The next major title from Remedy Games is here in Control. Control follows Jesse Faden as she looks for her brother Dylan in a secret government facility which houses paranormal oddities as well as inter-dimensional beings that take control of human life as their own. As Jesse traverses the facility being newly appointed as the Director she gains an increase in powers and abilities and a sentient gun which she communicates with to help find Dylan.

Control is a 2019 third-person shooter, action game, it is developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by 505Games. It is currently available on PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One.

Editor’s Note: An advanced review copy of Control was provided by 505Games in support of this review. Medium to near complete spoilers for Control’s story may be present within this review.

Courtney Hope takes you deep into the human psyche as Jesse Faden in Control.

If there’s one thing I know about a Remedy developed game it’s the fact that you’re almost guaranteed to have a damn good time from start to finish and their latest title Control is no different. Taking place in a world clearly inspired by the online SCP phenomenon, Control has you following Jesse Faden; the newly appointed, yet reluctant Director of the Federal Bureau of Control, a secret government facility located in New York which houses powerful inter-dimensional items that pose a danger to reality itself. While Jesse performers her tasks as Director, she also has an ulterior motive to find her her missing brother Dylan who was also once in line to become Director after the previous was mysteriously killed.

Upgrade Jesse’s abilities and attributes through experience points and crafting.

THE GOOD: So there’s a lot to dive into with Control, because Control is honestly a lot of game as far as it’s ins and outs go, and that’s not hyperbole. While I’m not exactly sure what the final run time for the game is per playthrough what I am sure of is the fact that you’ll be spending hours picking up every piece of collectible material as many of the files help spread out Control’s crazy story and even crazier world. There will be times when it actually feels like you’ll need to do this because if you miss the slightest bit of intel from the core story the game provides the collectible files and media will likely become your best friend. This is of course intentional on the part of Remedy as even the promotional material was a head scratching mess of questions with very little answers to give. As you progress in the game you unlock several psychic abilities such as levitation, a shield, a dashing/dodge ability and others. You can also unlock new forms for your gun for more fire power such as a piercing bullet and charging bullet form. In an RPG-like system Jesse in addition to her gun can also have upgraded stats through mods which are crafted from materials enemies drop and those found from within the world.

Jesse gains more powerful abilities when she interacts with the inter-dimensional items of power spread throughout the world.

At the start of the game Jesse is thrust into the role of Director of the FBC having previously done inter work. She gets the job from her brother who was the previous top candidate upon the death of the former Director. You’ll spend a lot of time throughout the story backtracking the map to unlock new areas after defeating bosses and interacting with objects of power which grant Jesse her abilities and the power to bend reality back into place from the inter-dimensional beings known as the Hiss who are attempting to control. Like Quantum Break before it, Control’s story is often told through cool live-action cutscenes in addition to in-game cutscenes. It’s an odd back and forth switch but it works in regards to keeping the story afloat. Players can also find optional side quests to complete that grants further knowledge into the world and story of the game. Voice acting is also fairly impressive with lead Courtney Hope and some of the side character voice actors being the standouts.

Control features a beautiful and terrifying science fiction world.

THE BAD: The biggest hurdle Control faces is the technical issues that come up. There’s times when framerate can be really bad and in odd situations such as when you pause the game for like a minute or so then unpause and suddenly the frames take a complete nose dive for a few seconds. It was weird and there’s other certain occurrences where that takes place like during cutscenes, but it doesn’t happen too often it just slows things down a bit. I was honestly surprised that the game never crashed, not even while I was playing during pre-launch. Thankfully the game is mostly competent and strongly built so I could handle a few bad frame drop issues.

Players will be quick to learn that every power matters in Control as the difficulty increase with the advancement of the story.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Control is another example of Remedy’s already impressive resume of games with a wacky, yet enjoyable story, gun play, extraordinary voice acting and just being an all around good time. If you’re a fan of the dev’s previous works then you’ll definitely feel right at home, and even if you’re not right not give it a chance anyways?