April 2020 Playthrough - Control

[douglie007]

I'm picking up the game today.

[wildbil52]

Finished the main story

Since we are so early in the month, I won't talk story at all, I'll try to keep it general.

I really enjoyed this game a lot.  I'm happy to report that when the story is over, there are still lots of things to do.  On top of any side missions you didn't Finnish before completing the main campaign (Get it? Because Ahti is from Finland and he gives you side quests?  Anybody? I'll see myself out) There are new missions that open up and new areas that you can explore with your new powers.  That's not even considering the recently released Expansion: The Foundation which is now on my wantlist.

I would strongly recommend getting the levitate, shield and seize abilities as soon as you are able and when you are in combat try to get in closer to enemies as opposed to picking them off from a distance.  You are at greater risk to take damage but I found that when i was playing it safe from far away I wasn't getting any heath drops from defeated enemies.  I'd rather take a little damage and get the health drops.  Also, close quarters combat is more fun.

Ahti is a great character phenomenally portrayed by Martti Suosalo.  I don't want to spoil anything so i will just say that there are several sequences in the game that have music related to them that have a tie in to Ahti that were both amazing.

As a Remedy fan it was very nice to see Matthew Porretta (Alan Wake) in the role of Casper Darling.  He's such a cool guy and had lots of really interesting and funny scenes.  You could even say his part was...Dynamite...

Can't wait to see how other folks like this one.

[GrayGhost81]

I've been playing the game for a week or so and I'm the fourth mission. Much to my sadness and amazement, I'm not enjoying the game at all. On paper, this should not be happening. Remedy is one of my favorite developers. Sci Fi is my favorite genre of...everything. The game has a female protag and Courtney Hope is relatable and easy on the eyes.

A number of things are frustrating me about the game. First is the 'trial and error' nature of the shooting combined with the way the game checkpoints. Start from a cleanse spot, and dive into a firefight. Kill half the enemies and die. Return to the cleanse spot. Ok, shoot the guys flying out of the window, shoot the guys coming up the stairs, shoot the guys behind the counter, oh boy here comes a mini boss! Dang the mini boss killed me. Okay back to the cleanse spot again. Ok, shoot the guys flying out of the window, shoot the guys coming up the stairs, shoot the guys behind the counter, where's that damn mini boss. Ooh got 'em. Wow that one firefight took me like an hour and I think I killed eight guys total only I had to do it six times.

Next is the 'what the hell am I supposed to do' and 'where the hell am I supposed to go' part of the game. I've had to look up walkthroughs of the game a few times because the map in the game is worthless. I do like that you can move around with map on the screen, like old school DOOM, but it doesn't help. There is a sense of verticality that is not captured on the map screen. I'm getting lost a ton.

Lastly, the plot so far is impenetrable, even with the collectables. I really hope the game throws me a bone soon. I really want to love this game, and I'll keep playing, but if this wasn't a playthrough game I would've bailed a few nights ago. I'm going to try Bil's advice on the upgrades. I've been doing it, but I don't have levitate yet so I'm going to check if I can get it.

[wildbil52]

That rough, man.  Not a great feeling when a game that you really thought would resonate with you isn't making a connection.  I can reiterate that the game did not click with me for a while.  I started it months ago, played for maybe 2-3 missions and a few side quests and I stopped playing.  I came back to it for the playthrough and thankfully it did click eventually.  I will agree that the checkpoinint system is REALLY BAD, or if not bad REALLY UNFORGIVING.  It's especially bad when you die in a boss fight and you can't just do the boss fight again, you need to make your way TO the boss again.  There are a few times where this isnt an issue like if its a boss fight in the astral plane.  Dying a lot can certainly be frustrating so very early on I prioritized personal mods to gain more health back per health pickup.  also, construct the pierce upgrade and use that on the flying enemies that dodge things you throw at them.  Dismantle any duplicate mods keeping the higher tier ones and experiment with weapon mods based on your play style.

[wildbil52]

I fired up Control again last night do do some more of the post-story quests and I ended up beating 2 bosses.  One was inside the mirror.   This whole segment of the game was SUPER clever

Spoiler warning

I think you can actually do this quest before you finish the main campaign, I just did it after.  You start by finding a mirror that is being contained/observed by the FBC.  There is a simple puzzle you need to solve to gain access to the mirror.  Once you interact with it, you end up on the other side of the mirror and when you go back through the area you just came through everything is reversed, layout, text on signs, everything.  Before you went through the mirror there was an audio log of an interview with someone who spent 3 hours inside the mirror.  When they speak to him its complete jibberish, he doesn't make any sense.  You can tell by listening that his voice is being played in reverse.  Once you are through the mirror, you listen to the same audiolog and its the interviewer who is in reverse and you can understand her and then when you hear the guy they were interviewing, he says "What? I can't understand you"  It was SOOO well done.  The boss, which I died to several times" is in the next room and it is

Spoiler (hover to show)

a mirror image of yourself very appropriately named esseJ

This was a VERY cool and memorable area of the game that I would encourage anyone playing to check out once you are strong enough for the fight.

I also did some exploring and found another SUPER cool Alan Wake Easter egg.  I won't spoil it but once you have the levitate ability, explore the 5th floor of the Panopticon.

[GrayGhost81]

I think I have turned a corner with the game. Not that I love it, but I don't actively hate it anymore. The checkpoint system is still trash, and boy oh boy those load times on PS4 might be the worst penalty for dying.

I took Bil's advice and got the pierce gun, which is a game changer. One launch followed by one shot from this gun takes out most enemies I've encountered. I also used the mods to buff my health and that helped a lot.

I even have started to do the sidequests to get the objects of power (the training course one only took about a dozen attempts!).

I'm glad I'm starting to enjoy the game, but I wouldn't have gotten this far if it wasn't a podcast game. I'm more than halfway through the main story missions!

[douglie007]

Well I'm late to the party, but I'm starting it tonight.  With the girls home it doesnt give me much time to play non kid games. So I dont think I'll get to the end of it but I'll get an idea.

[Mr_Stubbes]

Well I'm late to the party, but I'm starting it tonight.  With the girls home it doesnt give me much time to play non kid games. So I dont think I'll get to the end of it but I'll get an idea.

I'm not sure if I'll finish this either, and I've had all month to play it. I'm about halfway through it, but I just can't get into this game. Maybe I'll try and play more of this tonight.

[Disposed Hero]

I probably won't finish by the end of the month either. I think I got maybe 20-25% through the game before getting distracted by other things. I was enjoying the game well enough even if it didn't really grab me the way I thought it would. I still plan on finishing it even if I don't get it done by the end of the month.

[GrayGhost81]

Beat the game a few nights ago and wanted to let it simmer before I posted.

I have two major complaints about the game, the traversal/map are terrible, and the game is way harder than it should be, or at least it should be adjustable like Alan Wake and Quantum Break.

The combat is awesome thanks to the upgrades, especially levitation and a strongly upgraded launch ability.

I was hoping for a better payoff or explanation with the story but it never happened.

As the rage and frustration melted away after the credits rolled I even went back and played some post-game stuff. I'll be messing with the game up until Rich and I end up recording, I think.

All in all, this is my least favorite Remedy game, I think (I never finished the first Max Payne thanks to the infamous nightmare sequence).

[wildbil52]

I agree with you that its way harder than it should be, especially early on  before you have any good upgrades.  Even late in the game some of the bosses gave me a hard time but it forced me to play around with my builds which may have been the idea.  Its hard to rank this among Remedy's other work, partially because I haven't played Quantum Break yet, but I really liked this game a lot once I got past my initial difficulties with it.  Please don't turn this next comment into a PC Master Race thing, but I, personally, can not imagine getting through this game on a controller.  Aim assist and crosshair "stickiness" are a thing with controllers and they help but with how often I needed to make big sweeping motions with the mouse during frenetic combat, I dont want to think about what it would have been like with a controller.

As an Alan Wake fan, did you find any of the Bright Falls easter eggs? Did you explore level 5 of the Panopticon? 

Really looking forward to this episode

[douglie007]

Will I didnt have time to beat it, but what I played of it was interesting.  It does get better once you can throw things around.  This will be one I work on when I get the time away from the kids. 

[Mr_Stubbes]

I'm in a similar boat as Douglie and will try and beat this game at a later date. I think the story so far is fine enough, kinda gives me a "Between Two Souls" vibe with some extra paranormal monsters thrown in. I'm just not a fan of the confusing map system and the constant feeling of "where the hell do I go", I feel that the story missions would take half the time they do if the map system was more fleshed out.