Back in early 2020 (yes this opening anecdote I insist on writing) I found myself looking into the BAFTA Game Awards at which Control was nominated for quite a number. I made a mental note of Control, added it to my wishlist and about a year later in February 2021, Control: Ultimate Edition was one of the PS+ games – what luck. It’s not often I go into a game knowing barely anything about it (I’ve usually watched a good chunk of gameplay), but Control is one of those games which 1) can be difficult to explain and 2) is probably best if you go in knowing as little as possible. A few days ago I finished a wonderfully strange story which balanced itself on the right side of weird for me and I’m going to do my best to do it justice.
Control very much drops you in it with very little explanation as to why the player character, Jesse Faden, is heading into the Federal Bureau of Control, and what exactly the FBC does. But very quickly, a series of events which I won’t get into the specifics of play out and suddenly Jesse finds herself as the Director of the FBC and anyone she encounters as she makes her way through The Oldest House – a concrete behemoth in NYC – does not question the sudden change in leadership. It’s not necessarily spooky, but it is a little bit weird. The final thing I’ll say about the story synopsis is that The Oldest House has found itself overwhelmed by what I can only describe as a bad type of “energy” – The Hiss; people influenced by this energy are your enemies.
There were two things which really struck me when I started playing Control. One of which was how this game, from the very early stages says “I’m going to let you feel cool – you’re welcome”. You might not actually be unstoppable, but you sure as hell feel like it. You acquire a number of abilities in the early stages of the game, the first of which being “Launch Ability’ aka telekinesis. So sure, I do have a gun which regenerates ammunition automatically, but also I can just pick up an office desk or a block of concrete and launch it at the bad guys which is just more fun. Obviously a lot of games allow players to experience a kind of power fantasy but often the games I play require you to put the hours in first. Control does not. Control lets you launch things, levitate, seize minds and more very early on. It wants you to feel powerful. And it’s a lot of fun. There’s a relatively short section towards the end of the story which allows you to utilise all of your abilities with some amazing music playing over the top, even Jesse comments on how cool she feels – I would have happily replayed this section over and over again. So yeah, the combat and abilities you acquire ludicrously early in the game are fantastic and just a whole lot of fun.
The second thing which I got potentially too much enjoyment out of was navigating The Oldest House which I realise is quite tame in comparison to the telekinesis etc I’ve just been talking about. But, something about not needing, or really wanting to open the map but the signage around the building makes is relatively straightforward to get around the place. It works like any well designed building should; you enter one new area and within moments you’ll be faced with signposts directing you to other departments. I feel like it’s such a tiny thing to find so much joy in but here I am. I spent a lot of the game avoiding opening up the map, because I knew that if I could read the signs properly they were quite reliable. I’ll also take this opportunity to declare that I’ve never considered concrete to be so wonderfully, beautifully desctructable. The design of Control really just runs with brutalist architecture (there are a number of videos on this) and I, for one, grew rather fond of it over the course of the game.
The story, without getting into specific spoilers, whilst not necessarily my favourite aspect of the game, had me extremely intrigued from the start simply because you’re dropped into the game with a lot of questions and absolutely no answers. I’d compare it to what I experience when I played Horizon Zero Dawn last year (a game I consider to be one of my favourite games but failed to write a coherent post on), I just kept playing both of these games because I wanted answers. Usually I take games quite slowly but finished Control’s main story less than a week into playing it. I can’t precisely say exactly what my play time of the main game was but after a quick search the general time given is 10-15 hours depending on how many side quests you complete. That being said, when I had finished the game (after however many hours) I did have to sit and think just to make sure I had grasped exactly what was going on and even now I’m sure there are things which I’ve forgotten. But I do think that’s part of Control’s whole deal. It’s about the unknown, about the things which are hidden in plain sight but we miss as we can’t see for looking.
Whilst making some notes to start writing this post, I didn’t mention anything really about specific characters or about voice acting, which usually I try to take note of, and that’s not to say any of that is bad. Just in comparison to the other, superb aspects of the game, they feel quite small. I liked playing as Jesse, think Courtney Hope’s performance is fantastic, and found her compelling enough as a character but I don’t love her like I often do with player characters. Similarly, I feel like I never got to “know” the side characters enough to form any kind of strong opinion on them. There’s only one other character of particular note for me, a character you never actually meet – Dr Casper Darling (portrayed by Matthew Porretta) – a scientist who appears on live action projectors around the game. I found his character so interesting through the bits of footage revealed throughout and Porretta’s performance throughout was brilliant. But for me, he was the only other character I even vaguely cared about. That being said, at the time of writing, I’ve yet to finish all of the side quests and to play the DLC which is included in the Ultimate Edition so there is time for me to form these opinions.
So in short, I love Control and think it is totally deserving of the praise it was receiving when it first came to my attention at the beginning of last year. As I’ve said I still have plenty of content to get through and I have got my heart set on at least trying to get the Platinum Trophy (I’ve been trying the same boss fight for days at this point) so I’ve not finished with Control and The Oldest House yet. But I adore the strangeness it brought into my life for a short while. I’m not sure I understand the world of Control, I’m not sure I’m supposed to fully understand it but I love the weirdness, I’ll bask in the unknown – I love the strangeness of it all.
jemima is writing 