Control: AWE Reviews
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.
AWE is just a small DLC that shows a glimpse of something much bigger to come. And I can't wait for it.
Review in Russian | Read full review
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.
AWE feels less like the beginning of some grand interconnected universe and more like a tacked-on reference to Remedy’s previous work.
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.
What Remedy are pitching us is incredibly ambitious. They’re looking to tie their past games together and put them under the same roof. AWE has given them a gateway. It’s given us all a glimpse as to how it might be possible and provided a new starting point for Remedy’s bold future. In some ways, you might even see the ending of AWE as a soft announcement of their next major project. But it’s more than that because this DLC gives them the context needed to do that, while surely sowing the seeds for even more projects further down the line. Because of that, AWE could well be the most important DLC of this, or any other generation.
I had a lot of fun with both extensions and was happy every time the correspondence between the employees of the Bureau of Control turned into rampant hate speech.
Review in German | Read full review
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
Even if AWE doesn’t exactly tie a bow in regards to Alan Wake, it’s a very good sign of what may yet come to be for our fashion disaster of a friend.