This is an awkward one, Remedy's new game see's you work your way through a government facility taking down other world creatures whilst unlocking new abilities and following an unfolding plot. This isn't Half-Life though, this is Control and see's Remedy once again delivering a narrative heavy third person shooter that is somewhat old school in design.
I feel like this is going to be one of those games that see's me at odds with most others. It's been praised in reviews and many are already citing it as their game of the year and so far, though I have a lot left to go, I'm finding it to be fine but also decidedly... meh. I've seen enough to know that the combat abilities open up to literally give the player a lot of control as the game goes on but what is bringing the experience down for me is the level design and environments.
The facility you're exploring is largely made up of identikit grey corridors, sometimes with repeated copy and paste layouts. There's something of a metroidvania design going on but overall it's a deeply dull place to explore with no character and nothing of note about it. In the early stages of the game you can run, small jump and shoot meaning that the basic nature of the gameplay makes things a bit of a chore too. The abilities you unlock largely relate to psychic abilities which eventually start to get you a sense of superpowered badassery but I'm finding that long before these kick in the sense of disconnect from how much of the game feels mundane lessens the impact.
The Director, or whatever her name is - your character - is the least compelling lead Remedy has ever made and the storyline nowhere near as engaging as their past efforts. The other world sequences so far have all been bland examples of platform jumping and enemy shooting. I currently feel like as the game moves towards its end and abilities are fully unlocked it will become a lot more fun to play and there will lie the games magic letting it finish at a peak but as things stand so far it's a solid but unremarkable game.
One aside, Ray tracing etc - DF has made a lot of fuss about this being game changing along side the less advanced options Control gives you. Basically, the game has a dull art design but as part of it a lot of surfaces are highly reflective. It isn't game changing, whilst those with powerful enough rigs can pump up these features or even fully enable everything with enough grunt it doesn't make a revolutionary difference to the games presentation.
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