It's time to take Control! (Control review)

     Take Control home with you, that is. For those of you not familiar, Control is a single player third person shooter, though reducing it to that is a great disservice. It's without a doubt one of the most bizarre and interesting games I've played, and it does that on purpose. You start out the game knowing almost nothing about your character, Jesse Faden, other than she was brought to this building, The Oldest House, by a voice in her head to look for her missing brother. Soon, you're wrapped up in a weird plot where Jesse, a visitor to the Federal Bureau of Control, becomes the director of this federal agency for the Supernatural where she's tasked with containing the spread of a parasitic force known as "the Hiss" which has contaminated the building and taken over the minds of former FBC employees.

    Jesse's life is really interesting, and as such, she's treated as a strange character. She makes reference to being on the run, visiting motels, and hiding constantly, but from the beginning, you don't know what she's running from and it's only revealed later on in her conversations with Emily. The amazing thing about the story in this game is that you're tasked with cleaning up this magical, constantly shifting building which could easily support a game even lacking in story, but it is actually so interesting that it keeps you invested in unraveling the mystery of Jesse's life. It is poetic, in a way. As you discover more and more shifting rooms and departments of The Oldest House, you discover more about Jesse.

    So far I've only talked about Jesse, and that's because she's the main character and does most of the heavy lifting as far as the plot goes. The narrative involves a lot of introspection on her part, characterized by her talking to herself, or her celestial being friend, Polaris. The other characters are largely absent, with most of the important characters being either dead, only being seen in live action videos you find around The Oldest House, or twisted into monsters by the Hiss. Notable exceptions are Emily Pope, who acts as Jesse's main ally in the Bureau, Ahti, the Janitor who is the strangest character by far, but also my favorite (and also seems to be the only one who kind of understands what is happening), and there are several less important characters as well. Just because a character is dead doesn't mean they're out of the game, however. Trench, the director of the FBC before Jesse, will call her on a phone that allows Jesse to talk to the dead as well as The Board, a mystical force that is battling the hiss, and also seems to be the spirit within The Oldest House. I say spirit within the house because the house acts almost as a character by itself, with the structure constantly changing as you free different sections from the control of the Hiss.

   Throughout the game, you encounter many supernatural items, including a pink Flamingo that floats around, a carousel horse that moves around on its own, a mirror containing it's own parallel universe, a Floppy Disk with the ability to pick up and throw objects telepathically, and many more. Objects of Power (OOPs) and Altered Items are all interesting and they're supposed to be kept in one area of the Oldest House, meaning that you don't even get to see what all of them do. Sometimes you'll just see a grill sitting in a cell, then later you'll find a record of a grill that just set fires all around it (just for example). At the very beginning of the game, you find a report of things that are prohibited within The Oldest House, some of which make sense like video game devices, but then at the bottom of the list it also says #2 pencils. This is just a taste of what bizarre things can be found throughout the game and it does a great job of making the player ask, "What exactly am I getting into?"

    Have you ever played a game that is so interesting that it makes you want to play something else made by the developer of that game? I ask because Control is actually directly tied to a game that Remedy created for the Xbox 360 called Alan Wake. The connection to that game is extremely vague, but it seems that what happened in that game (which I haven't played, so I can't tell you exactly what it is other than it is a psychological thriller which was advertised on the box for it) was an Altered World Event, which is a paranormal event that takes place due to the presence of an Altered Item or an Object of power. What's even more exciting about this connection is that apparently the second DLC for the game (which just came out in the last few weeks) actually delves into the connection between the two games, and seems to hint at a future game which will also be set in this universe. Remedy also recently discussed that the next game they're working on is actually being set in this universe. It says something about this game that it lends itself to such an interesting partnership which could extend to a whole world of supernatural phenomena. Perhaps it's not too far fetched to see Jesse in the future showing up at the end of another game, recruiting someone to be a part of a team, Nick Fury style. I think at that point I would have to simply stand up and cheer.

    I loved every moment of this game. Tracking down all of the different Altered Items scattered around the house was never a chore because it was so interesting to see what all they could do. Jesse's relationship to the bureau and finding a place where she could feel at home was a beautiful touch to what could have easily concluded with her just saving her brother and hitting the happy trail. I'm actually currently playing this game through for the second time and I think it might be even better now that I understand what the game is about. Despite some frame rate issues and graphical weirdness (which I know is mostly because I'm playing the game on my base PS4, and also why I'm definitely buying the version for "Next Gen" hardware), this game is a supernaturally good time (get it?), and one that definitely shouldn't be passed up on. If you haven't bought the game, I would say go for the Ultimate Edition which just came out because it comes with both DLC packs that were released (The Foundation and AWE) as well as the added perk of getting a Next Gen upgrade which the original release unfortunately will not be receiving.

    I hope this post has shown how interesting this game is, and hopefully encouraged you to try it out for yourself. I left a lot of things really vague on purpose, as a lot of the game is so crazy that you would definitely just get a lot more out of it by seeing it than me just explaining it to you. Thanks so much for reading, and I hope you all have a good day.