It feels like a lifetime ago already since Remedy Entertainment developed Max Payne and revolutionized the entire genre of third person shooters. Yet, despite releasing titles that were consistently good and high profile since then, none of them had quite the same impact as Max Payne once had. Always working with their in-house engines, they’ve pushed the limits in terms of technology with every title, constantly doing something inventive and innovative. And, if nothing else, every project they’ve worked on since 2001 was ambitious and full of really unexpected concepts and interesting gameplay and narrative ideas.
And up until Quantum Break, their previous title, I’ve also found their games consistently fun to play on their most basic mechanical level. I still find Alan Wake boring as a whole, yet the combat feels so satisfying. Max Payne 2 has way too many tedious and annoying sections, but it can be so gratifying to play. Quantum Break, though? It was… bland. Boring. Full of awesome visual flair, but feeling empty. And I was worried that Control might be the same. Luckily, it’s not the same this time.
What works best in the game, however, is its mood and style. The visual design, the architecture, the creepy urban horror theme paired with genuinely impressive usage of the newest technological advances leads to some truly breathtaking scenes that look great in action even more than they do on screenshots. The destruction that follows every shootout is something to see, as things break, parts of walls and columns fly around, explosions and the main character’s superpowers tear the rooms of the Federal Bureau of Control, where the game takes place in, apart.
The story, as simple and primitive as it is, works really well too. Probably specifically because it is so simple, yet channeling all the usual horror stories, creepypastas and conspiracy theories in an interesting way. As people often compare, this really is in many ways like an action take on the fictional SCP Foundation, where a simple faucet you see in a bathroom may turn out to be an Altered Item, capable of sucking you into an alternate reality if you turn it the wrong way. It also works because it perfectly balances between acknowledging how silly all of this is and taking itself seriously, as a real horrible threat to the world outside the walls of FBC. It does get a bit too meta in terms of Remedy titles, as the second expansion directly ties into the Alan Wake universe, essentially creating some Remedy Entertainment Universe brand, which can get tedious, especially when you consider that Control is, so far, the only actually interesting bit of storytelling there. But it’s not too heavy on this element, even in the “crossover” second expansion, so it works out fine.
More than just fine are the mechanics and superpowers. It’s simple, but effective set of powers that you can get (most of which are, actually, optional) and they make the mix of combat and exploration of this game work well. Remedy avoided using any time slowing powers and abilities this time around and for the better, as even the simple telekinesis is so satisfying to use. The exploration aspect is fun too, with lots of side-stories and ‘side-missions” to partake, optional weird bosses, some creative levels and enemy designs and overall lots of pleasant variety, both visually and in terms of gameplay. And even though some of the elements, especially some of the platforming in certain parts, felt a bit poorly designed, overall the game was fun to play.
That said, for whatever reason all of the cool levels and base mechanics were tied to a really bland and boring action RPG-ish structure of combat encounters and “loot”. While there is a fair bit of variety in enemy types in general, the game also uses the “levels” and, because of that, damage scaling models which mean that the combat always feels more or less the same, leaning towards bullet-spongey by the end. It never really gets there thanks to the focus on superpowers (upgraded telekinesis is far more efficient than the guns usually), yet, the combat simply stops feeling satisfying after a certain point and becomes a slog. It doesn’t help that enemies constantly respawn in certain spots after some time and, the game is full of “endgame” crap and infinite quests that are there to probably motivate you to grind for more pointless loot. But it never feels rewarding or fun in any way and becomes annoying very quickly. Due to this focus, boss fights tend to work out with either you just easily killing off a gigantic enemy without it even having a chance to hit you, or drag on until you might accidentally die to something unexpected and stupid, since you lose health in this game ridiculously quickly.
And in the end it feels as if you bought a really simple bland fast food pizza that was packaged in some amazingly designed box with AR elements and self-cleaning innovative cardboard. And you’ll remember that amazing packaging forever, but the pizza is forgotten almost immediately. It’s a really cool game that is definitely worth checking out. With really amazing mechanics, levels and features. Except all of those are never really used in a way that feels truly fun. Just satisfactory at best. I’m glad I’ve experienced it, but can’t help but hope that Remedy will finally remember how to make gameplay fun again.