Kiwin

I just played through the tutorial area with two friends. It is rough around the edges, but there are a lot of things to appreciate. I like that if two characters are next to one another in the initiative order they can act at the same time, which speeds up combat a bit compared to DOS. Being able to do things like put guidance on my friend to help them with their skill checks is also fun.

This post also contains light spoilers for the Outer Wilds.

I just finished the main story of Control, and want to share and discuss some thoughts with the world.

A lot of the things I write about in this post may make it seem like I did not enjoy the game, so I want to make it clear that overall I did. The world is very lovingly constructed by the texts and films you find through the game. A lot of the material feel like it connect to a larger picture by referencing other texts repeatedly. Shooting the gun and using you powers alternately provided a good combat flow.

With that said, here are some of the things gnawing at my mind.

For a game that deals with mystic artefacts that has to be handled in specific ways, it uses very little of this premise in the gameplay. A game which does handle this well that I thought a lot about during my playthrough was Outer Wilds (2019) and its quantum rocks.

In Outer Wilds, quantum rocks behave in unusual ways and have weird properties that are not initially known to the player, much like the altered objects in Control. Also like Control, understanding how the alien objects function come from reading log entries. Where the two games differ however is that Outer Wilds makes you use this knowledge. What was once alien and seemingly unknowable becomes something you, as the player, can use.

There is only one instance I can recall of something similar in Control, which was the light switches that takes you to the Oceanside Motel. Whenever you interact with the cord there is a sign telling you that the rule of threes applies. This means that in order to pass through the motel you often have to do certain actions three times. It also connects to the in-universe lore of repetitive rituals being important. The Ashtray Maze on the other hand was a section that disappointed me with how not mysterious it turned out to be. The music and the visuals were top-notch, but the fact that the only thing required to pass this seemingly alien maze was me getting a key and shooting some enemies was a let down for me. None of the altered objects or oops you encounter require any special treatment from the player apart from pressing button prompts and sometimes shooting enemies.

Onto the story. A lot of the story beats fell flat for me. Finding Dylan did not really result in anything, and neither did the Polaris reveal(?). Perhaps some of the story beats did not hit me quite as hard since I kind of marathoned the game.

As far as recall, there is only one boss fight in the main story, and it is only really an enhanced normal enemy. In the side missions there are more traditional bosses and those were fairly interesting, so I'm surprised they didn't want to include those in the main story. The lack of proper boss fights was felt especially in the final encounter, which simply consists of some waves of ordinary enemies. The only variation to the enemy waves you fought shortly before this encounter is that you deal a lot more damage, but the enemies have boosted levels as well so it sort of evens out.

Lastly I want to discuss Ahti. I am from Sweden, so recognizing a lot of Ahti's archetypical Finnish mannerisms amused me greatly. However, like a lot of the mysteries in the game I don't think he is not elaborated on enough, for all the setup he is given. In the lore they often make a point that archetypes have power, and I kind of expected them to reveal that the reason Ahti is so stereotypically Finnish is that he himself is a supernatural being (which is suggested in other ways but not really explained in detail). I'm fine with not fully understanding what or who Ahti is, the mystery is part of the appeal after all, but I was ultimately disappointed that he never got a bigger payoff. He even hints at there being a debt after he helps you in the beginning, which made me think that he would come back at the end to claim it. I guess I paid it off by cleaning some mold and clearing the Clog I guess.

That's most of the hissing I feel i my head at the moment. I hope for some interesting discussion and counter-arguments to this post once more people finish this game.