/VERDICT
A thrillingly bizarre
action adventure.
The spectacular
combat and sheer
imagination make
Control one of the
year’shighlights.OVERALL SCORE
91
At the time of Faden’s accession, the FBC is under assault by
a hive-minded force known as the Hiss, which has possessed
most of the FBC’s security forces who will attack you on sight.
Control sets out as an ‘anti-cover’ shooter, and it takes a
while to get used to this after years of hiding behind a waist-
high wall. Jesse avoids damage not by crouching but by
sprinting, so you’re constantly running between hails of
gunfire to survive. What’s more, she has the power to
‘cleanse’ paranatural objects, absorbing some of their powers
in the process. Over the course of the game, she’ll learn to
levitate, briefly possess enemies and also throw objects
using the telekinetic Launch ability.
Launch turns Control’s gunplay from unremarkable to
exceptional. It’s basically Half-Life 2’s gravity gun without the
gun, but Remedy makes the idea special again through its
sheer destructive potential. Pick up a desk and launch it at an
enemy, and that desk will shear through glass windows and
metal railings before splintering into a thousand pieces as it
crushes your opponent against a wall. As you become more
powerful, you can lift a wider range of objects, such as forklift
trucks, other enemies and even enemy grenades, which
cause huge amounts of destruction on impact.
The visual spectacle of Control’s destructive combat is
astonishing. When all your enemies are dead, the clean lines
and tidy offices of the FBC are transformed into a dusty,
smoky, sparking mess, with bits of paper, shards of wood and
concrete littering the floor. One of my favourite little touches
is that, if there are no nearby objects for Jesse to launch, she’ll
simply rip a chunk of concrete from the wall and lob that at
her enemy. It’s wonderfully satisfying.
All that being said, combat is also where Control’s flaws lie.
It’s generally a challenging game, but there are times when
the combat becomes downright unfair, throwing a ludicrous
number of enemies at you, many of which are heavily
armoured. This, combined with some slapdash
checkpointing, makes a few of Control’s major fights hugely
frustrating experiences. As a side note, although most of the
core weapons and powers are fun to use, the surrounding
upgrade system is lacklustre.
In a way Control is a victim of its own success. The world
building and surrounding narrative is so good that you simply
don’t want to be hindered by an irritatingly difficult boss fight.
It’s so strong that you’ll actively seek out the collectibles
because you’ll want to learn more about the FBC’s world.
You’ll want to know about every Altered Item, watch every
one of Doctor Hartman’s instructional videos about the FBC’s
research, listen to every monologue by the
former director Trench, and the mysterious,
otherworldly Board.
Across visual, audio, environment and
narrative design, Control stuns on every level.
Even little details such as the title cards for new
areas are so wickedly stylish that you can’t help
but smile. It’s more than enough to make up for
those two or three moments where Control
really tests your patience. It’s comfortably
Remedy’s masterpiece, and one of the best
games of this year.
RICK LANE