Control: AWE Reviews
Despite some flaws, AWE is a very good expansion that brings Alan Wake into Remedy's shared universe and teases exciting things for the future.
AWE offers an interesting first look at the future Remedy envisions for both the Alan Wake and Control franchises alongside featuring a terrifying main antagonist and some creepy boss encounters. That being said, it’s still somewhat underwhelming, acting as a teaser for the future with few crazy story beats or new features to get excited about.
If you’re happy with more of the same, don’t mind the repetitive encounters with Hartman, and are prepared to face a wildly fluctuating difficulty level, then you’ll possibly enjoy AWE. It’s not all bad – it just pales in comparison to the standard set by the main campaign.
More Control is always great, however the expectations for this expansion fall flat, with a short new mission and probably the worst boss fight in all the game.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Control AWE does a great job of bringing the events of Alan Wake into a shared universe, without ever breaking its own identity or gameplay conventions. Almost all of Control's technical issues are gone, leaving behind a great nugget of gameplay that pushes the universe forward into interesting new placed. Highly recommended for fans of either franchise.
Control’s AWE Expansion doesn’t do much to innovate, but it doesn’t need to. It continues building on the already strong combat encounters of the original game whilst adding a small twist on that. The main draw is with the brilliantly crafted story that brings Alan Wake into the Control universe.
AWE is like a bridge to establish the connection between Control and Alan Wake. The DLC, which we can consider as the first step to Remedy's Connected Universe plan, is satisfactory. It's a good DLC package, though it offers less than The Foundation as new content.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
Control's AWE Expansion will satisfy a lot of Alan Wake fans who have been theorizing for nearly a decade about what happened to the writer. While it does introduce some great ideas, you'll ultimately have to wait for whatever Remedy does next to get real resolution.
Perhaps the hardest thing about this expansion is that it fits in a weird place. The new weapon and locations don't add a whole lot, with limited new gameplay elements. It really relies heavily on bringing the worlds of Control and Alan Wake together and introducing a new boss that seems far more threatening than he actually is. As a result, enjoyment really relies on what you enjoy about this franchise. If it's the overarching story and seeing the conclusion of various storylines, you'll probably be disappointed, unless you care about a now even larger picture. Those looking for more things to shoot and toss stuff at will probably have fun though. Regardless of where you stand, I will say if you loved what came before, I would suggest it just because it says so much about where the series is going. Whether it will succeed or crash and burn like some players are expecting has yet to be seen but it is a journey I am excited to take.
The final piece of the Control story brilliantly bridges the mystery-filled gap between itself and Alan Wake while paving the way for so much more.
Control AWE is an excellent expansion for fans who are craving to go further down the rabbit hole. The focus stays heavily on Jesse and her goals, even with the inclusion of Alan Wake, who doesn’t overpower the scenes. The expansion once again proves how good Remedy is at storytelling and I’m glad to see them continue to provide those WTF moments that we all love.
An integration of the Control and Alan Wake universes is an incredibly exciting premise on paper. AWE promises this as the final DLC for Control, but the execution doesn’t meet what was possible. At the end of AWE, I felt excited about any future exploration of these universes, but underwhelmed about what I had just played.
AWE comes right out of the gate swinging and proves to be just as satisfying and engaging as its predecessor, albeit in different ways.
Control: AWE brings back Alan Wake and Bright Falls while smartly integrating the fiction of Control with Remedy's connected universe.
Alan Wake makes his official debut in Control in full force, delivering a very large helping of lore and storytelling that goes down great with the overall game experience. If only he had a brought a small side of new gameplay mechanics as well, because the formula remains pretty much the same.
Control’s AWE DLC reintroduces the world of Alan Wake, but he is only a very small part of the overall experience. It also adds a new ability, a new service weapon, a new enemy, and it’s more of the same Control that you already enjoy. Gamers buying AWE only for Alan Wake may be a little letdown, but it’s a good addition to the overall universe and mystery of the Oldest House with the wonderful promise of a very interesting future from Remedy Games.
It’s definitely a disappointment compared to the new powers and trippy areas we received in the first part of Control’s season pass – The Foundation – and the new meat it throws to Alan Wake fans does little to resolve the character’s lingering narrative threads, but to set up new ones.
Control: AWE is good in that it's more Control. But it feels like it was leaning a little bit too hard on being a teaser for its Alan Wake connections and the Remedy Connected Universe, which hurt its ability to be a really fun and engaging expansion for the Control side of things. For as brief as the expansion is, much of the runtime feels like it's just spinning its wheels and never really going anywhere. I'm always happy to step into the shoes of Director Jesse Faden again, but AWE never gains its own identity as anything more than an interactive MCU-style post-credits scene; a lot of set up that we'll need to wait years to see payoff. But hey, now you can replay the Ashtray Maze while you wait.
AWE is full of fun lore tidbits linking Control to Alan Wake, but it underwhelms as an addition to both the latter's universe and the former's weird game world.
Remedy continues to tell unique and extremely interesting stories, and in relation to how AWE concludes and what that means for the future of the Remedy Connected Universe, is just so damn exciting.