Prelude
Well, i'd been itching to play Control ever since it came out. Previously to playing Alan Wake I hadn't heard of Remedy. But after experiencing Alan Wake once, and then playing it for the second and third time, well, you could say i had become a Remedy fan!
So much so that i purchased all DLCS, offered copies of the game to friends and even a Twitcher or two that i follow, and probably have replayed it a fourth time and fifth time. Mostly because the story is so intricate, but also for the atmosphere, level design and gameplay.
But i wanted more of the Remedy experience; the storytelling always being top-notch, and overall great experience. So, i decided to play their older games. And i played Max Payne.
Again, another great game.
Then Quantum Break came out. Of course i wanted to play it. But Remedy, being who they are, turned yet again the dial up, for the minimum specs on a GPU for their next release (American Nightmare was a slight hiccup in their track record!).
Even to be able to play Alan Wake i had to get a better GPU. I had tried playing Alan Wake and couldn't, but a friend offered me a deal on his GPU, as he was going to buy a new one. So i had the GPU to play Alan Wake.
Same went with Quantum Break - i needed a much better GPU to run Quantum Break as i like to run games i'm excited for: everything on high. I could play Quantum Break on the very minimum specs, so i started playing it regardless. It was a Remedy game, after all. And, maybe for the best (as i didn't want to spend money on a new GPU at the time), i didn't enjoy Quantum Break due to the overly television medium used in the game.
So, i got off the Remedy bandwagon for a few years, and in the meanwhile Control came out. And then Alan Wake 2 came out. By then the grip Remedy had on me had faded a bit, as i had Alan Wake to get my Remedy fix.
Fast forward some years and my long time GPU started to die on me. Perfect timing as GPU prices started to go down. So i had to get a new GPU.
If you know anything about upgrading your PC, then you know that you shouldn't buy a part that is just a bit better than the one you had; it'll become obsolete much quicker and cost you just a little bit less than getting something way better.
RTX 3060 had entered the chat.
So the first thing i did was get Control. I had been off the Remedy bandwagon but i still have a lifetime ticket! I bumped up those graphical settings to "call the city and ask them to power up the secondary nuclear fusion power plant" and played it from start to finish.
Review
So, having now played Control, i'd like to write about my experience with it, and why i think it exists.
I usually scour every inch of a game which i see i will enjoy from the start. I do some quests and if I'm really into the game, I'll try to come up with a lore friendly excuse to not follow the main story just now, and go looking for resources or collectibles and try doing every side quest as they come along.
Then i go back to the main story.
This is not good if you want to get a good sense of the story of a game, as one can spend hours away from the main story and kinda forget what's going on when getting back.
So, for Control, i thought i'd skip everything that was not part of the main story, or was not "on the way" to complete the main story.
So here's what i have to say about Control.
Overall, i enjoyed it, but it didn't have the same impact as Alan Wake.
The game is short, and the story is open-ended. The gameplay is hella-fun, with the weapons and the abilities our character Jesse uses, merging very well together, making for a very fluid, hectic and entertaining combat.
The setting where the game takes place is also an awesome idea; a shifting building, that taps into other dimensions, where a fringe Governmental agency deals with extra dimensions and the hazards that can arrive from them is a super cool idea. Also, very open-ended, as literally anything can happen inside the building.
After having played it, as a bit underwhelmed by the story as i was, what i found is a much larger reason to be excited for the existence of Control. To me, this game serves (or can serve) as a way to tie Remedy's games together, potentially creating more content from any of the worlds Remedy's created, inside any game.
Like S.H.I.L.D. and Marvel's Cinematic Universe. They do this for Alan Wake, making Control and Alan Wake part of the same universe, and giving us more Alan Wake lore, inside Control. And they can give us Control content inside future Alan Wake games. Or any game they come to make, really. That's the beauty of a central game like Control. By mixing and matching games (universes) there's the possibility for a ton more content that intersect games; more DLC's, related quests or side-quests. Basically more crossovers. Basically, like the MCU.
And that means more Remedy content we love!
And it's welcome!
Anyway, i've rambled enough. Haven't played Alan Wake 2 or read anything about it (like i do when playing a game), but i would bet that Control lore makes an appearance in Alan Wake 2. The AW side-quest in Control kind of alluded to that at the end, but i suspected that much right when i say AW content laying around in the FBC.
Hopefully they expand their games, and intertwined more of the past and future games cause that just means more content.
And as long as they nail the stories, gameplay, locations and music, pretty much like they have been doing for a long time, i'm a happy camper.
It's impressive how Remedy nails so many things in one game. They kill it with every game.
I guess i'll have to take a second look at Quantum Break - maybe i misjudged it!
Anyway, thanks for reading!