🔥 PHOENIX RECOMMENDED 🔥
Developer (Platform): Developer (Platform): Remedy Entertainment (PlayStation 5/Xbox Series X/Steam/Mac – yes, I’ve played it just about everywhere…)
Publisher (Release): 505 Games (2019)
Length: 15-20 hours
Genres: Adult; Sci-Fi; Fantasy; Horror; Action
❗️Disclaimers❗️:
content contains moderate horror themes
severe flashing lights warning
this review contains low-level spoilers
recommendation: must play
👍 Pros 👍
Incredible story and world
Merges sci-fi and horror into a delicious atmosphere
Paranormal powers are punchy and explosive
👎 Cons 👎
The map is an enemy in its own right
The finale is just a tad lacklustre
👀 Synopsis & Trailer 👀
Jesse Faden experienced a horrific, unworldly event as a child, an event that led to the disappearance of all the adults in her hometown of Ordinary. Separated from her brother by a shadowy government agency, Jesse, now an adult, is guided by a mysterious force to The Oldest House, the current residence of the Federal Bureau of Control. Intent on finding out what happened to her brother, Jesse will have to contend with a house in disarray as a malevolent force known as The Hiss corrupts and spreads, aiming for a world that has no idea such a threat even exists.
🛎️ Introduction 🛎️
Control is, without a doubt, my favourite fresh property in the past decade. Set in Remedy’s Connected Universe alongside Alan Wake, Control showcases a passionate developer turn a simple title into a masterclass on how to allow a player to control (hehe) their own story. Inspired by the paranormal phenomenon of the SCP Foundation, players are treated to a rich narrative populated by rich characters in a tantalisingly rich world that drips with franchising potential.
🧩 Plots 🧩
Through all its mystery, Control is very much an origin story. It deftly weaves themes of identity, cause/effect/consequence, and packs them into a hushed story with unpredictable explosions of sci-fi shenanigans. The weird is wonderful, the horror subtly harrowing, and the fantastical fabric of Control’s world doesn’t lack for purpose in its unreliable narrative nor atmosphere in its action-packed gamery.
The Oldest House, Control’s ever-changing, TARDIS-like setting is a sterile, shifting block of grey madness that’s anything but drab. Despite the corporate chaos, its personality resonates with charm, mystery, and mysticism that’ll keep the player exploring far beyond the bounds of slightly abnormal and deeper into utterly fucking demented. Control’s map is perhaps its most glaring negative, bordering on near incomprehensibility. A static, unintuitive picture that can’t quite grasp the very place it aims to scope. Luckily, everything is well-signposted in the actual world, but the initial push of using a map like Control’s can lead to some frustrating tumbles down blind alleys.
Fair warning: it’s about to get weird…
Control’s core plot is utterly bewitching in its SCP-inspired glory but its meat is likely to polarise a lot of players. A third-person action-adventure with gunplay and paranormal powers, Remedy leaves it up to the player how deep into the plot they want to go. How? Well, this is where the polarising part comes into play. Control is packed/stuffed/overflowing with notes to read, memos to hear, and videos to watch…and I mean it is a lot. Unnecessary to following the core plot but absolutely required for all the nuance, world-building, and that tantalising compulsion Remedy manages to instil in its players to theorise the absolute crap out of every tidbit of information.
For me, it’s this control that makes the game so special: the player paces their adventure. Exploring The Oldest House and the interlocking primary and secondary missions is a joy I cannot overstate. Trickling in bits of info here, a revelation there, reframes the kaleidoscope of narratives into an undulating story that seems like nonsense at first but hides meaning behind its madness.
Reddish yellow outer skin
And, for 90% of the experience, Control is a masterclass in what it offers, just enough of one to cover for, in my opinion, a lacklustre finale. The game is so good for its runtime and all it can pack in that it is a bit surprising that it comes in for such a rough landing. It’s not awful by any means, and while the enemy gauntlet finale let’s you have a ton of fun, it lacks the plot’s thoughtful purpose, rushing straight to the end without the likes of a signature boss or much aplomb about a future that the game in its entirety painstakingly ripens with future potential.
‘…resonates with charm, mystery, and mysticism…’
🎭 Characters 🎭
Courtney Hope brings protagonist Jesse Faden to life with impeccable talent, balancing a warm heart with insecure vulnerability to embolden a rags-to-riches-esque journey. The trauma that Jesse has faced and continues to face is stitched into her development from wandering loner to dedicated director, framing a complex hero who has no lust for power but is probably the only one capable of controlling it. Weird is wonderful for her and joining her on an adventure that answers her questions with more questions is an excellent vehicle for the snarky sarcasm and genuine compassion Hope brings to the role.
Personally, I enjoyed her character much more than Alan Wake’s, whose more brash and smug demeanour can be hit or miss.
You know you’re important when they carve your name ominously in glass…
Supporting characters are also much improved from my experience with Alan Wake, which has some pretty awesome cast members itself. Eager Emily, Militant Marshall, and Amiable Arish are only a few of the colourful profiles on hand to help Jessie navigate the chaotic world of the FBC. Their experience compliments Jessie’s meteoric rise to Director her first day on the job and their stories give Jessie’s personal hunt for her brother room to breathe, never letting either linger long enough to run out of steam.
You are a worm through time…
Replays and hidden collectibles reframe relationships and all the conclusions the player might have reached. Darling, Trench, Northmoor…Control, despite the static nature of its cast, feels alive. Characters have a real effect on the world, each other, and its story, emboldening the unreliable narrative with a perpetual unpredictability. They also bridge the gap between concept and reality, especially when it comes to the game’s palpable aura of existentialism, diving deep into the human psyche and ideas like the collective unconscious in order to create.
‘…a complex hero who has no lust for power but is probably the only one capable of controlling it.’
👾 Gameplay and Graphics 👾
Despite all the undeniable attention given to the above, Control is still a game, and an absolute whopper of one at that. A third-person action-adventure, players are treated to a chaotically bombastic demonstration of destruction. Gifted a tight array of paranormal abilities, gunplay, and movement, Control is only as punishing as the player is still. It’s fast, frenetic, and forces you to constantly zig and zag to maintain control of the battlefield. Rudimentary upgrade mechanics get tiring fast but levitating around throwing chunks of debris while firing a shape-shifting gun never, ever gets tiring.
Superhero or what?
Incredible design (not you, map) hides nooks and crannies that utilise the player’s intuition to find. All the grey along the way only heightens the punches of colour, further emphasising The Oldest House’s mystery/magic/menace. It’s slick, beautiful, and dastardly dangerous, hiding optional bosses that need a proficient understanding of Jessie’s array of powers to overcome.
Plus, the destruction physics are just fucking awesome.
‘…players are treated to a chaotically bombastic demonstration of destruction.’
💭 Final Thoughts 💭
Control is a beast of a game that effortlessly builds a world and history of such richness that that alone would carry it to success. Luckily, Remedy doesn’t stop there, treating players to a personal and epic story of peeling back the layers of reality, of facing the mundane and not allowing it to constrain us as we define who we are. Metaphors and messaging of inner strength and hope clash deliciously with the terrifying nature of the nonsensical, marking Control as a story of stories helmed by a capable and colourful cast.
Come for the mystery, stay for the power. Control boasts a chaotic collection of paranormal abilities and frenetic gunplay to keep the player’s adrenaline pumping while pushing the technical talents of the developer to mesh delicious destruction with a haunting atmosphere that promises many a mystery to come.
Even its frustrating elements (looking at you again, map) and rough landing can’t stop Control being one of the best games I’ve played in the last decade and one of the richest worlds I’ve had the pleasure of immersing myself in.
