FRIST_008 Control: Ultimate Edition Review

- terrible map - an absurd number of notes - good lore - original world - original bosses, but there are few of them - no story for half the game, and something resembling a story in the second half. And I'd say "okay" if there was a wow effect like in TLOU2, but there isn't! What's more, the story of the ending is almost entirely written in notes. Alan Wake did that too, but there it's justified by the plot: he's sort of inside his book, his own story. But here? Why tell me through notes what's going to happen next? And fine if they did it all the time. In Alan Wake I just read the notes later so I wouldn't spoil anything. In Control that won't work, because you never know whether a note is tied to the upcoming story at all or is just lore. In short, it's an awful decision. I think notes should add to the story, not reveal it in advance. - very satisfying shooting - good metroidvania - a stupid system of timed missions that knock you out of the flow. You're sitting there doing your thing, and no, drop everything and go who knows where. - gacha-style dailies in a single-player game to get mods for the sockets, a bit cringe - the loot system is ripped off from gacha games, also cringe - infuriating audio logs with the same video looping next to them. I don't remember anything in a game ever annoying me this much, I'd rather have a black screen there - the game seems to lack gameplay variety, which is why boss fights are short. Either you get him or he gets you. I upgraded telekinesis and was just one-shotting everything from 20% into the game. - and then they give me the jukebox, right when I'm already sick of the combat because everything goes down instantly. I even ended up upgrading energy and reduced throw cost, and sometimes the enemies ran out before my energy did. I finished one, and after that I had zero desire to keep feeding it coins. - the arcade machine is an hour of the same grind. But at least it's hard there. I finished the first 2 against the clock and didn't even start the challenges. Forget it... - the DLCs are more interesting than the main story and give hope that the developers understood their weak points. But as far as I understand, the Wake one is the second. I'm still playing The Foundation, but the DLCs are more interesting in terms of feeling complete. In the main story you just explore the Bureau. Yes, it's interesting, but the final goal is so boring, meh. - the fights with the Hiss toward the end get a bit exhausting, and the jukebox is even more exhausting, since there's basically nothing there except fights - an insanely beautiful world and game - the destructibility is just LOVE, how am I supposed to play other games now? - levitation kind of unbalances the game in fights. - interesting decision that levitation doesn't use energy. - RT was made as a bonus rather than the foundation, which is why some locations are too dark. But that's a problem with every game of the transitional generation. What else? Or rather, what's missing here. What exactly did I miss? The main character's motivation and attachment to her brother are stretched to the breaking point. They explained the reason: she was treated in a hospital and they didn't let her out either, as I understood it. He's the only person close to her. But that's weak motivation when you're building a universe from scratch. I missed chemistry between the characters. It's like there isn't any. I'm really spoiled by companions. We sort of have Polaris, but at the same time, argh, we don't. In the end it's just a metroidvania gameplay shooter with no story and no motivation to keep going. Either you want to find even more unusual objects and learn Wake's story, or, like the main character, you honestly don't care about anyone... Oh wait... Hold on... For some reason, an hour into the game she already does care about everyone... They even forgot to explain that... Awful Gameplay 8 Originality 10 Atmosphere 9 Lore 10 Story 6 DLC 8 Total: exactly 8.5.