Oct 182024
After all this time, I’ve finally finished Control.
If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you might remember my Control tale of woe. I started the game shortly after it came out but encountered a game-breaking bug that made it impossible for me to continue. My only choice was to start the game over from the beginning, and the thought demoralized me.
They eventually patched the bug, but it was too late for someone who had already triggered it. So I let Control sit until last October, when enough time had passed that it felt fresh enough for me to restart.
I actually played most of Control last year, though not in time for Celebrating All Things Spooky 2023, and then followed it with the AWE expansion. Then I took a break. A few days ago, I realized I still hadn’t played Foundation, so I played that for this October and finally brought Control to a close.
Control is not a horror game, but it undeniably has a creepy and sometimes unsettling atmosphere. It’s set at the Federal Bureau of Control, a secret government agency that monitors and contains supernatural phenomena. When Jesse Faden arrives at the Bureau while searching for her brother, she is unexpectedly chosen as the new Director and finds herself fighting mysterious entities known as the Hiss who have attacked and possessed most of the people in the building.
It’s an action-adventure game, with third-person shooter combat that also makes use of special abilities you learn as you play, such as using telekinesis to throw objects in the room at enemies.
It’s fun, challenging at times, and has a great atmosphere that blends eerie creepiness with an off-beat sense of humor. When you pick up a document (of which there are many, along with audio logs and other pieces of media), you never know if it’s going to be a disturbing tale of people falling prey to powers beyond their comprehension or a letter from someone who thinks their potted plants are giving them coded messages.
Most of these supernatural incidents and objects you learn about just as part of the background lore, although you interact with some directly (sometimes to get new powers). Of course, as a big Alan Wake fan, I was delighted that the Bright Falls incident was among that lore.
So I really love the lore, background details, and the general tone of the game.
The story… is confusing. By the end, I understood it better, but there are still a lot of cryptic and unclear points. Intentionally so. It’s a surreal experience.
Now, the AWE DLC takes a step further in tying Control directly to Alan Wake. As you might imagine, this means it’s even more confusing. It’s a great DLC, and I loved how it tied the two games together, although the final boss fight was unfortunately frustrating. Story-wise, it left me quite confused.
Foundation is a bit more straightforward in terms of story and serves as an epilogue, so I’m glad I played it last. It also seems to set the stage for a sequel, and we know Control 2 is in development.
Overall, Control is a game filled with creepy, disturbing, and sometimes surprisingly humorous supernatural elements. It’s not quite like any other game, and it’s definitely worth playing, even though I’d struggle to explain parts of it. And if you love finding little pieces of lore as you play, you’ll probably love Control.
So you finally got your playthrough… Under Control 😉
Control is one of those games that I’ve been curious about for a while, but I always had something else I wanted to play more. I even see it has a good sale going on right now, I’m just unsure if I would ever get around to it when I’m still in Baldur’s Gate, barely got into Witcher 3, and have Metaphor Refantazio waiting for me, and that’s all just on Playstation!
I think you’d enjoy Control.
But yeah, there’s definitely a lot of great games to juggle… The eternal backlog calls to us…
Honestly, I think I would enjoy it too. I am *very* tempted by the current sale… making it very hard to not just get it, knowing it will just fall into the pile with everything else ^^; I’m somewhat tempted to just spend the few dollars and then hope I have time for it, someday…
Haha, well I’m sure it will go on sale again, even if you don’t get it now.
I’m only barely aware of Control, so that probably explains why I had no idea it connected to Alan Wake in any way. Are you going to finish AW2 in time for a spooky month review? How connected are they? I don’t remember much of AW1, and I haven’t done anything with AW2 yet, so I wonder if its worth trying to get into…
I’ve been playing Alan Wake 2, so we’ll see if I finish it in time.
In the main game of Control, the references to Alan Wake are minor, more like easter eggs than anything else. The AWE DLC, however, is basically a crossover episode. It directly deals with the events of Alan Wake and Alan trying to write himself out of the Dark Place.
So far in Alan Wake 2, Control feels sort of like background worldbuilding. There have been references to the Federal Bureau of Control monitoring the area, and a character from Control has appeared a couple of times now. I feel like you could play Alan Wake 2 without the context of Control and not be too confused.
Whether that will be true for the upcoming Lake House DLC, though, I’m not as sure. The trailer looked like it’s dealing much more directly with the universe of Control, with a significant spoilery Control character even appearing in the trailer.
Well at the end of the month, I must give congrats for finishing Alan Wake 2 in time for the end of the month! Timing two larger games took some work, but you made it in time!
Yeah, involving a long game like that definitely took some work to get it done in time, haha. Although I’d say that was the only especially long game I did this year, aside from Control, which I played most of last year.
I really like all the crazy and cryptic things that this game sets up. I need to go back and finish this. Even more so now that as sequel is being developed. I really need to get my backlog under….Control 🙁
Well once you play Alan Wake 2, hopefully its connections to Control will motivate you more to get back to it, haha.
Oh ya I hope so too. I just hope they blendings of both universes eventually doesn’t take away too much from one to the other.
Same. That’s my one worry as they go forward with this shared universe idea.