I valued reading the lore more than the exploration aspects.
What cracks me up is that not everything is paranormal in nature. Despite everything under investigation in the FBC, they’re still a regular workplace. Scattered around were memos of people complaining about their job situation. People complaining about overtime, about their co-workers, even about casual gatherings on the break room. You can have a fridge that eats people when they stop looking at it, and yet see a memo complaining that someone stole their lunch. This is all way too relatable and it’s hilarious.
Multimedia
And it wouldn’t be remedy if there wasn’t a bunch of supplemental videos to find and watch.
Some of this are presentations attempting to ground the altered nature of everything. Other are more promotional in nature used by the FBC as marketing or internal materials. Then there’s the radio shows and the Threshold Kids. They are all bizarre and out of this world, but at the same time you can watch them and believe them to be true in the context of Control.
But not a single piece of multimedia equates to the absolute beauty that is “Dyna-mite” by Dr. Casper Darling! A musical video that is weird and funny and brings nothing to the game, but that makes it even better! Well, I guess it explains a little of Jesse’s weirdness, but we can all agree that the video wasn’t necessary to the game, which makes it even more hilarious that the video exists.
DLC
When I reached the end credits of Control (the real ones), I felt extremely satisfied with the experience. My satisfaction was such that I didn’t feel the need to play any longer of attempt to get all achievements. I wouldn’t have felt the urge of playing the extra content, if it wasn’t because it spoke about 2 things that absolutely piqued my interest: origin stories and Alan Wake.
The Foundation fleshes out the origins of the FBC. As a lore-addict, I found it difficult to resist this promise of learning more about the foundation of the FBC. The new mechanics were ok, but the origins of the FBC and the board were simply delightful!
The Alan Wake story wasn’t what I expected. Instead of fleshing out the story of Alan Wake, it speaks of a sort of continuation to the plot with the involvement of the FBC and the fate of Dr. Emil Hartman. Being part of Alan’s novel is a familiar feeling. Although this doesn’t answer many questions about Bright Falls, it does serve as an enjoyable crossover event in a shared universe. Hopefully we see more of the FBC’s involvement when Alan Wake 2 finally launches.
The Platinum Journey
Full completion for this games wasn’t particularly difficult. Standard achievements like having every collectible or fully upgrading every weapon were not present for the main game, only for the DLC and only within the DLC’s items. It’s a weird omission, but one that I’m happy about because farming materials is tedious and unreliable.
Unfortunately, the tedium was unavoidable. There were achievements that required unordinary, such as hunting a specific enemy or clearing countermeasures. The annoying thing about hunting enemies is that you have no control over where to find them. Sure, some enemy types are located in certain rooms, but you have no control over whether said room will trigger an encounter or not. A lot of time was spent reseting if a room didn’t trigger an encounter I needed. The same could be said about farming materials, but fortunately that wasn’t needed.
Since I didn’t need every collectible from the main game, I didn’t have much issues there. I don’t know if there are any points of no return or missable items, so I’m happy those weren’t required and I didn’t have to replay the entire game.
There were some kill count achievements I had to clean up, but those were just time consuming. In the end, getting the platinum was mostly a basic cleanup of unfinished tasks. Nothing too challenging, but it didn’t need be. As it stands, Control had the perfect amount of Content and duration for my liking.
Random: versioning woes
Although a little unrelated, but 505 Games’ handling of the Control versions was absolutely disgusting. I initially wanted to play from Game Pass on my Series S, but found the game to look terrible and perform poorly. Then I discovered that the “next-gen” update was paywalled behind the Ultimate edition. A shame considering the best part of Xbox is the smart delivery. This is very clearly a money grabbing scheme designed to make people double dip.
Luckily the PC Game Pass version ran appropriately. It is considered a different games, so I can’t share my save across console and PC, which is unfortunate. PC also has some weird pricing schemes, as the Ultimate edition doesn’t exist on Xbox PC. Similarly, there’s no season pass, so the DLC has to be bought individually and there aren’t any savings or extra goodies.
PC isn’t safe either
On Steam it gets much worse. I got a code for the base version on Steam, which I redeemed and it showed up as Ultimate edition on my library. Except that it isn’t. It doesn’t have the extra content of the Ultimate edition, even if it shows as such. I can’t buy the DLC either, as 505 asked Steam to remove them from the shop, meaning I don’t have a way of accessing the DLC. My only choices at this point are to buy the entire Ultimate edition again from the store, or get a code for the season pass. Codes which must be bought from 3rd parties and whose quantities might be limited. It all stinks of greed and delivering the worst possible experience for customers, something that doesn’t surprise me the least about 505.
My recommendation is to NOT play this on Game Pass console. Play on PC or any other platform where you can secure the Ultimate edition.
Being in Control
So what is my final opinion of Control? I’d say it is an absolute gem of a game that I wholeheartedly recommend to everyone! The combat is tight and the gameplay is fun, but it is the lore and world-building that definitely steals the show!
I spent my days eagerly awaiting to play more of Control. Not because I wanted to gain new abilities or beat the bosses or strengthen my weapons, but rather becauseI wanted to learn more about the world of Control. I wanted to learn what the FBC has been up to. Feel both amazement and disgust as I read about this government agency doing its thing. I wanted to laugh at the worker’s problems, because I have encountered those same problems on my previous works.
However, I don’t feel sad that it’s over. I feel really happy about being able to learn and experience the world side by side with its characters. Characters that are real actors and whose performances were incredible! This is an experience that I’ll carry with me.
