So I've Finally Played... Control

so i finally played control a game whose construction is what i've wished for eons its developer remedy entertainment has come full circle made up of finland's best talent in the demo scene their leap from death rally to max payne changed the company's status overnight clients went from apogee to rockstar and microsoft you wouldn't expect their next game to be funded by 505 publishers of naughty bear payday 2 and dead by daylight it's like guy richie going from king arthur and aladdin to a company whose biggest gamble was cold mountain but just like the gentleman controls a return to form akin to visiting an old friend for the first time in years who recounts an inside joke like no moons have passed it really hit when i stumbled into a sound room and the speakers didn't play terrifying screeches or coded messages but poets of the fall i couldn't help but smile the band's lead vocalist has been friends with sam blake since their formation it's why the song late goodbye appeared in max payne 2 years before their debut album launched i smiled in that booth because this felt honest personal something unashamedly themselves the opposite of quantum breaks compromises that game was labeled as the ultimate remedy experience but upon retrospect superficially so there's slow motion and an episodic story structure but there weren't equivalents of night springs vinnie vlad nightmares monologues finnish bands pink flamingos james mccaffrey or any of the other things that made remedy more than just another action-adventure developer that's not to say a developer shall never deviate from what they're known for but that it's notable when they're out of character quantum break felt like remedy through a filter one stemming from an immense budget to help sell a console funding a television show video game and the technology behind it control can't have that budget it also doesn't need it remedy already have the technology developers and collaborators to realize an unfiltered project the real ultimate remedy experience there's no bullet time in control but it's got just about everything else allen wake on projectors max payne burning cigarettes beth wilder's monologue fictional shows made up bands and sensational combat spectacle this has been one of the company's strengths integrating slick cinematic style within core gameplay rather than scripted sequences bullet time wasn't synced to breach charges it was given to the player letting them create those hard-boiled shootouts cinematic gameplay is often quite literal in its construction this runway in cold war isn't cinematic because it looks like an action movie it's cinematic because it's scripted paced and set up just like a movie dialogue is timed characters hit their marks stunts are coordinated and props are triggered there isn't a sandbox here you're not twisting various systems interacting with each other but witnessing a vision with the only distinction being you sometimes get to be the pyrotechnic it's like the next spider-man movie becoming more comic book-y by using panels control meanwhile is cinematic in its visual style and effects chunks of debris floating around the hero to make a shield isn't a set piece neither is launching a filing cabinet destroying everything in its path nor enemies exploding into colored smoke reflecting off the sheening walls of a secret government facility these are all parts of the core gameplay interestingly much of it is the last game just like before your ability set grants a dodge shield melee and core lethal you can use up to three of there's extras like mind controlling enemies and levitation but the bulk of powers are merely retooled and yet so much more tangible [Music] i interpreted this as the game's director wanting powers that didn't need explanation quantum breaks are simple on paper yet abstract in nature due to time being your superpower it's why the game's abilities are visualized with shards it's not just uniquely beautiful but gives time a texture realizing it is something physical to be manipulated but there's still questions like how does stopping time create an explosive bubble there can be an explanation it can even be reasonable but it's not impulsive so in control your shield isn't a wall of time preventing bullets from hitting you but chunks of concrete in a world of concrete jesse can levitate after hours of seeing his ridden corpses floating in the air your firearm is shape-shifting after witnessing the world shift around you before the title card drops the game isn't hard science fiction time travel it's childhood fantasies and nightmares realized the result is remedy's most empowered intuitive and responsive character to date control feels as good as it looks i noted immediately that unlike quantum break you can hip fire i don't know why that's gone out of style destruction isn't background it's foreground and you're always the one causing it most there's no pre-animated takedowns camera interruptions or cutaways during firefights is there a crouch button no does she crouch yeah when you go close to a cover jesse well aligned to the cover automatically that changed during development because you can crouch melee attacks are hefty levitation's seamless the camera's wide not narrow animations are silky smooth without weighing the player down no chunky footsteps here that's the biggest distinction games like quantum break and max payne 3 are animation driven but not control gameplay drives the animations and gameplay emphasis stretches far beyond the player character i said there's no pre-animated takedowns during combat but actually there's hardly any scripted events at all cutscenes amount to an hour roughly the same as max payne 2 but double the length of that game at 12 hours before dlc the oppressive kubrickian environments with no reference to the outside world hide the room to breathe in control you're never overwritten in fact you're encouraged to explore the minimap and its objective markers are optional as are the expositional conversations in favor of story progression or completing side missions i never thought i discussed those in regards to remedy and while some are of the go to x location to kill y amount of zed's variety others can be more intricate some aren't even labeled in the mission log some are just little things you can fiddle with in the oldest house like figuring out how this roulette table triggers the sprinklers there's even weapon mods loadouts resources crafting and timed expeditions granting bonuses while this game wouldn't exist without quantum breaks legwork its similarities in technology can't overshadow the differences in design and that's the beauty of it to innovate from previous work with the resources you already possess you're forced to rework the model not just how it's displayed that remedy locked control's art style three months into development led to more than just gorgeous graphics it gave artists and designers enough time to carefully construct each and every room there's no doubt brutalist architecture is simpler than the five distinct locations in remedy's previous game which themselves had five distinct sections requiring their own lighting textures and decorations there's undeniably more reused assets here but reusing assets is great game design now especially with mass effect legendary edition having just released some are asking isn't reusing assets bad it depends how reusable the assets are bad company 2 copy-pasted the same five houses ad nauseam and it's held as one of the greatest games of all time because maps had variety everywhere else in their lighting vegetation atmosphere layouts and choke points if anything the repetitive structures made it so players quickly learn how to apply destruction tactically rather than pausing to learn what is and isn't destructible mass effect's assets weren't nearly as versatile with crate shield placement and enemies being the only variety in side quests music lighting layout and method of arrival were the same that mass effect 1 could have done more but its assets was proved in bring down the sky where structures repeated but were re-lit placed more appropriately and presented unique gameplay scenarios on route controls assets are brilliantly modular the setting of a secretive in shifting government headquarters immediately explains the game's visual consistency it's doubtful that 25 planets would all use identical two-story structures in the middle of nowhere it's very believable one tower would be built upon a core material supernaturalism explains the environment changing and the many departments define each zone's unique visual flair the team themselves viewed this supposed simplicity as a strength artist fought the habit of filling the environment in the name of detail it results in a clean game that manages to avoid feeling empty you could summarize this place as a concrete broom but that ignores the polished flooring contrasted against stained concrete how reflections draw attention to the angular ceiling divided like columns with deep shadows in its gaps the vegetation staircases machinery in his ridden bodies there's so much going on visually in this one room that manages to be pristine yet unnerving quantum break was gorgeous too but when environments had overlays during combat it made my eyes bleed not only is control's art style more consistent clean and distinct from anything else on the market it helps in combat things get crazy but unlike before only your abilities are generating particles smoke and sparks not it and the environment destroying such a pristine environment is more satisfying than laying waste to one that's already been dismantled what really makes combat pop however is the sound design there's techniques you'd expect such as lowering the audio upon grabbing objects which then spikes upon contact but it goes much further than that i've complained about stock's sound effects a lot over the years and how distracting they can be but they're ultimately used because not everybody has the time resources or people to generate all new versions of sounds most won't consciously register but subconsciously it's those sounds that make a world feel unique this isn't just an alarm [Music] it belongs to a very particular world control achieves this in a manner few artistic works do sound designer vil sorsa worked with composers petri alanko and martin stig anderson to build a complete audio library with anybody able to use and remix another's recordings recurring sounds include an aztec death whistle pitched human voices recorded with an ultrasonic microphone scraping emt plate reverb and objects set on fire from coffee and washing machines to microwaves and a piano specifically to capture its strings echoing from the heat this is a world that doesn't sound like anything else it doesn't look like anything else it feels even better and it's made with total passion at no point while playing control that i think man remedy really needs some more money this game is absolute proof that signing up with a mid-tier publisher doesn't assure middling presentation that games need to get bigger and bigger in budgets and teams to make something better it's one that i'll always reference discuss and recommend in relation to the direction that more games should go in yet i spent more time this month [ __ ] around with titanfall just cause hell let loose and racing sims control is a game you should play but it's not one i'll play much more of not out of frustration confusion or disappointment just of all things boredom combat is visually spectacular and enjoyable when you're in the flow of shifting from power to power checking off enemies like the superhero you are but for all of the game's flexibility mechanics and enemy types the most effective tactic is throwing [ __ ] it's not merely because launch is too powerful i actually enjoy it when a game doesn't prioritize balance up to a point especially in a single player game with an empowered lead character problems are the enemy's lack of aggression and behavior forcing you to vary your playstyle it does exist clusters distract distorted interrupt troopers damage chargers charge and the warp share your abilities but none of them can counter an infinite supply of objects that can be held indefinitely that instantly lock on some like the distorted have an extra step timing your shield and then laying into them is how they're defeated but that's one step more like a quick time event there were multiple instances of me exhausting both energy meters due to poor management that nevertheless warranted no punishment the ai wouldn't take off chunks of health or set up a deadly attack they just stared exactly like in quantum break even the new enemy type spanned in the foundation dlc as an attempt to address this very problem but it's evident the tighter budget in schedule didn't allow for a sophisticated solution the sharpen can dash with pickaxes aren't staggered by shield blasts and completely swarm you it's a bit like a dentist using a hammer and the cavity isn't even disposed of the only hope of addressing this would be to increase the difficulty but that's controlled by an encounter director system there is no difficulty slider it's to make every encounter unique with players unable to predict which enemies they'll face and where but it doesn't matter they're all identically disposed of i love being able to kind of sneak into a room and look at the way the enemies are setting themselves up and then kind of analyze the situation and then pick my gear and then kind of surgically start removing enemies at the beginning of the encounter and then you know go straight into my abilities and my heavier weapons and things like that so it's kind of cool to be able to see how the setup is working and then choose your stuff this is role-playing there's nothing to encourage being so meticulous sprinting into rooms chucking rocks always worked and frankly the ui isn't really there for what the developer suggests at least conveniently genuinely the favorite system for mass effect andromeda would be useful here the ability to flip between four distinct custom loadouts or just some ability to save them in the pause menu rather than manually tweaking everything in a game so devoted to keeping you in its universe it feels really disjointed to then spend time sorting columns so i don't but then there's no weapon gear or mod variety just pouring even more points into energy launch and launch recovery because it always works control doesn't need do maternal's brutality but it could use more pressure units from games like that i loved the first astral spike it's a set piece so basic in gameplay yet so enthralling via the incredible sound design and art style it could have been so goofy yet it's maybe the one part of the game that genuinely unnerved me to the core so it was exhilarating to find multiple copies of them during combat needing to manage your abilities and tracking your targets all the while these screaming shifting entities are forcing you into danger and there's eight of them in the entire game four of them in the quarry one of them in dlc and one of them being the set piece so you effectively encounter them in combat once and you get levitate after that first fight yay and isn't it ironic that arguably the best weapon form is the least destructive and the worst is a rocket launcher i admire giving pistols the respect they deserve it's an art form occupied mostly by games of the past rather than present but this isn't the place for it my weapon usage should get more destructive rather than less with technology like this to be fair faults don't lie purely at gameplay's feat there's also issues with the structure in the beginning it's great as said the oldest house is shifting before the title card you're meeting characters within half an hour and you're running into oddities of the house not long after navigating the environment and learning the layout is a great way to insert quiet time between battles organically that's also controlled by the player they arrive at combat zones as quickly or slowly as they choose act 2 is the problem that initial progression slows to a crawl of side missions fast traveling and forgettable story missions desperately dangling the carrot on a stick set up hours earlier so it's confusing when the game pads itself even further with alerts i mentioned them earlier but i don't like them they're effectively timed terrorist hunt missions it's a lot more appealing on paper not only wasn't a single notable upgrade earned from them alerts appeared during story missions i'm in the grand finale fighting hordes of enemies during the height of narrative drama this game has only for a notification appearing to say hey go clean up i'm not arty i'm not going to exit a story mission in fast travel to an entirely different zone i've already fought in with a combat system i'm already bored of to collect a green tier energy restoration mod just the mods in general suck without an interesting permutation in sight it's really unsatisfying to stumble upon a room absorb the details continue experiments left behind previous staff and complete the puzzle to get materials and a suit finally there's the narrative historically remedies trump card the thing that even when their game plays an lsd trip can stir the emotions but i've already done this video's tone shift so you know where this is going there are so many things to love the atmosphere is tangible when you're in the world but somehow the cinematics make it pop even more and i adore how the early long takes build and build and build until just the editing creates anxiety sam lake steps back in the lead writer's chair assisted by angel mccoy of guild wars 2 fame why am i here i think you already know yes i came for my brother but there are other reasons too i said i was looking for answers but i might never understand them i'm not looking for proof this is already it more than enough no matter what they told me all those years i know it's real now i didn't imagine this i want to be a part of this world the writing is pleasant spoken by jesse former fbc director trench or professor darling i love james mccaffrey but matthew paredes committing highway robbery with this performance i think i prefer him even to alan wake he's more enthusiastic more endearing and when called for profoundly dramatic think of them as as a life preserver only instead of water the thing hras protect you from is classified one day that classified not water might pour in and you'll be glad you gotta got an hra keeping you afloat and if you don't have an hra don't worry it'll be uh quick and painless kitty i'm kidding we're making more [Music] and he happens to embody another strength of this game levity a top secret government program built to police the paranormal whose headquarters is itself a bridge between worlds is going to be ridiculous and the game embraces this agent hardy is physically healthy all tests have come back clean yet the speech issue has persisted for hours you'll be reading stories about polar bears migrating to alaska watching internal propaganda and borrowing someone's walkman through a maze characters are pleasant to be around they're not waxing lyrical about the end of time in fact the dialogue in general is mostly safe for optional conversations the player doesn't need to initiate it's respectably reserved and honestly i wasn't bothered by the awkward pauses and facial animations that have been criticized alan wake had similar goofs and it almost adds to the charm and immersion the oldest house is a strange place that's normal in parts abnormal in others to have characters balancing that tightrope is a fortunate accident speaking to this game's subtlety one of my favorite sequences was a cart ride having defended against a wave of enemies waiting for this cart you hop on expecting to snipe enemies from range it's a traditional set piece but no like the ladder the river and the cave it's just quiet machinery faintly registers as you're slowly brought to what's more appropriately a void rather than a place and that is beautiful control is a reversal of quantum break its issue is not storytelling but the story controls plot is front loaded all of these things happen within the first hour let alone the first act that momentum was never going to be sustainable and it probably shouldn't be the game would be exhausting but the lack of events in act 2 both in quantity and dramatic weight make these 4 to 6 hours a slog and the irritation of being notified about fetch quests is how many of these story missions are fetch quests and while i respect the game's commitment to revealing jesse's backstory later through the facility it makes getting through that second act drag even more because meeting dylan is the only carrot on that stick yes there's the hiss possibly taking over the fbc and going to infect the world but that's almost a technicality and one i'm grateful the game doesn't delve into very much i guess the issue taken is that controls a personal story that's held hostage for most of its run time and the longer jessie spends doing things for other people before finally meeting her brother the reason she's even here the less i care about that goal being accomplished especially when the characters making no decisions that are character defining polaris directed her to the building the board assigned jesse as the fbc's new director trench released the hiss darling made the hras marshall points you to dylan atti opens the maze this story could be told with anybody there's only a backstory to pin jessie to it but backstory doesn't define a character actions do and jesse's actions are completely one note max payne wasn't always directly chasing his wife's murderer alan wake's manuscript wasn't alice's self-insert but the gaps in jesse's journey that are impersonal eat up far too much time for a game that didn't need to be 12 hours the fall of max payne was half that and better for it thankfully act 3 really picks up [Music] [Music] that was awesome yeah it was i don't believe this game is nearly as weird as people make it out to be maybe its family members belting me with conspiracy theories since childhood but fridges containing otherly creatures isn't any weirder than that cowboy bebop episode but this this was cool and something that'll live rent-free right next to the airport shootout and effect and cause in fact it might very well be responsible for this video being made at all had control's third act begin with the levels and pacing of what came before i think i would have put this game down altogether the ashtray maze isn't just notable because it rocks a [ __ ] and soundtrack and is so crazy it demonstrates how expertly remedy applied their resources the maze is visually breathtaking but in development terms it's one tile set most studios would bomb an orphanage to build a set piece so efficiently and the music isn't a pre-recorded song they've gotta play and pray that it sinks to the player's movements once again friends poets of the fall stepped in to provide the track and all of it stems to be placed by sound engineers it is awesome and thankfully the third act doesn't slow down in its pacing minus the awful checkpoint system that forced you to the last outpost visited and the alerts when the credits rolled and i mean actually rolled i felt closure jesse established herself as the director dylan's life was spared the fbc's staff was safe and the wrongs of the past were being corrected in the present that's more than i felt previously but what i don't feel is the motivation to delve deeper fighting within a fridge stepping through a mirror or visiting another plane of existence just doesn't interest me on its own and the circumstances born out of those moments are bare bones the former being banished from the board yet tampering with altered world events regardless was the most interesting idea but not only is it hardly worth the 15 hours spent getting to that plot point it's one i can't help but feel should have been jesse's and probably will be one day considering the dlc's conclusion but steven moffat taught me years ago not to put any stock in potential replaying levels of quantum break really put things into perspective that game for all of its faults had me caught up in the narrative after just a couple minutes of capturing footage the plot is always moving with multiple layers occurring simultaneously that are obsessively detailed playing it again despite knowing the tales conclusion is almost more fun picking up all the pieces i missed along the way and while courtney hope is good in control in quantum break she's the standout that's not on courtney she's just working with what's given jessie is likable in how she finds the oldest house to be intriguing and validating rather than scary but beth has far more going on emotionally real trials that attached her to the game's most powerful scenes though it must be said my biases are at play here i'm far more fascinated with time travel than the supernatural it makes complete sense why so many people love this game and if you've not played control you should it looks sounds and feels better than multiple games at three to four times its development budget staff size and schedule it's a testament to the metal market's power a landmark release for studios following their unique vision i like it but i'd be lying if i said to enjoy playing control as much as i did thinking about its context within the gaming industry that listening to sound engineers fiddle with a noise box was less fun than throwing another rock it reaffirms my belief that games should leave you wanting more rather than waiting for the credits to roll but really one man not enjoying a video game enough to replay it immediately isn't a problem nothing should be for everybody while i'm slightly disappointed to not love control i'm more pleased that remedy made a game people love it all one that's acknowledged for its achievements rather than failures and more importantly one made according to their wishes their desires their ideals rather than somebody else's [Music] max payne 4 how long until forget that make max payne 4 via john wick's shooter with that style of gameplay can ducks get pringles into their mouths what a stupid question favorite toothpaste flavor call of duty are you bald nope tell me how does an rbmk reactor core explode loudly ray in the next video can you say i want you to smash that like button how about i smash your keyboard are you planning on having a second channel for your pokemon card pack opening videos pokemon sucks ass but i've genuinely thought about starting a second channel from motorsports thing is i already upload rarely enough as it is so that channel won't happen not unless i can work with somebody more efficient than me are you the very model of a scientist solarian nah probably more of a garris though without the scars so less attractive favorite pokemon whichever one i can run over with a truck out of all youtubers who would have the voodoo doll of your pc and keeps punching it to cause all of your tech issues sparky ray what's your favorite type of mobster and why whatever type balalaika is thoughts eh my card's better how much money do i need to pay you to finally [ __ ] play red dead redemption 2 do you fart with that ass i think so best edgar wright film hot fuzz no contest shot of the dead is great too and at worlds ends often overlooked but baby driver's overrated although i haven't seen scott pilgrim and i should probably change that did you pick up any new or old hobbies during the pandemic honestly i think the pandemic gave everyone else my hobbies to which i apologize [Music] you

Channel: Raycevick

Views: 530,886

Keywords: Raycevick, CuHnadian, connected, COGconnected, review, analysis, years, later, control, control game, control gameplay, control review, quantum break, quantum break gameplay, max payne, max payne 3, max payne 3 gameplay, max payne 2, john wick, rockstar, alan wake, alan wake 2, control explained, retrowave, retrowave music, chillwave, synthwave, sam lake, remedy entertainment, microsoft, 505, control ultimate edition, poets of the fall, marko saaresto, courtney hope, black ops cold war

Id: Yke-E_xcEJk

Length: 32min 20sec (1940 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 04 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/clautz128]

Before Control I had never played a game where I felt like someone hacked into my brain to see what I type of game I would absolutely fall in love with. The blend of paranormal, secret government agency, incredible level design, amazing presentation just blew me away. It felt like I was playing an episode of the X-Files and I loved every minute of it. Once you get all your abilities combat becomes so satisfying.

[u/Sadness_Inbound]

There's a lot I really enjoyed about Control, but Ray is right about how repetition and boredom might set in. The abundance of similar encounters combined with the generally quite poor performance of the game on PS4 led me to losing interest in the game. I never made it to the big set piece that everyone talks about unfortunately.

Still interested to see what Remedy's next project might be.

[u/kidkolumbo]

I agree with all the stated facts about the gameplay, but I still found it fun the first time through. He complained that the game becomes a power fantasy with little challenge, and the AI weren't aggressive enough. Both of those are true, but given that I wanted to be an unstoppable flying telekinetic force of nature, I was all for it. When I beat it the first time, I wanted to play it for the first time again, and since I can't do that I just turned on cheats and started running through it.

[u/[deleted]]

At some point I just went in the menu and changed some option to make the enemies die with a single bullet. The combat is really tiresome. Not only it's extremely repetitive, they also decided to put random ecounters, so you really can't have any kind of fun. And it's a shame because everything else is really good. I just wish they didn't go with that awful RPG progression mechanics and trimmed the fat in terms of combat and collectibles.

[u/o0Willum0o]

Yeah I came away with pretty much the same opinion. I don't regret playing it and I would recommend it to others but I was sick of it by the end. Sick enough to not bother with the DLC even though I owned it.

There's two really fun games in Control that keep stepping on each others toes. Exploring the oldest house is fun and it's one of the most visually striking experiences I've ever had in a video game. The combat is also fun once you have all your powers. The problem is they keep interrupting each other in really jarring ways. When you're faced with all the mystery and intrigue that the game sets up, the fact that it keeps stopping to let you fight zombies with health bars and equipping headshot mods is just sort of mundane in comparison.

It's like reading a book that keeps switching perspectives, except it keeps picking the worst moments to do it.

Oh and also I have no idea who's idea it was to have Jesse monologue at you constantly with stuff you either already know, or don't care about. It's so dumb talking to a character and being told something like 'Hmm, they're suspicious, I'm not sure I should trust them' and then immediately just do whatever they say anyway, as if the game originally had dialogue choices that got cut. Maybe it's some art house technique for building tension that went over my head but it just makes all the conversations feel so awkward.

[u/JamSa]

It's a great game. It kind of screwed itself with the lack of difficulty settings, the world's most useless map (misleading even), and the need to pause to swap between more than 2 of your 6 guns. I play more video games than anyone I know and I struggled with all of those things. Especially the gun thing, god was that a stupid decision that luckily someone made a mod to fix on PC.

But if you can get past all that, and it's a lot to get past, it is a very solid and fun game unlike any other.

[u/ExcelsiorWG]

I’m looking forward to watching this!

I am curious - did anyone find the ending (to the base game) kind of lackluster? Like by the time the main bad guy appeared, it felt like very shortly after you were facing him in the end battle and then the game just...ends? It felt kind of unsatisfying like they were rushing to the end versus taking the time to build more anticipation. It felt like a stark departure from what got me to that point, given how interesting the world was, how fun the gameplay was, and how slowly moving (yet intriguing) the story was up to that point.

[u/Aggrokid]

I couldn't get into Control, didn't understand what was going on, and the combat eventually devolved into throwing every office prop at enemies.

Only after watching Noah Gervais's review of it, then I began to understand the craftsmanship of it and what the developers were going for.

[u/Schluss-S]

I liked the SCP tones of the game, but honestly, the writing does not go far enough with it. All the later OoP turn out to be very "lame". It is like if someone read SCP, and sorted by worst rated.