This game isn't a GOTY or a classic. Reviewers lie.

[Midas Welby]

I heard all the great things about this game and decided to jump on it. People talk about the amazing graphics, the powers, the cool atmosphere. This game is just a quickly thrown together demo for RTX. Much easier to pay people to give great reviews then to actually deliver a good product.

From the moment I was thrown in the game the controls felt off. The character moves around really fast and jerky and just crossing a couple rooms I've accidentally knocked over water coolers, gotten carts stuck in the geometry of the wall, and knocked over a complete desk. For a game called 'Control' it feels too awkward handling the character. It is obvious this game was meant for action and destructibility because literally everything in the game feels like it's waiting to fly somewhere the moment you brush against it. I had to use joy2key to set my deadzone and it helped a little bit. But it still doesn't help the world not feel like it is made out of styrofoam.

Then I got to a firefight. I duck around a corner. After figuring out how to change the view from over shoulder right to over shoulder left, (the game doesn't do this automatically) I aim at the guy coming at me and just end up firing a bunch of rounds into the wall even though my crosshairs are glowing on him, because the character does not try to change how they hold their gun to actually shoot around left corners vs right corners. You have to edge yourself out around the corner to get a shot off at anything which defeats the purpose of cover.

The enemies are all pretty generic, as is the setting. It's basically the cold, empty clinical setting of Prey, but without the bit of personality those characters provided. The gunplay is boring, the AI kind of comes at you like zombies, and the powers make the game pretty mindless and spammy.

Yet this game is getting the high reviews that games like bioshock, deus ex, witcher 3 and many others got. It really seems like a tactic to sell GTX cards. Many reviews say 'This is RTX's Killer app!' or 'The RTX game that will blow you away.' I don't know about this because I only have a GTX1080, but games like Resident Evil 2 remake and Monster Hunter World look amazing on it, whereas this game has blur all over the screen at all times, also heavy motion blur, distracting aliasing on walls, ceilings and characters even with 4xMSAA. Also odd distracting distortions all around the borders of the character, which I am assuming are due to the a poor reflection effect. A shelf in a dark corner of the room will shimmer like blackbeards treasure with every step you take towards it, because of the poor quality lighting and aliasing. It really feels like the sort of visual issues a poor ps4 port would have, but the main draw and focus to this game has been 'These graphics are so next gen'. It actually feels like everything has been toned down visually to accommodate consoles and show off RTX effects. Between all the long empty hallways and glossy floors, it feels like the game and level design is shaped by this need to show off RTX effects as much as possible. There's this need to up the graphical realism, but the setting is kind of cliche at this point and a lot of compromises are made.

On top of this, the textures will pop in randomly. There was a framed picture hanging up of my character that was so pixellated I had to walk around back and forth directly in front of the frame for 10 seconds to get it to load the full texture and finally realize it was supposed to be my character. I thought it was some kind of visual trick to make it feel like the player is hallucinating things, but no that's not intended at all. Normally I wouldn't nitpick this stuff at all but it is certainly distracting.

The game is also modeled like an open world game but without all the benefits of a rich open world like Bioshock or Prey and missing all the benefits of a tight linear action game like Soma, Uncharted and Last of Us. The exploration and backtracking aren't fun like Metroid or Deus ex, and the action parts aren't engaging like Halo, Half Life 2, or Arkham City.



If you go on Metacritic there is not a single critical review of this game except from users. Even the user score is brigaded by people giving the game solid 10's and saying the RTX is so cool and that anyone not giving the game a 10 crazy and just whiny or over reacting.

I'm not saying that this game sucks, that's up for people to decide on their own but it seriously feels like reviews are being manipulated to give this game a high score, position it as some next-gen graphics card seller and drown out genuine opinions of the game. It doesn't help that they took Epic's insurance money and chose a store that limits any discussion between users of their games. I'm sure some people could find this game enjoyable but the serious amount of hype and glowing reviews kind of made me feel cheated. Comparing this game to the classics is like comparing The Expendables or Transformers to Alien, Rambo, The Matrix or Terminator.

[bRice153]

Originally posted by telamiina:

Originally posted by bRice153:

Buy Gears 5 instead. Looks and plays better and has way more content and is way more fun.

Originally posted by bRice153:

Buy Gears 5 instead. Looks and plays better and has way more content and is way more fun.

LOL! :D Good one :P

Please prove me wrong. Tell me all the things I listed and why they are better in Control. I especially look forward to your defense that Control has more content.

[Rivers]

Top tier troll thinking gears is good
Comparing it with control is borderline rtarded, congratz on that.

[Terrapin]

The game is average at best.

[Rathori]

@OP btw, I completely agree with your comment about other games and their ratings, so I'm a bit surprised our opinions differ so much regarding Control. I guess we had different expectations for the game, or something. Makes me kinda sad you feel that way about it. IMO this game is proper GOTY material. I've finished about 90% of the game (basically, all the side quests and AFAIK I have one or two more main story missions remaining, took me about 23 hours so far), and boy am I glad I didn't skip it.

The atmosphere and the writing are top-notch, and there are some nice easter eggs to find if you're paying attention and not just rushing through the plot. Gameplay-wise it's basically a metroidvania in 3D with cool abilities, satisfying combat, tough but fair boss fights, and secrets to find.

Also this game has proper secret areas, which are completely optional, but reward you with bits of lore, bits of loot, and additional ability points--and you get more than enough of those to cover all the vital skills. So don't worry if you don't wanna go secret-hunting: you won't be at a disadvantage, it's just that with secrets you can max out literally everything.

What OP says about shooting from behind corners is not completely untrue, but only if you literally plant your face into a wall. Overall, I didn't experience any problems controlling my character. I would even say, I feel completely in control ;) Then again, I play with kb+m, maybe that's what makes the difference.

Anyway, if all you do is constantly hiding behind cover - you're playing this game wrong. This isn't Gears of War or any other cover-based shooter, for that matter. You don't need to rely on cover mechanics in Control. Instead, use your abilities and wreck everything in your path: you can TK-throw literally every object in the game that is not enormous and bolted to the floor, including (but not limited to) chairs, tables, TVs, forklifts, enemies' grenades, and even the enemies themselves (there is an exploding variety that works oh-so-nicely with this ability, hehe). And if you somehow run out of things to throw - you can rip pieces out of floors and walls and use those.

And yes, it does look freaking amazing with ray-traycing enabled, and it runs at 30-40 FPS, max settings, at 1920x1080 on RTX2060 (non-super). Or 60-70 FPS without raytracing, but the difference in graphics is worth the FPS hit, if you ask me--it is a single-player game, after all. There are also no crashes, no random FPS drops or freezes, no weird graphical issues, and no game-breaking bugs. The only problem I experienced is high-res textures not loading properly after playing for several hours, but restarting the game fixes it, and it takes a while for the issue to start happening, at least for me.

[Terrapin]

Originally posted by Rathori:

@OP btw, I completely agree with your comment about other games and their ratings, so I'm a bit surprised our opinions differ so much regarding Control. I guess we had different expectations for the game, or something. Makes me kinda sad you feel that way about it. IMO this game is proper GOTY material. I've finished about 90% of the game (basically, all the side quests and AFAIK I have one or two more main story missions remaining, took me about 23 hours so far), and boy am I glad I didn't skip it.

The atmosphere and the writing are top-notch, and there are some nice easter eggs to find if you're paying attention and not just rushing through the plot. Gameplay-wise it's basically a metroidvania in 3D with cool abilities, satisfying combat, tough but fair boss fights, and secrets to find.

Also this game has proper secret areas, which are completely optional, but reward you with bits of lore, bits of loot, and additional ability points--and you get more than enough of those to cover all the vital skills. So don't worry if you don't wanna go secret-hunting: you won't be at a disadvantage, it's just that with secrets you can max out literally everything.

What OP says about shooting from behind corners is not completely untrue, but only if you literally plant your face into a wall. Overall, I didn't experience any problems controlling my character. I would even say, I feel completely in control ;) Then again, I play with kb+m, maybe that's what makes the difference.

Anyway, if all you do is constantly hiding behind cover - you're playing this game wrong. This isn't Gears of War or any other cover-based shooter, for that matter. You don't need to rely on cover mechanics in Control. Instead, use your abilities and wreck everything in your path: you can TK-throw literally every object in the game that is not enormous and bolted to the floor, including (but not limited to) chairs, tables, TVs, forklifts, enemies' grenades, and even the enemies themselves (there is an exploding variety that works oh-so-nicely with this ability, hehe). And if you somehow run out of things to throw - you can rip pieces out of floors and walls and use those.

And yes, it does look freaking amazing with ray-traycing enabled, and it runs at 30-40 FPS, max settings, at 1920x1080 on RTX2060 (non-super). Or 60-70 FPS without raytracing, but the difference in graphics is worth the FPS hit, if you ask me--it is a single-player game, after all. There are also no crashes, no random FPS drops or freezes, no weird graphical issues, and no game-breaking bugs. The only problem I experienced is high-res textures not loading properly after playing for several hours, but restarting the game fixes it, and it takes a while for the issue to start happening, at least for me.

It's really wierd, on paper this game should have hit all my hot buttons. I am a sci-fi nerd, devoured The X-Files when they came out even bought them on dvd lol. Prey was my GOTY when it came out and I'm a System Shock fanboy. I eat this kind of stuff up.

But the game just feels stale to me.There is not a single character that I feel any attachment to. I'm not enjoying it and I am constantly being reminded that I am in a game, unlike Prey where I was completely immersed. I have got to the point where I have just beat Salvador, and Ive decided I'm done. I don't care what happens to Jessie, Dylan, what the whole plot is gonna end up being. I wish I liked it more, I just don't.

Edit: I forgot, do like the janitor, he is the one character I enjoy. I was almost gonna finish the game just to see what role he ends up playing in the whole scheme of things. :)

[Syllo C-137]

No idea how anyone can see it as GOTY material, all the GOTY qualities evaporate as soon as you compare this game to any other decent this years AAA release. Hell, even FFXV is more of a GOTY material than this, even Noctis had more character than most characters in Control.
Now lets pick something decent like DMC5
It has a lot better characters
Lot more satisfying combat, not saying Control's combat is bad, but it's just a bracket or two below
Bosses in comparison are like a night and day
impactful character progression compared to joke upgrade system Control has
Level design
Audio
Performance
Visual details
I could keep going, but you should see the point, all it has is interesting setting, rtx, great physics and okish story execution.

[telamiina]

Originally posted by SmoKing:

No idea how anyone can see it as GOTY material, all the GOTY qualities evaporate as soon as you compare this game to any other decent this years AAA release. Hell, even FFXV is more of a GOTY material than this, even Noctis had more character than most characters in Control.
Now lets pick something decent like DMC5
It has a lot better characters
Lot more satisfying combat, not saying Control's combat is bad, but it's just a bracket or two below
Bosses in comparison are like a night and day
impactful character progression compared to joke upgrade system Control has
Level design
Audio
Performance
Visual details
I could keep going, but you should see the point, all it has is interesting setting, rtx, great physics and okish story execution.

It is subjective as I think DMC5 is quite a joke. Fun for few moments but just a joke.

[Syllo C-137]

Originally posted by telamiina:

Originally posted by SmoKing:

No idea how anyone can see it as GOTY material, all the GOTY qualities evaporate as soon as you compare this game to any other decent this years AAA release. Hell, even FFXV is more of a GOTY material than this, even Noctis had more character than most characters in Control.
Now lets pick something decent like DMC5
It has a lot better characters
Lot more satisfying combat, not saying Control's combat is bad, but it's just a bracket or two below
Bosses in comparison are like a night and day
impactful character progression compared to joke upgrade system Control has
Level design
Audio
Performance
Visual details
I could keep going, but you should see the point, all it has is interesting setting, rtx, great physics and okish story execution.

It is subjective as I think DMC5 is quite a joke. Fun for few moments but just a joke.

Subjective is calling a 9/10 user rated game a joke - that's real Kotaku level feedback.
If you have nothing constructive to say, don't say anything.

[telamiina]

Originally posted by SmoKing:

Originally posted by telamiina:

It is subjective as I think DMC5 is quite a joke. Fun for few moments but just a joke.

Subjective is calling a 9/10 user rated game a joke - that's real Kotaku level feedback.
If you have nothing constructive to say, don't say anything.

So you don't like my subjective opinion. Why?
I don't mind if you like that , I did not as it was over the top kids arcade in my point of view.
As I don't care for your Control opinion. You have right to feel that.
I have my own opinion about that game to.

[Syllo C-137]

Originally posted by telamiina:

Originally posted by SmoKing:

Subjective is calling a 9/10 user rated game a joke - that's real Kotaku level feedback.
If you have nothing constructive to say, don't say anything.

So you don't like my subjective opinion. Why?
I don't mind if you like that , I did not as it was over the top kids arcade in my point of view.
As I don't care for your Control opinion. You have right to feel that.
I have my own opinion about that game to.

I've literally no idea what are you trying to say or prove, you haven't even said anything which contradicts my first comment, so stop writing at the level of offended child and write something constructive if you want me to take you seriously

[telamiina]

Originally posted by SmoKing:

Originally posted by telamiina:

So you don't like my subjective opinion. Why?
I don't mind if you like that , I did not as it was over the top kids arcade in my point of view.
As I don't care for your Control opinion. You have right to feel that.
I have my own opinion about that game to.

I've literally no idea what are you trying to say or prove, you haven't even said anything which contradicts my first comment, so stop writing at the level of offended child and write something constructive if you want me to take you seriously

Well if you don't understand basic stuff like subjective opinion... Well it makes me think more about that child and offended feelings in your end.
I think these basic social structures and philosophy come at high school in US, at least in later in higher education systems.

So study hard! :D

[Syllo C-137]

Originally posted by telamiina:

Originally posted by SmoKing:

I've literally no idea what are you trying to say or prove, you haven't even said anything which contradicts my first comment, so stop writing at the level of offended child and write something constructive if you want me to take you seriously

Well if you don't understand basic stuff like subjective opinion... Well it makes me think more about that child and offended feelings in your end.
I think these basic social structures and philosophy come at high school in US, at least in later in higher education systems.

So study hard! :D

5 years old child: "I like the green icecream because it's tastier, but not the brown one because it tastes funny"
You: "It is subjective as I think DMC5 is quite a joke. Fun for few moments but just a joke."

[MasterZoen]

Well, I'm late to this party, eh?

In regards to the OPs original post, I think he was playing this as a cover shooter with a controller. The controls with keyboard and mouse feel great to me, not perfect, but very smooth. I'd say you should disable any cursor acceleration if you're seeing jerky movements.

I'm used to playing stealthy in games so I was very similar to the OP in that I tried to stay out of the open and I got rekt repeatedly for it until I finally realized this was a "gung-ho guns blazing kill 'em all" kind of game. I am embarrassed to say it took me a good 15 or so deaths to make this realization considering the most dangerous attacks, such as rockets, are very slow so you can dodge or run away from them.

Also, I've been flanked by the AI too many times to count, literally having them come up behind me because the used a staircase to go up to the second level, cross the room, and then down the stairs behind me. They've never simply rushed me like zombies. While I can agree that the non-boss enemies are all the same, with only around 2 or 3 models for an enemy type and some enemies only having 1 model period, the bosses are all different in appearance and personality, and tend to play differently as well.

Jesse doesn't change her aiming method when changing the shoulder look as she always aims from the right, much like a right handed person would. I feel like the left/right shoulder mechanism is just for personal visual preference. I remember that some games would put the character head on the right side, giving you a more open view since the weapon wasn't in the middle of the screen. This of course means if you are looking around the left corner of a wall, she will shoot the wall in front of her. Funnily enough, she doesn't aim well over railings when looking down, either. This game doesn't have a "take cover" mechanic aside from crouching and hiding behind stuff and unless the object your hiding behind is a big wall you can still be hit. Of course, you can still hit enemies that are crouching behind a low wall as well so the game isn't picking on the player. It's just meant to be played in a "charge in and destroy everything" manner.

I have an RTX 2080 and a 1080p monitor and GeForce Experience has set everything to Ultra and all the RTX stuff On. The game just looks gorgeous, and I mean gorgeous, with the art style being perfect for this. The shiny floors show enemies around the corner, the glass windows have transparent reflections of Jessie, the flood lights blind you at certain angles. It's truly beautiful. Just to check the OP's opinion I loaded the game up with no RTX and I can say with certainty that the game looks dull and unimpressive without the RTX stuff. Imagine, a game that was literally made to look good on certain hardware doesn't happen to look as good on different hardware. Oh, well, them's the breaks.

Texture pop in is definitely something I noticed as well, but it's certainly not worse than any other game that I've noticed it in. It usually loaded in a second or so after I noticed it was fuzzy. That's a limitation of hardware and game engine optimization. As to the issue with the OP waiting 15 seconds... *Shrug* I'd blame his HDD or iCUE running in the background.

The game is obviously a corridor-style destructible sandbox with some large open-feeling level areas, so I'm not sure why he's saying it's modeled as an open-world. Furthermore, neither BioShock nor Prey were open world games either, unless he means BioShock Infinite? They too were corridor shooters that had some large level areas to play around in, but certainly weren't open world.

As to rating, I'm pretty sure I'll be giving GOTY to Cyberpunk. This game is great and I'd give it a solid 8 out of 10. Maybe a 9, since I've only just returned from the quarry and haven't played with many of the mechanics yet. I never liked the X-Files so that vibe doesn't appeal to me in this game, and several of the characters are tripping the "Uncanny Valley" feel for me. Especially Pope. WTF is wrong with her mouth? It's like her teeth are too recessed or something.

Side note: Out of curiosity, I also decided to play in DX11 mode instead of DX12, and it didn't feel nearly as nice. I noticed what the OP was talking about with stuff just flying away if you tapped it and things getting stuck in walls. This game heavily leverages DX12 code and the RTX cards to make a good game experience.

Edit:
Found a good video that shows the visual differences in this game between RTX an no RTX as well as the perfomance hit of the settings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blbu0g9DAGA

[Sokurah]

Its a halfway solid game but no masterpiece or 10/10.

Thats the Problem with game rating these days. It seems you need to love or hate a game.

Its a solid 7. Great sale material. You can have fun with it but its nothing amazingly new or mindblowing.

[Annihilator Lyza]

its a good game i loved it but its not goty material imo