// Steven Martinez

Review - Control Ultimate Edition

Control is one of those games I came across during a Steam sale and picked up for a few dollars. It would sit quietly in my "To Play" collection until I happened upon a Tik Tok from Chet Faliszek where he called it out as one of his favorite titles. With an endorsement from one of the industry legends behind favorites such as Portal 2 and Left 4 Dead, I knew I had to give it a shot.

Going in, I knew absolutely nothing about Control nor it's developer Remedy Entertainment, other than an assumption that the cover art depicted the game's protagonist. What I found was a memorable, though flawed experience.

Incremental and environmental world building

Control is a master class in environmental world building. Over the course of the game, the various office memos, case files, and live-action video segments slowly stich together the history of the Federal Bureau of Control and it's long relationship with protagonist Jesse Faden and her brother Dylan. While at first bewildering, the various artifacts and character interactions weave a meticulously considered Science Fiction for both the player and Jesse to unravel. The Brutalist surrealism of the Oldest House (the Federal Bureau of Control's headquarters) sets the perfect backdrop.

Some titles with incredibly deep lore - The Elder Scrolls' Oblivion and Skyrim, for example - initiate the player with concise exposition wrapped into a tutorial. The stakes are set and the player is turned loose. Control's drip-feed approach to everything from the characters' backstories to the story's very premise is an engaging alternative.

Tight controls undercut by combat design

Jesse's movement and combat controls are tight and highly fluid. However, encounters with the enemy Hiss are repetitive, generally boiling down to a number of grounded and floating Hiss in discrete chambers. Variance in enemy units is limited, with ramping difficulty achieved largely by scaling their health and damage. The variety of Service Weapon types and modifications provides a variety of approaches for a given encounter, but I tended towards two or three combinations the vast majority of the time.

I also found some aspects of the combat itself to be fairly frustrating. Enemies materialize after Jesse enters an area and mid-engagement, often simultaneously in front of and behind the field of view. Engaging with the visible foes often results in succumbing to those off-screen. In particular, there is an almost invisible Hiss with a powerful attack, only after which is it briefly vulnerable. I lost many fights when I was not aware that this enemy was even present.

Almost every ability outside of basic movement requires energy, which behaves similarly to stamina in other games. Jesse is fairly brittle, and I found dodging to be a regular cause of energy depletion. This becomes especially difficult to manage as the unseen throwable props and immovable set pieces regularly interrupt dodges at critical moments. The combat demands constantly managing the room layout, obstacles, dynamically instantiated ground-based and aerial enemies, and meters for ammunition, health, and energy. Jesse's vulnerability often seems at odds with the scale of powers she has access to.

With no ability to adjust the game difficulty, the story is sealed behind often laborious combat. Navigating the labyrinth that is the Oldest House with just a two-dimensional map and imprecise objective descriptions also adds an unsatisfying friction to navigation.

The Northlight engine impresses

Control is built on Remedy's own Northlight engine. The character rigging, environment behavior, and physics are all excellent. While sometimes dark and difficult to see, the lighting and shadows are quite convincing. Frame rates are typically stable, even on my Steam Deck. However, scenes in vast spaces with many actors, and transitional scenes such as elevators, often caused noticeable stutters.

Stability is excellent. I did not encounter any obvious or game-breaking bugs or crashes. However, high level-of-detail textures for nearby objects were frequently not loaded. Signs and displays that would normally be fully legible would appear heavily pixelated. It's unclear if this is intentional behavior to avoid loading screens or pop-in. There were a few cutscenes with Jesse and Emily Pope where the close shots of the characters made this particularly apparent.

Actor performance and art direction

The voice, motion capture, and live acting are broadly fantastic. While the cast of characters is small and emotionally narrow, the dialog is well worth engaging with. In particular, Matthew Porretta's live performance as Dr. Darling is charming and perfectly portrays his character. Courtney Hope's performance as Jesse Faden also shines in her conversations and internal monologue. Sometimes Emily Pope's mouth animations were bit unnervingly exaggerated, but that was likely technical in nature from the motion capture.

The art direction of the Oldest House and character design is phenomenal. Environments are at times extremely open and at others, quite claustrophobic. The unease of never really knowing what's behind a given doorway really plays into the mysterious tone. The proliferation of Jesse's portraits effectively marries unease with the motif of predestination from a greater power. The live action elements also give the game a very distinct style that mirrors the Control's own alternate realities.

That said, my otherwise deep immersion was often broken by Control's numerous references to Remedy's other IP Alan Wake, of which I'm only tangentially familiar. Instead of solidifying what is actually a shared universe, these leapt out, almost as if they invoked an episode of The Simpsons as a canonical, in-universe event. I might find it more effective if the association between the Federal Bureau of Control and the events of Alan Wake established themselves more implicitly. That said, a stronger familiarity with the prior title before beginning would likely have made this a non-issue.

Final Thoughts

Control's engaging narrative and stylistic execution are top notch. The combat feels great and, while flawed, is rewarding enough and otherwise carried by the narrative and presentation. The result is a memorable experience of Control's successes instead of its frustrations.

7/10