Finished the game, some thoughts [Spoilers]

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.

As far as the plot goes, I mostly agree. The game starts off incredibly stylish and well-structured, but as the gameplay opens up the plot seems to loosen considerably. Not in terms of what's actually going on, more in terms of how its presented. One of the ones that really bugged me was how you'd suddenly start receiving most Hotlines and Board communications in your collectibles menu rather than them just butting in the way they do early on. I was enthralled by all the ways the game kept me on my toes early on, and it was a little disappointing when it let go of my hand and sent me on my way.

I also think they focused on the least interesting bits of the story while simultaneously hinting at way, way more interesting permutations of those bits. Am I alone in becoming convinced during the 6th and 7th chapters that Jesse was at best experiencing a sort of psychotic break due to the AWE in Ordinary in which she and Dylan had been split off from their original form, and that Jesse had inherited all of their former selves' bland/stoic traits while Dylan received all of their former anxieties and ambitions? And that at worst she was in an actual Shutter Island scenario, being shepherded by the FBC through a psychosis brought on by a traumatic event in her childhood during which she lost her family and began to construct an elaborate, superhero-like fantasy for her to escape into?

Because I was thoroughly convinced that that was going on...until the game seemed to make pretty clear it wasn't, and we really were seeing a (relatively) straight forward tale about a pair of paranaturally powered siblings and their reunion. Maybe it's just me, but I felt a little teased and betrayed by how genuinely weird the collectibles and story beats were getting between the first and last encounters with Dylan, only to wind up with a fairly rote video game tale once the credits rolled. Maybe the DLC will expand on the ideas they started putting forth with Jesse's therapy tapes and other clues, maybe not. I certainly hope it winds up a little messier than "two men full of hubris nearly ruin the world, and now two plucky young women are here to right their wrongs while the wild card of a brother who may or may not be trustworthy lingers in the background." It'd threaten to make me less interested in the weirdness of The Oldest House if it were only used to convey some pretty standard sci-fi/video game adventure.

I enjoyed the game, but I was disappointed with the ending. I thought it was unsatisfying, and even kind of confusing. Although to be fair, I probably missed out on some key details because I didn't read the documents (there were so damn many!). I did watch/listen to all the video/audio logs I found.

Like @nodima mentioned, I felt like they hinted at some things, but then nothing seemed to come of them. Especially the connection between Jesse and Dylan. At one point he even talks about how they both have gender-neutral names, and there seemed to be an implication that they might be the same person, or had been switched somehow during the incident in Ordinary.

Also, what was up with Ahti? He may have been the biggest mystery of all and got absolutely no resolution in the story. I know a lot of people are fine with the whole "we're not going to explain everything, you decide what you want to believe!" approach to stories like this, but I'm a bit tired of it. It'd be nice to experience a story like this with lots of mystery and intrigue that actually tied up all the loose ends for a change.

@bakoomerang: That's kind of (no, definitely) where any of the interesting bits of story is fleshed out, and it also shows how Alan Wake is also connected to the world and is in part what fascinates me most and how it all connects and where a sequel to this and/or Alan Wake can go. You pretty much have to read the collectibles to get the most out of it. There aren't that many Alan Wake collectibles, but just enough that makes me want to see how they can collide with one another. I suppose I am interested in where the old house comes from and who or what exactly controls it aside from 'interdimensional beings' or what have you. And I don't mean Jesse who is the director.

The story you see through the dialogue by Jesse and the cast of characters is really kind of dull to me with the inner monologue and often times robotic expression or cliched writing. Ahti is the one exception to any of it. I'm conflicted about the setting because I like the idea of it more than the actual execution in the game. A handful of other games have done the style and I enjoyed it more in those games, but it's not bad; I just wish I liked exploring those environments more. The destruction is fantastic (although shooting the toilets is unrealistic [no water?]) and the action is fun. The soundtrack is well implemented but very much forgettable.

I thought there was enough resolution to the story; I read all the collectibles as I went along so anything I was curious about was answered well enough. I should say though that, I wasn't that interested in the story of Control in and of itself; again it was kind of boring to me, it's just how it can connect to other stuff and where it can go from here. Another thing that bothers me is that the game has some bugs or performance issues (which should be fixed in times it sounds).

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I was going to make a thread some time ago about what everyone's favorite Remedy games are. For me it goes:

1. Alan Wake

2. Max Payne 2

3. Control

4. Max Payne 1

5. Quantum Break

@bakoomerang said:

Yup! For me, the hints they drop about Ahti get close enough to revealing what he might be to feel satisfying.

"Ahti" is a god of the sea in Finnish folklore.
In the mission "Finnish Tango", when you go into the Oceanview Motel, you can hear a Finnish marine weather forecast playing in the radio.
In the dream sequence in the last mission, Trench mentions a man who was at times a "plumber" unclogging a drain that was blocked by a big fish. And sometimes the man was an "old god" putting the fish there "to keep the waste from leaking out".
Ahti also also mentions beating the "vikings" in a sauna contest and he gives Jesse the casette that has a song from his "friends", The Old Gods of Asgard. So the "vikings" were probably Tor and Odin Anderson from Alan Wake.
In Alan Wake's American Nighmare there's a manuscript in which Alan says that he feels like the brothers had been touched by something "godlike".
After the "Directorial Override" mission, there's a cutscene in which Ahti says: "We take turns to come for a visit".

So Ahti might be a god or a supernatural entity pretending to be a god. Tor and Odin might be the same, or maybe Ahti helped them in the past like he's helping Jesse. Maybe the collective that takes turns to visit is a group of gods or godlike beings who are helping to keep dimensions separate and in check. They might be the Board or maybe above it.

1. Control
2. Alan Wake (I'll bundle American Nightmare with this)
3. Max Payne 2
4. Max Payne 1
5. Quantum Break

The worldbuilding and gameplay of Control are enough to put it at the top of the list for me.
The story and visual design aren't half bad either and being a semi-sequel to Alan Wake was unexpected and awesome. And the fucking Ashtray Maze.

So I just finished the game as well and likewise I had some different theories about what was going on between the siblings since they seem to continuously hint at the fact that they are one and the same.

What has made me feel incredibly dense is that for whatever reason I did not make the connection that Hedron is actually Polaris at all. I remember even going into my case files and watching Darlings video on Hedron after I made it through the Hedron chamber gauntlet.. and yet.. I dunno I just did not put two and two together? I'm still not quite sure how it makes sense that they are one and the same because how can it maintain a link with Jesse when it is sealed inside the sphere being bombarded with resonance? Then again they do somehow siphon off it's power/frequency to power the portable HRA's everyone is wearing.

I guess I'm just not quite sure where they were going with all this. All this mystery just for the reveal that the alien from the other dimension was guiding you to the house so you can turn off the projector/portal and stop the Hiss, who are never really explained all that well, from spilling into the world? What role does Dylan actually play in all of this?

The game itself has some real slick presentation. I think they pull off some really great "gaming" moments in the end - such as the Maze with the rocking music as well as some of the endgame bits.

I enjoyed the gunplay a lot even if sometimes it felt like it got a bit much. I think my game is bugged because I never got the option to upgrade Pierce. Maybe you need to complete certain side missions for that? I only have Pierce with one upgrade slot and thats it, even after the credits rolled and you can keep playing to mop up loose missions the option to upgrade is not there. Which is a shame because for the entirety of the game I only ever used Grip and Pierce - never really saw a reason to use any of the other gun modes.

Also it's a bit of a shame that this is a solid game on it's own, but it's also carrying the baggage of being this huge tech demo for ray-tracing. This means that there is this inescapable barrier erected in trying to enjoy the game. I have a solid PC with a 1080 card and I had to spend a long time tinkering with settings until I got a smooth framerate. I feel like if they didn't concentrate on that, and spent the extra resources ray-tracing awards you on tightening up performance and optimizing the overall look the game would be better for it. As it stands Control is kind of like a modern day Crysis.

So overall I enjoyed it quite a bit. I never really got into Alan Wake because it's combat was very one-note and it didn't seem to go crazy enough. Control really does seem like the natural evolution of Alan Wake.

Edit: Although now I read through some spoiler threads and apparently Hedron and Polaris are different things so I guess I'm just not clear how all that works.

Ok I actually went online and rewatched the ending. She says that Hedron put Polaris in her head when they turned on the projector for the first time, or that maybe it just helped trigger her ability to use it and Polaris was there all along, so that all makes a lot more sense now.

Yeah, I undertood that Hedron was kind of like a Wi-Fi range extender (Darling said that it's not the source but a catalyst), amplifying Polaris, a seemingly benevolent counterpart to the Hiss.
Jesse replaced Hedron, which is why the HRAs still work, as explained in the conversation with Pope.

Actually, it's just like WLAN, isn't it? Jesse was paired to Polaris through Hedron, and when Hedron died she had to dig up that password and connect straight to Polaris in that dream sequence.

@briarpack: Yah a big part of my confusion was that I missed that recording of Darling as you exit the room to run the Hedron gauntlet. Not sure how that happened but those monitors just never seemed to turn on for me, or at least I did not hear it - and I'm playing with headphones on.

That said, what IS Hedron actually amplifying?

A big complaint of mine with this sort of storytelling is that you really have to keep up with all the random collectibles and recording to understand it. It might be more immersive I guess, but I do think if you are telling a complicated story in a fantasy world of your creating whose rules are an unknown to the outsider, these cutscenes and story beats should be a little more forced and explicit rather than relying on collectibles to round out a sizable chunk of the story.

Polaris. It's a resonance like the Hiss. Hiss also has it's own range extenders in the Hiss Agents that float around the Bureau (and maybe Dylan?), repeating the incantation. Actually, the collectible about Hiss Agents literally calls them Wi-Fi boosters.
I think Jesse is wrong when she speculates that Polaris might've been inside her all along and Polaris might not strictly be on her or the Bureau's side.

This is my shaky speculation, but:
It's seems kinda like an old fashioned fight between light and dark (And maybe Alan Wake was also about the fight between the Hiss and Polaris? That would be a retcon, of course).

Polaris has it's champion in Jesse. Along with possessed Bureau agents, the Hiss had Trench and then later discovered Dylan. Maybe the Hiss (instead of the Board) made Trench kill himself when he was no longer needed. Trench might've been still resisting the Hiss. There is a lot of quick clips of Dylan putting the finger gun to his head along with Trench's corpse on the floor.

Maybe the Hiss was planning on killing Trench and getting Dylan to pick up the gun to become the Director, either to block anyone else from doing so or to gain a direct line to the Board. But by the time they offed Trench, Jesse was already literally outside his office and just got to the gun first, spurred by Polaris. So now Polaris is hitchhiking the Director and has a stranglehold on the Bureau, if needed.

Also, I think most of the conversations Jesse has with Dylan might just be the Hiss trying to fuck with her to find a crack in the armor, like Jesse speculates.
And I refuse to believe that psychiatrist was an actual professional, because she sucked. More likely that she was a Bureau plant trying to mislead Jesse.
It might be boring for some, but I would actually prefer that instead of a case of split personality.
Maybe suggesting that Jesse and Dylan used to be one person was an attempt of softening her up for when the Hiss would try to take over?

I think they did an okay job of putting the major plot points in unmissable cutscenes. For example, the part where Darling says that Hedron was a catalyst isn't in the missable recording, it's in the cutscene where he calls Jesse via the Hotline.

But, they definitely should've had some kind of cheat sheet to see what you've missed and where.

Edit: I'm too deep in the lore hole, send help.

Edit2: And yeah, Pierce is bugged, you can't upgrade it past level 1 right now. The devs said that it should be fixed in the next patch, which apparently won't be out until mid September at the earliest.

I really liked reading all of the collectibles, especially the ones fleshing out the various Altered Items and Objects of Power. I probably enjoyed the "optional" worldbuilding content more than the main story, although the story was mostly interesting. I was really hoping by the end that we'd get to go through the slide projector into the desert dimension, but oh well, the black rock quarry scratched that "exploring alien worlds" itch well enough for me.

Really, though, I'm just going to go back and watch the "Dynamite" music video a few more times.