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CONTROL |OT| Welcome to This Oldest House of Leaves
- Thread starter nihilence
- Start date
so i just killed mold-1, what an utterly annoying fight. i think i've been sleeping on how useful the shield is, and in this particular fight you can take multiple hits with it up and just totally tank those hits.
yep. i've been spending a whole lotta time on the astral plane lately. & greatly enjoying it...
Just wrapped it up. I have two (I think?) side quests to complete, which I'll go back and do.
Overall, I loved it. I loved Control. Remedy have such a unique fingerprint on design, direction, and presentation that Control goes all in for, and it's so wonderful to have their trademark dry humour and love for the surreal noir smeared all over this. It's such a strong direction, and really helps keep Remedy right up there as a developer with a unique, unmistakable brand and style in all their works.
Working to the game's strength is absolutely the combat system and encounters. Shooting, moving, and using abilities is responsive and satisfying. I have no idea how console folk manage, but on PC encounters come alive thanks to the emphasis on mobility and fast shooting. It's one of the very few games I've played in a good bunch of years where full mobility in combat is actively encouraged and reward. Remedy did a superb job of balancing the power control and enemy accuracy to keep the player mobile and not feel like you're going to get shot in the open. Almost every encounter in the game is an absolute thrill to play.
I loved the dry, cold, corporate direction of the narrative. And I get that it isn't for everyone, an odd emotionlessness to much of the pacing and engagements, but I'm convinced it's a deliberate choice to contrast against the otherworldly supernatural themes playing against the characters. I adored communicating with The Board, concepts like the Hotline, the Trench projected communications, and the strange clinical sterility that you'd expect to find in a classically government bureaucracy, particularly in their language and presentation of what is otherwise absurd, incredible concepts. It gives the entire game this rich identity that's unlike anything out there. And I don't want to spoil any moment, but Remedy is just so unique at how they handle certain set pieces and interactive visual sequences. The less said the better.
And man, does Remedy's engine do laps. I played maxed out, no ray tracing, at 1440p and I was just continuously blown away by what was going on. Remedy's attention to detail in destructive props is exactly what every shooter needs, as it gives weapons and abilities a believably rich presence in the game world. It excites and thrills every time you shoot or throw or explode something, and elevates every encounter as a result. So many games out there are sterile in comparison, and Remedy's work follows in the footsteps of the likes of FEAR and Killzone 2 where effort is put into making the places you fight just as lively and active as the enemies. Remedy's lighting and shading model is out of this world, their use of dithering on certain effects and LOD scaling, it all comes together to create an outrageously good image. So much of what is going on here is amongst the best looking real time 3D environments I've ever played, Quantum Break was similar, and I cannot wait to see what this engine does next generation.
Working against the title were three points, I guess.
1) Checkpoints. Everyone complains about them, for good reason. I actually really like the structure of the game including the checkpointing, but there's no denying some extra checkpoints needed to be thrown in closer to certain stretches of game, namely some of those climatic side quests.
2) The ending, without spoiling, was a little bit flat in some areas. I'm suspicious if Remedy ran out of production time and had to fast track some ideas that would have otherwise been told through interactive play, like literally 99% of the rest of the game, because there's some fast tracked pre-rendered cutscenes stuck in there to bring pieces together. It's not awful by any stretch of the imagination, but it does feel a bit rushed and anticlimatic in the production and execution of how some of it comes together (other parts though are great).
3) Bugs. Because I had like....none, for the entire game, until the fucking end. One near end game sequence was supposed to have a cutscene that lead into a climatic fight sequence (think: radar dishes), only the cutscene didn't play out in full, I lost control of my character, couldn't take damage, and had to quit/load. The game then glitched out and skipped half the climatic fight, loading me in with a checkpoint halfway through. Had to watch the unfolding sequences on YouTube. I then had, post this fight, the loading screen stall and lock up. I had to ALT-F4 out. Loading back in put me at the nearest checkpoint, which was not what was supposed to happen, as it the game was to load in the next area. Thankfully using the fast travel seemed to debug the issue and triggered the cutscenes and loaded area that should have automatically played. Both of these issues happening right in the home stretch damped the impact of experiencing the organic flow of events.
But yes, otherwise Control is absolutely some of the most fun I've had all year. It's definitely up there with the likes of Resident Evil 2 as one of those games I was just utterly hooked on right from the start and couldn't put down. Today is a Sunday, and I had no other obligations, so I think I've literally played like....12 hours today alone. And it was all worth it, to see it through.
Super excited for the DLC, to see where they take this premise and narrative. And super excited for Remedy's future, in their trademark style, Control as a franchise, and their rendering technology. I just hope Control gets the support it deserves.
Overall, I loved it. I loved Control. Remedy have such a unique fingerprint on design, direction, and presentation that Control goes all in for, and it's so wonderful to have their trademark dry humour and love for the surreal noir smeared all over this. It's such a strong direction, and really helps keep Remedy right up there as a developer with a unique, unmistakable brand and style in all their works.
Working to the game's strength is absolutely the combat system and encounters. Shooting, moving, and using abilities is responsive and satisfying. I have no idea how console folk manage, but on PC encounters come alive thanks to the emphasis on mobility and fast shooting. It's one of the very few games I've played in a good bunch of years where full mobility in combat is actively encouraged and reward. Remedy did a superb job of balancing the power control and enemy accuracy to keep the player mobile and not feel like you're going to get shot in the open. Almost every encounter in the game is an absolute thrill to play.
I loved the dry, cold, corporate direction of the narrative. And I get that it isn't for everyone, an odd emotionlessness to much of the pacing and engagements, but I'm convinced it's a deliberate choice to contrast against the otherworldly supernatural themes playing against the characters. I adored communicating with The Board, concepts like the Hotline, the Trench projected communications, and the strange clinical sterility that you'd expect to find in a classically government bureaucracy, particularly in their language and presentation of what is otherwise absurd, incredible concepts. It gives the entire game this rich identity that's unlike anything out there. And I don't want to spoil any moment, but Remedy is just so unique at how they handle certain set pieces and interactive visual sequences. The less said the better.
And man, does Remedy's engine do laps. I played maxed out, no ray tracing, at 1440p and I was just continuously blown away by what was going on. Remedy's attention to detail in destructive props is exactly what every shooter needs, as it gives weapons and abilities a believably rich presence in the game world. It excites and thrills every time you shoot or throw or explode something, and elevates every encounter as a result. So many games out there are sterile in comparison, and Remedy's work follows in the footsteps of the likes of FEAR and Killzone 2 where effort is put into making the places you fight just as lively and active as the enemies. Remedy's lighting and shading model is out of this world, their use of dithering on certain effects and LOD scaling, it all comes together to create an outrageously good image. So much of what is going on here is amongst the best looking real time 3D environments I've ever played, Quantum Break was similar, and I cannot wait to see what this engine does next generation.
Working against the title were three points, I guess.
1) Checkpoints. Everyone complains about them, for good reason. I actually really like the structure of the game including the checkpointing, but there's no denying some extra checkpoints needed to be thrown in closer to certain stretches of game, namely some of those climatic side quests.
2) The ending, without spoiling, was a little bit flat in some areas. I'm suspicious if Remedy ran out of production time and had to fast track some ideas that would have otherwise been told through interactive play, like literally 99% of the rest of the game, because there's some fast tracked pre-rendered cutscenes stuck in there to bring pieces together. It's not awful by any stretch of the imagination, but it does feel a bit rushed and anticlimatic in the production and execution of how some of it comes together (other parts though are great).
3) Bugs. Because I had like....none, for the entire game, until the fucking end. One near end game sequence was supposed to have a cutscene that lead into a climatic fight sequence (think: radar dishes), only the cutscene didn't play out in full, I lost control of my character, couldn't take damage, and had to quit/load. The game then glitched out and skipped half the climatic fight, loading me in with a checkpoint halfway through. Had to watch the unfolding sequences on YouTube. I then had, post this fight, the loading screen stall and lock up. I had to ALT-F4 out. Loading back in put me at the nearest checkpoint, which was not what was supposed to happen, as it the game was to load in the next area. Thankfully using the fast travel seemed to debug the issue and triggered the cutscenes and loaded area that should have automatically played. Both of these issues happening right in the home stretch damped the impact of experiencing the organic flow of events.
But yes, otherwise Control is absolutely some of the most fun I've had all year. It's definitely up there with the likes of Resident Evil 2 as one of those games I was just utterly hooked on right from the start and couldn't put down. Today is a Sunday, and I had no other obligations, so I think I've literally played like....12 hours today alone. And it was all worth it, to see it through.
Super excited for the DLC, to see where they take this premise and narrative. And super excited for Remedy's future, in their trademark style, Control as a franchise, and their rendering technology. I just hope Control gets the support it deserves.
I basically agree with everything you said, although I will defend the Control Points as checkpoints! Especially because all your progress before you die is saved and many key fights are acutally segmented, so if you get to a point and die, even though you have to walk back there, you won't have to fight everything again.
But that's a detail honestly. I think the strong points of the game you highlight is what makes it so special. The game has a lot of... identity to it. The combat focus on mobity, the overall weirdness, Remedy's signature approach to storytelling and game design. There has been some comparison with other games in this thread, but for me they are more superficial than anything. Control felt very fresh to me.
One thing that I might add that I was pleasantly surprised was the level design. When I heard Control would follow a more metroidvania approach I was excited. But at the same time, I didn't had much expectations for it. I still expected a game with roughly linear approach that branched out a bit more, yet the level design in Control was incredible. When you get the float ability in particular (which I will say might be one of the greatest abilities in a metroidvania I ever played) you realize how the levels open up. How they come together nicely and gives you room for exploration and discovery.
At first I didn't understand that the control points both healed you fully and served as a respawn checkpoint, and got caught out a couple of times. But once I understood the system I didn't have any problems.
This game was not on my radar at all. Haven't played any of Remedy's games before either.
It was the raving on the bombcast and beastcast that got me to try it. I find a lot of games don't do the reading material collectible stuff all that well, so hearing how much of it was in the game was initially a turn off, but I decided to be open minded and it's just so well done.
The world is so bloody intriguing, I can't stop thinking about it. I've gotten used to the gunplay and with the powers I've unlocked so far, I'm having an absolute blast. It's very quickly creeping up to the top of my goty list.
Playing on a PS4 Pro and it's the first time I've really wished I had a PC or felt the absolute need of next gen. I've had many large fights that crawl at single digit frame rates on the pro, can't imagine how bad it is on the base consoles. That really needs to be addressed. But despite that I'm still just having so much fun in the world.
I hope they re-release this next gen, cause I feel it would shine on Scarlett/PS5.
From nowhere to near goty for me in less than a week, I love these kind of surprises. Well done Remedy, I hope the rest of the game maintains this feeling, if so I'm so in for whatever you guys do next!
Another gripe: the checkpoint system is not good. Hasn't been too much of an issue, since I haven't died all that often, but when it reverts me back super far, it's just not good.
It was the raving on the bombcast and beastcast that got me to try it. I find a lot of games don't do the reading material collectible stuff all that well, so hearing how much of it was in the game was initially a turn off, but I decided to be open minded and it's just so well done.
The world is so bloody intriguing, I can't stop thinking about it. I've gotten used to the gunplay and with the powers I've unlocked so far, I'm having an absolute blast. It's very quickly creeping up to the top of my goty list.
Playing on a PS4 Pro and it's the first time I've really wished I had a PC or felt the absolute need of next gen. I've had many large fights that crawl at single digit frame rates on the pro, can't imagine how bad it is on the base consoles. That really needs to be addressed. But despite that I'm still just having so much fun in the world.
I hope they re-release this next gen, cause I feel it would shine on Scarlett/PS5.
From nowhere to near goty for me in less than a week, I love these kind of surprises. Well done Remedy, I hope the rest of the game maintains this feeling, if so I'm so in for whatever you guys do next!
Another gripe: the checkpoint system is not good. Hasn't been too much of an issue, since I haven't died all that often, but when it reverts me back super far, it's just not good.
I haven't finished the game but having so much fun I think it's 85 MetaCritic for PC reviews should be even higher. Literally everything in this game feels amazing. Combat, exploration, story etc.
When your current mission objective is "go to the maze thing" :)
Just started this on PS4. I heard about the performance but the games sounds pretty awesome so I figure I'll persevere.
Sorry if this has been asked a lot but I'm just in the first combat encounters and when I hit L2 to aim the character's head completely blocks the middle of the screen so I can't see what I'm shooting, is there an option or something that fixes this?
Sorry if this has been asked a lot but I'm just in the first combat encounters and when I hit L2 to aim the character's head completely blocks the middle of the screen so I can't see what I'm shooting, is there an option or something that fixes this?
I think if you press down on the d-pad to swap shoulders it should fix it.
I took a pic on X and was like WTF?!? It actually is shiny. Looks shiny in darker places and more light you add makes it a kinda mustard colour.
I'll spoiler the suit just in case.
I took a pic on X and was like WTF?!? It actually is shiny. Looks shiny in darker places and more light you add makes it a kinda mustard colour.
I'll spoiler the suit just in case.
I can't help but no note again how awesome the detail in the back is.
controls (ha) feel floaty, using a controller on PC.
is this normal? is there a fix?
there's just, like, no weight to Jesse's moves
is this normal? is there a fix?
there's just, like, no weight to Jesse's moves
If you're playing on base ps4 I'd love to hear your impressions. I'm at the point you were before bitting the bullet :p
This was probably the hardest boss for me in the main game. Launching those explosive things hanging from the ceiling at it seems to do the most damage to it, so I made sure to use those before it dragged them all down from the ceiling and onto my head.
I finished the game last night, and very much enjoyed it and is definitely up there for one of my favorites of the year.
Control did a really good job of making me never lose interest in the story, characters, locations, combat and all of its other systems. I had a blast going through each environment and always doing some exploration to find some side content as well as coming back later once I had a new power or higher security clearance to enter areas I couldn't before, and of course using the various powers and weapon forms for fighting and seeing the destruction happen around me when fights got pretty intense, and also just seeing the story unfold and getting more out of all of the characters. I'm really interested to see what the expansions will be like. The only real negatives for me were the checkpoints and then the general performance issues, but it wasn't enough to completely drag down my enjoyment of the game.
Control did a really good job of making me never lose interest in the story, characters, locations, combat and all of its other systems. I had a blast going through each environment and always doing some exploration to find some side content as well as coming back later once I had a new power or higher security clearance to enter areas I couldn't before, and of course using the various powers and weapon forms for fighting and seeing the destruction happen around me when fights got pretty intense, and also just seeing the story unfold and getting more out of all of the characters. I'm really interested to see what the expansions will be like. The only real negatives for me were the checkpoints and then the general performance issues, but it wasn't enough to completely drag down my enjoyment of the game.
Holy shit the Ashtray Maze was amazing, I pretty much had a feeling it would be as soon as the music kicked in and everything around me started shifting. The Maze is by far one of my favorite gaming moments of the year and probably the generation as a whole. I also loved the mission before when you're following Ahti's visions, especially when you go through the Quarry to get to the Restricted Area.
I finally beat it today. Solid 7 out of 10 for me. Fun enough to play but I didn't care for the story and there are way too many bugs and performance issues. The freaking start menu even lags. The game crashed on me when i beat it, so I'm not sure if i missed any extra story bits or not. The map is terrible.
Im going to keep playing some of the side missions.
Im going to keep playing some of the side missions.
for this boss i litrerally just used shield to avoid getting damaged by the tentacles when they try to smash you and then used Spin with armor damage mods to unload on their weak points to destroy them. then did the same thing to the main head. when i got the technique down i only took about 5 minutes or so to beat it.
I expected more of them, but I thought they were fine. esseJ was absolutely incredible however. Loved ti.
they're either way too easy or you get stuck in a dark room with effects covering half your screen and exploding spores everywhere while the floor turns to lava and you need to be aiming and dodging tentacles
Thanks everyone, done it now. It was pretty great
True. The audio recordings in particular were an extremely nice touch.
well i would say that i have one thing left to do to 100% the game, but with the epic game store's lack of achievements system i cant goddamn tell!
Got the plat. What a incredible game. I only didn't like the bosses in this game. Fighting them was kinda uninteresting. Could have done more in this regard. I can just can't get enough of flying in the air, catching a rocket mid air and throw that baby back to blow them up. So satisfying.
Overall 9/10 and my Goty so far (sry Daysgone) Now I can finally dive in Astral chain ;)
Overall 9/10 and my Goty so far (sry Daysgone) Now I can finally dive in Astral chain ;)
Finished the game (absolutely loved it, btw), with only a single mission left unfinished. If you've finished the game, you probably know the one.
Anyone have any tips on cheesing it? I've died enough times that I just want it done at this point.
Mr. Tommasi.
Anyone have any tips on cheesing it? I've died enough times that I just want it done at this point.
by the end of the game when you've got all your powers it makes everything a lot easier. what i did was head up to the top level, the boardwalk, you can fly up there if you fly up to something else first to give you enough height. take pot shots at tomassi with your Pierce, if you find he's chucking stuff at you, then at either end of the H boardwalk you can line of sight him to dodge his missiles. also dont forget to use your shield, it's really useful, and i forgot to use it a lot. when the invisible creature spawns, you can hover-dash to the middle of the H boardwalk, and just look for the creatures invisible shimmer. with an upgraded kinetic throw, hitting it with some rubble will kill it instantly. oh and switch out to whatever's your preferred gun for the other enemies. you need to manage those exploders so they dont get close to you. i found as long as i stayed up on the boardwalk, got past the point where i cleared the invisible bastard, kept line of sighting tomassi when i was dealing with other stuff, i could slowly wear down his health.
I feel like I've posted this about a hundred times now, but this is how I did it:
Thanks for these, guys. I've tried some combination of most of the tactics here, but I usually just get overwhelmed with stray projectiles and enemies coming from behind.
I'll see if I can find the energy to have a few more tries tonight.
anyone have hot tips for the boss fight on the panopticon's fourth floor? I am dying a bunch and between it feeling like a shit scenario and having to hoof it back to the boss fight every time (plus long load times on my PC) i am really not having a great time right now
Is that the fridge, i.e. Former? If so, I found the best approach was to stand on one of the columns. The thing that killed me the most was falling through holes in the floor that I couldn't see, so the column helps there. When Former starts lashing out, I would just levitate and dash left or right in the air. If you upgrade levitate a little bit you can stay airborne for the entire time that he's swinging without needing to come down. Then just go back to standing on the column.
For weapons, I found Grip to work best, but the thing that really knocks his health bar down is just using his own orbs against him (you can grab them and chuck them back at him). They pack a serious punch. I would just shoot the initial ones and chuck the last one back.
I have tried to stay out of this thread until I finish the game (about 90% complete now). But I'm not surprised to see the checkpoints getting criticized. They really seem like a limitation as opposed to game design.
I'll also add that I really dislike the map. Unless I'm missing something, there being no option to zoom in and how the different floors are really poorly distinguished make it really tough to read.
Other than that, I love it.
nah wasn't that fight, was the mandatory story fight. anyway i did it, gottem
yeah running in there blindly i died three times until i calmed down and just took out dudes as they came to me and hid behind pillars.
Do you get enough material to fully upgrade all the gun forms or should you pick and choose which to focus on? I've only unlocked the first three so far and can upgrade Grip to level 2.
Also, I assume you can only focus on a few abilities with the points they give you? I'm primarily leveling launch and health.
Also, I assume you can only focus on a few abilities with the points they give you? I'm primarily leveling launch and health.
Note to anyone still going through their first play-through: try throwing things at bosses as your first option. You may find the encounters much easier than you expect.
I adore how with The Oldest House and Control's game structure Remedy have really the perfect template to add DLC and explore their lore.