Control Video Game Review
Story
What if the Federal Government had a bureau dedicate to investigating and containing the paranormal? And what if all the ghost stories and conspiracy theories were true? And what if all those horrors suddenly got out? Welcome to Control.
Control follows Jesse Faden, who is looking for her long lost brother Dylan. As children, the two experienced a paranormal event, and the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC) kidnapped Dylan in the aftermath. Jesse managed to avoid capture, but an entity she calls Polaris latched onto her and has been guiding her ever since. Now, Polaris leads her to the Bureau’s headquarters, the Oldest House, where Jesse hopes to finally get some answers.
When Jesse arrives at the Oldest House, she finds the Bureau director dead (seemingly by suicide) and when she picks up his gun, she enters a whole new world of strange.
The gun, known as the Service Weapon, is an Object of Power (OOP), something that has been touched by the supernatural and grants the user abilities. One of the things the Service Weapon does is make Jesse the new director of the FBC and causes her to receive mental communications from her deceased predecessor, as well as the entities he reported to (known only as the Board).
If things weren’t bad enough, the Bureau has been invaded by a supernatural force called the Hiss. The Hiss is infecting everyone in the building and turning them into soldiers for its cause. Jesse must work with the survivors to reclaim the Oldest House, stop the Hiss, and finally find her brother.
Gameplay
Control starts out like your standard third person shooter, except you only get one gun. The Service Weapon is a pistol, but gains the ability to morph into new versions, such as a shotgun, sniper rifle, and rocket launcher. These various forms are needed to defeat the Hiss enemies, who range from standard soldiers to levitating telekinetics to suicide bombers.
What really sets Control apart is the supernatural abilities you get from Objects of Power. The Oldest House is filled with OOPs, and each one gives Jesse a new ability. There’s the Floppy, Disk which grants a telekinetic launch; the Merry-Go-Round Horse, which grants a dash ability; and an old TV which grants levitation. Finding new OOPs is always exciting, and mastering each of their abilities makes the gameplay that much richer.
When not in combat, Jesse explores the Oldest House, a supernatural building that is constantly shifting shape and revealing impossible things. Some highlights are a stone quarry under the night sky (still inside the building) and passages stuffed to the ceiling with clocks. There’s also the Oceanview Motel, a mysterious place accessed by pulling a light cord three times. All this weirdness amidst what should be a normal office building (complete with cubicles and laboratories and everything) is jarring, but in a good way.
While exploring the Oldest House, Jesse can collect various reports about the goings on in the Bureau. These help build the world as they describe the weird supernatural events or objects the Bureau has encountered, or maybe just some normal office politics. The highlights here are the video reels of Doctor Darling, the Bureau’s head researcher. As the game progresses, people start to suspect Doctor Darling might have had something to do with the Hiss invasion, or at least knew something about it beforehand. He seems to be losing it more and more with each new video you find.
My Thoughts
Control is a fun game. The supernatural powers were a blast (particularly levitate), and learning about all the stuff going on in the Bureau was interesting. I was a bit disappointed they leaned more into action than horror, but it works.
Control’s biggest flaw is its characters. Except for the brilliant Doctor Darling, they all felt too one-dimensional and only really served to convey information or initiate side missions. Jesse herself was particularly disappoint, and hearing her inner monologue between just about every line of conversation got annoying fast.
One of the really exciting things about Control is that it takes place in the same universe as Allan Wake. There are reports about the Bright Falls incident and some paranormal items (like the coffee thermoses Allan liked to collect or a page from his manuscript) have found homes in the Bureau. These tantalizing references tease about Allan’s future (we’ve been waiting for Allan Wake 2 for over a decade now) and how he fits into the larger paranormal world. As much as I loved this, it did make the ending of the game a bit anticlimactic as it felt they were too busy setting up future instalments to give this one proper closure.
Despite these flaws, Control is still great. It has a different feel than most everything else on the market, per Remedy’s norm, and how it fits into their larger shared universe leaves you wanting more.
My Rating 4/5
