Take Control

Developer Remedy Entertainment brings you a supernatural, third-person, action-adventure that will challenge you to survive a deep and unpredictable world. Control is a game that combines supernatural abilities, modifiable loadouts, and retroactive environment that bring more thrill than your usual action games. It is a technical marvel that will confuse and intrigue any player from its literal first minute.

Supernatural Settings

In Control, players are dropped into the shoes of Jesse Faden, the fiery-haired protagonist who, in an effort to locate her missing brother, was thrust into the position of director of the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC). The FBC is a Big Brother-esque organization created in the effort of containing, researching, and possibly exploiting supernatural discoveries—the likes of which would make all those believers of Area 51 blush. The game is Jesse Faden’s story and her search for answers as she grows into the role of the agency’s director.

In the first minutes of the game, you will see Jesse entering the premise of the bureau called The Oldest House. This building is a functionally invisible skyscraper in New York City turned into a psychosomatic nightmare theme park. Here, Control shows a deeply cinematic game with much care to the finer details and framing. While the lobby of the building looks like many official buildings with its imposing front desks and stately lettering, you can see the presence of The Hiss—the unknowable force that’s infecting the building. Somewhere in the stew of fluorescent lighting, soul-deadening office furniture, and swathes of red hues that marks the presence of the Hiss, The Oldest House makes an important game character without a speaking role but with plenty of purposes.

To make it an atmospheric and a visual powerhouse expected from Remedy games, Control users ray tracing technology which promises ever more realistic lighting to video games. 

Utilizing the Force

Control may boast a game location that makes you feel you’ve been dropped in the middle of a thrilling TV show, but the game is more than an imposing building filled with fluttering paperwork. Very early on, you will be armed with a powerful service weapon. It is effectively a pistol at first, but the game allows you to transform it into arcane versions of classic shooting game firearms, such as grenade launcher, shotgun, and more. This gun has no bullets, and you never have to reload them. You only need to avoid pulling the trigger for a few seconds to reload it.

But what makes the game more exciting is the other half of Jesse’s offensive capabilities called the Launch. It is a force-like power that allows players to telekinetically hurl objects at enemies. By raising Jesse’s right hand, you can pick up any item and throw them at your enemies. With this, you can ditch the precision of aiming a gun and losing your ammo by firing indiscriminately.

Drawbacks

Control is an ambitious game that is executed well, no doubt. However, as an avid gamer, there may be some letdowns that might frustrate you as you play along. For one, the game has quite a slow, linear start before it opens up. And when it does open up—quite grandiosely—there are still a few compromises to the open-world setup that they are aiming for. Another thing that may annoy you is the structure of the game itself. Some of the abilities and items you found in the game are not tied to your achievements and quest that you only end up wasting your time and health bar. More so, enemy spawning isn’t that perfect, and they can often overwhelm you if you are not careful. Even crouching behind a cover can get you killed as enemies often come anywhere. There are times when you need to run back to the object as you get walloped out of nowhere.

But perhaps the biggest drawback of the game is its unhelpful in-game map which tells you nothing but the general locale of your destination or the physical signs plastered on the walls inside the building. There is no waypoint available adding to the unpredictability of the game. To make up for the time lost wandering around every room and corridors, many locations in the game offer a lot of surprises.

Final Verdict

In a nutshell, there is nothing quite like Control in the video game market. The ambiance, mystery, and the finesse of the game combined with enticing combat experience makes it a truly remarkable offering. And while it comes with a few minor gripes, its complexity, and its impeccable base game is enough to have you pick up your controller and lose yourself to the call of the Oldest House.