I finished Control last week, likely the best game to marry a creepy funhouse with a sprawling government office that you’ll ever play. I was up and down on this one for a few months. There’s a fun narrative and plenty of atmosphere, but I wasn’t always enjoying the gameplay.
I hadn’t played a Remedy game since Max Payne 2. The shift from comic book-style storytelling to something literally cinematic was a change for me, but I was still able to comfortably slip into the narrative right away. I particularly enjoyed what was going on with the meta-narrative. For example, I’d get so damn lost running around even with signs everywhere. Normally, the existence of the signs would feel like a change implemented after tester feedback, but then I would see stuff like “Janitor’s Office” and think there’s intentional thematic design at play. Constantly questioning that in various elements of the game was part of the fun.
Unfortunately, my tendency to get lost wore my patience thin eventually, and the new gameplay unlocks bored me. It was a blast at first–I haven’t had this much fun with telekinesis since Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy forever ago–and the gunplay felt solid. But then, as more of the weapon options showed up, I didn’t click with any of them and preferred chucking rocks. It’s also a great looking game at times. This is the first game where my system has been able to handle more than basic ray tracing, but I’d get a lot of blurry textures. I even had to rollback my video driver to resolve a problem with the cinematics. It’s weird to call a game where I’d get a solid 60 FPS a rough port, but I think this qualifies.
I picked up the game again last month and made some more progress until a certain late-game section completely stonewalled me. I simply didn’t have enough health (or damage output, or both) for the encounter, and the choice was to either grind for skill points/mods or start looking at difficulty options. I quickly found a switch to an “Easy” difficulty wasn’t possible but there was an Assist Mode. I started with reducing incoming damage, but after a couple more five-minute attempts I was frustrated enough to turn one-hit kills on. I couldn’t tell you the last time I did something like that to get through a game. It was either that or likely drop the game permanently (a shame being that close to the ending). Still, I’m glad I kept playing, even if I’m not entirely sure in the end Control kept its end of the bargain. I don’t think the story quite stuck the landing.
Any thoughts on Control? I seem to be down on it more than most. I imagine Remedy fans in particular got a kick out of it. Or on a game that pushed you into cheats or breaking another gameplay tradition you have?
I had a lot of fun with Control but the narrative fell flat for me. It got to the point where I didn’t really care why I was running around and killing things anymore, I was just having fun doing it. Same for Alan Wake 1 for that matter. Was definitely invested in Max Payne 1-3 however.
For a game that made me break my own rules? I have been getting into more difficult games for a while, and Elden Ring was the one that started that a few years back. The deaths less frustrating as I learned not to just swing wildly as actually learn enemy moves and use dodge and parry effectively. After beating Elden Ring, making my way through most of Returnal, Bloodborne, beating a handful of other difficult games and rising to the challenge I was starting to “get it”.
Until Dead Cells. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t translate that same strategy to 2D. I got far but found myself really spinning my tires after a while, then had to use assist after I got stuck, and my prior strategy of “leave it, come back later when you’re less frustrated” didn’t work several times in a row, but I really enjoyed the gameplay. I too had to use the assist mode for this one. It was just too difficult and I couldn’t get my head around it in 2D.
I think I blame my lack of experience with Metroidvanias. I never took to them, and though I played a lot of side scrollers, it’s a different, but similar, set of skills.
I have plenty of experience with Metroidvanias and I love roguelites, but I quickly bounced off of Dead Cells. It made me feel like I wasn’t progressing at all. Hades was the same way, but it weirdly avoided that problem with how it handles the story (Hades was also better at making runs feel different early on).
Maybe I should try Dead Cells again with assist mode. It looks like the game has piles of content.