Control

Remedy's latest project, Control, got a release date of August 27th 2019 and I couldn't find a thread here for it (could be the new search system though?) so I'm making my own.

From the company that brought us Max Payne, Alan Wake, and Quantum Break, CONTROL follows Jesse Faden as she enters the Federal Bureau of Control (F.B.C.), a governmental extension of the United States' F.B.I. specifically designated to deal with supernatural experiences, for an interview. But things go wrong as The Oldest House, the FBC's base of operations and a mysterious physics breaking multi-dimensional entity in it's own right, is overrun by a supernatural force called the Hiss and Jesse is made the new Director through chain of command falling apart. Now Jesse, equipped with telekinesis and a keen mind, must journey through the Bureau's departments to cleanse them of the Hiss, solve the mystery of what's going on, and reestablish CONTROL.

Expansion been annouced

Think there's a thread called "Control - From the makers of Alan Wake"; but TBH this game blows it out of the water.

Haven't tried expeditions as they're basically just arenas... but this looks like it'll be great fun! More creepy. More freak stuff. Hopefully some more about how they fight the Hiss.

Yeah, I made it, right here. Though apparently this thread predates it by a few months.

Well this one is here... will see if the Admins declare a priority!

Looks like they're carrying out the prior director's orders... which seems a terrible idea as he was VERY MUCH COMPROMISED. Wonder how it'll pan out. Wonder if we'll get new powers or just upgrades to the existing ones.

Edited by JerekLaz on Mar 17th 2020 at 3:41:42 AM

I created the original. Don't care which thread takes priority as long as we have a place to discuss it.

Wish the trailer told me more about what the DLC is though. I'm not getting a great feel for the new story here. Not that the DLC isn't going to bad bad (Though I can't buy it until the game is out on PC), I just don't care much for the trailer.

Next expansion trailer teasing Alan Wake crossover

Need to finish the first DLC - Foundation. It's fun... sort of? Just not finding it as compelling as the main game, which was the right amount of SCP weird.

Being stuck in the Astral is a bit boring.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I'M SO EXCITED!

ALAN HAS FINALLY WOKEN UP AGAIN! <3

Can't quite believe I never looked for nor happened across a thread for this game before, because I love this game, easily game of the year for me last year.

Currently playing through Alan Wake (it was dirt cheap on Steam a while back, I'd have played it when it was first out if I'd owned an Xbox), and finding it... nothing like as good as Control. I want to know what the story is with Wake though, before I play AWE.

Alan Wake is one of my favorite video games. Just, not comparable to Control though. It's very much a 2010 game. Had a lot of horror concepts I wish more games played with though.

Yeah, my problems with Alan Wake are primarily control- (sic) and combat-related. Dodging enemy attacks is very imprecise, and close quarters is to be avoided, but encounters almost always take place in tight areas where you don't have room to manoeuvre around the often almost overwhelming numbers of enemies. Some encounters had me yelling in frustration. I think you're supposed to run from some encounters, but the game doesn't clearly communicate which ones, and it's not always practical anyway (see manoeuvrability).

Or maybe a lot of this is me playing a 2010 game for the first time in 2020. Control is certainly a much tighter game.

The actual horror elements of Alan Wake are really cool, and what got me interested in the game way back in the first place. It's also cool to see, as someone playing Alan Wake after playing Control, how much of the lore is already in place, or how well it fits at least. A character last night referred to somewhere as a 'place of power' :D

Edited by artfulscruff on Aug 8th 2020 at 10:46:49 AM

I am going to buy and play Control solely to play the Alan Wake sections.

Well, frankly, I don't know if that's wise, if that's the metric you're going to judge the game by. Easy to forget now, since the game has been in the wild for a year, but it wasn't known that the games shared a universe until after release. The main game has no direct connection to Alan Wake, only a handful of easter egg-type documents and secrets, the Foundation doesn't reference it at all, and from what we know of AWE it seems to me that while Alan Wake will be part of it, it's not going to be the focus.

That said, Control is a great game in its own right; just, if you're playing it purely for the Alan Wake connection, chances are you're gonna be left wanting.

I can't remember that many times in the game you have tight encounter locations, but maybe I'm wrong. But, yes, much of the gameplay IS about managing the enemies on the field and learning how to keep them all in view before you're killed from behind. As for dodging, it's smooth when you figure out the tell; if they've started to swing and would hit you, dodging will work fine.

As for the lore, no, none of it was in place at the time. The "place of power" was just... a common phrasing. Stab enough times in the dark and you might eventually hit something... a decade later.

I am confused about how AWE is handling it a bit. Some say "it's not the focus" but... they haven't exactly shown what IS the focus besides Alan Wake? They haven't shown much and the trailer is kinda lack luster. I'm mostly excited from what they teased over what they actually showed.

https://controlgame.com/expansion-2-awe-launches-august-27th/

Exploring "numerous" AW Es is what makes me think that the Bright Falls AWE won't be the focus as such, but certainly it'll be important, else what's the point? :P

I'm kinda hoping, though I don't think it will happen, that we visit some of the actual AWE locations. My first thought was there wasn't a way to get there that would make sense, but then I remembered the Oceanview Motel exists :D

Might also be nice to see some enemies that aren't Hiss or Astral Spikes. From the look of things, whatever this 'mysterious being' is, I don't think it's Hiss.

Edited by artfulscruff on Aug 8th 2020 at 9:11:47 AM

Right, but would they really put Alan in the trailer and the poster if he wasn't relevant? Honestly, I'm guessing that the Dark Presence has made its way into the corners of the Oldest House. Possibly as the cost for Alan trying to get something out to whomever... which will probably be Jesse.

I thought about getting out of the Oldest House, but I ultimately would rather hold on that until the sequel. I think the best way to open the sequel would be Jesse and a few agents being summoned out to a live AWE going on and we'll get a concrete view on the changes Jesse has made to FBC policy on the way. And being outside and in normal locations would be a dramatic location shift for an opening.

I never said he wouldn't be relevant, I just think there might be other things going on too.

Edited by artfulscruff on Aug 8th 2020 at 11:04:51 AM

Sorry. Relevant wasn't the right word and I sound aggressive in that post. If he wasn't center stage or super important.

I'm not quite sure Control could really handle Alan Wake's combat mechanics though.

Why not? And why would it need to?

(sorry, I feel like I sound aggressive now :P)

I assume you mean if there are Taken enemies in the game, and the game engine has no provision for light-based combat maybe? If AWE does have Taken enemies, my concern would be that they'd be really boring compared to Hiss.

Control has very fast mobile gameplay which doesn't mesh well with Alan Wake's more slow and enemy-management form of dealing with it. It also fits the atmosphere better; you can't just shoot the horror until it dies and have to 'face' it until the opportunity to shoot it comes.

And, let's be real, the Hiss aren't THAT different from the Taken. Conceptually, they're basically the same. Different aesthetics but very very similar.

On top of that, a big chunk of Control's gameplay involved being a super-hero with telekinesis and shields and literally picking up your enemies to throw them at each other and... that just kinda ruins the Taken a bit. They'd outright have to make the Taken immune to those powers and that might just make the gameplay less 'fun'.

However, with so many improvements to lighting in modern video games, I would LOVE to see the light mechanics in a 2021+ game. That could be so cool.

I mean, yeah, I wouldn't expect to have Jesse forced to fight the same way Alan had to, and I also feel that the Taken would be a trivial threat for Jesse. I don't really expect to see Taken in AWE at all though, unless there's some new type.

And yeah, conceptually the Hiss and the Taken aren't so different (both being possessed or corrupted humans), it's just the end result that's different.

That's what I mean. Jesse is too powerful to really be able to use the light gameplay mechanics Alan had unless we REALLY do some gameplay changes (Throw them into shafts of light before having to kill them?) and she otherwise feels too powerful. Alan's experience was terrifying because all you had was a flashlight and a gun. And the gun was something they were explicitly immune to.

They'd probably have to remake the Taken in some way to make them play to Jesse's gameplay better.

I just... don't know how they'd work Alan in without the Taken though. Alan is too intimately tied to them and he is utterly disconnected from the Hiss.

Maybe Hiss that have been taken by the Dark Presence??? So we have most of the same gameplay with the added gimmick of the light thing?

I also wonder if Thomas Zane will show up.

BTW, Any word on the PC release? Steam says August 2020 and I'm considering just waiting until I can replay on PC instead of getting out my PS 4 again.

The steam release is supposed to come out on the 27th, same day as the DLC.

And The Fandom Rejoiced!

Edited by InkDagger on Aug 9th 2020 at 5:58:33 AM