This review will only be Available/Exclusive for the Director. The Board allows/respects spoilers in this document so beware/preserve.

Control was actually the first Remedy game I’ve ever played on my PS4 Pro. It’s a mind-bending, paranormal, Metrovania-style action title that’s ranking among Remedy’s best works. The performance on the console was excruciatingly dreadful. After the switch to PC, Control blew me away. It had incredible visuals, fun gameplay, stirring music, and overwhelming atmosphere. My god, this game has the best and most immersive loot/atmosphere I’ve ever experienced in a video game. It’s a mood. However, it’s also a title you’d hate to love and love to hate. There’s so much untapped potential, so many questions and missed chances. Some think of Control of a masterpiece, others quit after a few hours. Only 28.7% of Steam players have completed the main story at the time of writing this review. That’s a damn shame. I’m going to try to convince you to give it a try - and explain why you will be both captivated and disappointed after beating this 15-hour journey. Spoilers ahead.

A strange force draws our protagonist, Jesse Faden, to a massive skyscraper in New York City, only accessible to those looking for it. “The Oldest House” and home to the Federal Bureau of Control. Jesse is guided by Polaris in the search for her brother, Dylan, missing since they were both young. Arriving inside this strange government agency, she finds Trench dead in a pool of his own blood, gun by his side. This gun is no ordinary firearm. It is an Object of Power. Objects of Power are paranormal objects that link Jesse’s world with other dimensions and grants certain powers. And this Object of Power, the Service Weapon, is a weapon that chooses its master. The Service Weapon chooses Jesse, suddenly thrusting her into the role of the new Director of the Federal Bureau of Control.
Touching an object of power will also teleport you to the astral plane, a reality that exists in between dimensions. The astral plane is home to the Board, who are gods and the potential creators of the multiverse.

As the new Director, Jesse meets interesting characters in the search for her long-lost brother. But the plot is one of the games major downfalls. It’s a convoluted mess of plain weirdness that gets no explanation whatsoever. You’re working towards your main goal: finding Dylan. And all you’re hoping for is that everything will be clear to you in the end, but the ending raises more questions than it answers. In fact, nothing is answered at all. What is the board? What is the Astral Plane? Where’s Darling? What is the Slide Projector? What is Hedron? What is the Former? Why is it related to a fridge? Why do you have to pull a light switch to get to a motel that acts as a Place of Power? There are no answers. Not in the main game, not in the DLC. I don’t mind a bit of Lynchian mystery but after reading all the documents I’ve found in the game (which are, A LOT) I also didn’t get any wiser. It seems like no one understands what’s going on, and that’s fine, but a bit of clarity would benefit the game drastically. If you want a perfectly lined-up game with clear answers and no headaches, Control definitely isn’t for you.

https://youtu.be/F74LLDhAhhI

Like I said in the intro, this game oozes atmosphere. It’s like a crossover episode from Twin Peaks and the X-Files with a few hints of a Van Der Meer novel. The Oldest House is a character itself. It’s clear that Remedy has taken inspiration from House of Leaves to make a living, breathing and beautiful labyrinth. It shifts, has hidden locations, keeps you hooked as you want to discover every nook and cranny of this weird place. That’s not as easy as it sounds, because many locations aren’t accessible at the start of the game. There are certain powers allocated to certain locations, or characters have to grant you access. It’s bloody difficult to find your destination and you will be lost most of the time. Searching for the correct route is a large part of the game, but it’s unclear where you need to be exactly because the map doesn’t help you in the slightest. Frustrating for some, fun for others.

The Oldest House is designed in the imposing exposed concrete of Brutalist architecture. That concrete, with so many 90-degree angles, should be boring, but the Finnish developers at Remedy make it fascinating. Somewhere in these everyday fluorescent lighting, desk, and office supplies, beauty sprouts. Nothing about the environment should be attractive, and certainly not beautiful, but even the smallest details are filled with with life. It’s mesmerizing and easy to get lost in. I would advise you to take your time and appreciate every little detail in every single room of the Oldest House. It’s these things that make this game as beautiful as it is.

The gameplay itself is a fun but becomes repetitive rather quickly. It’s basically finding where you need to go, fighting lots of Hiss on the way, to meet the person that gives you a new main or side quest. You can not only rely on your service weapon to kill the Hiss, but you get powers as well. Launch is the first one you get and it’s basically the only one you need to defeat every single enemy in this game. It’s just too overpowered. You’ll also get dodge and shield (pretty self-explanatory) and seize and levitate. It’s completely up to you which powers you want to use and at what time. Movement is extremely important during fights, so you’ll find yourself dodging and levitating a lot of the time. You can upgrade these powers, as well as your different Service Weapon modes (like Pierce and Spin). The upgrading aspect is kind of useless and unnecessary in my opinion, but it’s nice to have the option.

Also: it’s part of the Remedy universe. Control references previous Remedy games, Alan Wake in particular, and that’s really cool to discover. How about Alan Wake 2 with Jesse as a secondary main character. Are you reading this, Sam Lake?

I’ve touched upon a few bad aspects already: the confusing story, repetitive gameplay and difficult-to-find destinations. Now, all of these things could be better, but they’re not game-breaking. I still enjoyed Control a lot because I was able to look past these flaws. Maybe they made me love the game even more. Who knows. But the amount of bugs and frame drops I’ve encountered on PlayStation 4 and PC are not done in the current generation of games. It sometimes feels like the game wasn’t actually finished and polished enough yet. I think COVID is mainly to blame for this situation and one can only hope that there will be updates that give the game the polish it deserves.

It also doesn’t help that people give up on the game so quickly. It’s only after you’ve spent a few hours and tested your patience that you get rewarded. The levels get more diverse, the house opens up, things get extremely weird. There are side quests that have you fighting the best bosses in the game or let you solve some very cool puzzles. But the majority of players haven’t actually seen this. However, the lack of a proper endgame is bad.

Ultimately, I’m glad I pushed through those frustrating moments. While it can be tedious at times, Control is worth experiencing for the atmosphere alone. It’s the kind of place that feels both alien and mundane, and it becomes richer and more compelling the further you delve into it. This is not a game forced by quota and profits, but by mere passion. And if that alone doesn’t convice you, I don't know what can.

Pros
+ Gorgeous to look at
+ Atmosphere
+ Nice abilities
+ Voice acting
+ Lore

Cons
- Short length
- The weird story/ending isn’t for everyone
- Repetitive gameplay
- No proper endgame