Control – Remedy Entertainment , a developer known for its rather abstract storytelling style, uses supernatural phenomena to build content, characters and diverse worlds in their games.
Typically, Max Payne and Alan Wake have applied this construction style and become the company’s most successful games despite their seniority.
However, when Remedy Entertainment’s ambitions became bigger with the Quantum Break project , this game became a heavy “bomb” despite possessing many bright ideas.
Not stopping there, learning from Quantum Break , the company continues to apply its content building style to Control .
Right at the time of introduction , Control quickly created its own attraction, making its fans restless when it brought a very… bizarre world .
So, will Control once again become a “bomb” for Remedy Entertainment or bring about the breakthrough that Max Payne and Alan Wake made before?
YOU WILL HATE
CONFUSED…
You, Jesse Faden, enter the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC) to find the whereabouts of your younger brother Dylan, who has been lost for many years.
While still confused about the context of Control , an unexpected event occurred: FBC operator Zachariah Trench committed suicide, Jesse entered his room and picked up Service Weapon – one of the Objects of Power.
This unintentionally caused Jesse to succeed Trench and become the next executive of FBC.
After that, players will be drawn into the new problem happening in this building: repelling the invasion of Hiss and protecting Oldest House – FBC headquarters.
With an “extremely dizzying” start, you will ask yourself many questions: Why was Dylan taken away? What is Hiss? Why did Jesse get into this house?… However, these questions are not answered during the game but become more complicated when many new characters are introduced.
It wasn’t until near the end of the game that Control gradually answered the players’ questions from the beginning of the game. Because of this, either the player will persevere and continue the game, or the player will feel bored, lose interest and delete the game!
To make up for these gaps, Remedy integrates many pieces of the past into the present through Jesse’s self-talk.
However, the company overused this when any interaction between Jesse and the surrounding environment was shown with self-talk, including her lack of trust in others.
This point makes the main character’s personality less interesting and without any highlights, because the player will lose the surprise for Jesse, always knowing what she wants to say and do.
Near the end of the game, Control gradually answers the players’ questions from the beginning of the game. Because of this, either the player will persevere and continue the game, or the player will feel discouraged
Not only that, the characters in the game are a bit “dumb” as they almost never express their emotions, in complete contrast to their voices – which are voiced quite excellently.
Jesse Faden had a sharp face almost all the time as if she was angry about something, even when feeling guilty with a trembling voice. Emily Pope looks quite “awake” even when her dialogue shows surprise and seriousness… and her mouth movements are a bit strange!
At a glance, the plot and context of Control are very attractive: decoding the strange supernatural phenomena that exist in Oldest House, revealing Jesse Faden’s past, and the connection between her and the organization. This.
However, Remedy was unable to tell this magical story because the narrative and character building were too… ugh!
… AND LOST!
Of course, confusion is not the only word to describe Control, because the game also makes you lost in a space that seems small but is roundabout and difficult to grasp.
First, we must mention how the game’s world is built. To increase authenticity and bring players into the game, the developer has completely removed the minimap and you have to completely rely on road signs to get to where you want.
In theory, this is a very good idea. However, the way the game executes is not really good.
Players will have to pay close attention and take notes on character conversations to know where they need to go, because the game has absolutely no summary for players to read again.
Although some missions are marked on the map when the player chooses them, not all missions are available and the player will have to find their way until they find the entrance.
Worse yet, you won’t be able to see the map of the entire area but can only see the floor you’re standing on. Therefore, if there are any quests on another floor… keep looking!
Of course, in the process of finding your way, you will not be able to go exactly the first time. Sometimes you will encounter many barriers that you can only go after reaching a certain level in the quest line. main service.
Here, the second design error is revealed. The game overuses bright red light to show too many things in the game screen: Hiss – a strange force represented by characteristic red smoke that prevents players from moving, enemies infected with Hiss possess a protective ring red and red body parts, strange red lights signaling danger rooms, and even red screens when you’re low on health.
At the beginning of the game, you will be faced with a room full of red light filled with enemies. Your task is to defeat all the monsters in the room and purify the red area, creating a safe area.
After that, the writer accidentally found a similar room while searching the way, but strangely, Jesse quickly “faded” within just two seconds of entering the room. After trying twice to get in and… dying, the writer quickly gave up and found another way.
Sometimes, the red hallways/rooms continue to appear but it is just light from the indicator lights with no signs of harm.
This will make players confused because they don’t know when the red light appears, should you enter or should you avoid? What does the game want to tell me through this?
Confusion is not the only word to describe Control, because the game also makes you lost in a space that seems small but is winding and difficult to grasp
Using too many bright colors also creates an uncomfortable feeling for the player’s eyes, especially when you enter a red room, the enemy is also surrounded by a red shield and your screen is also red. because of low blood.
All combined will make you feel very uncomfortable and unable to play normally. Not only with the red color, the burning effect of the furnace in the side quest is also extremely annoying when it has a bright yellow particle effect that you definitely won’t want to get close to!
POOR GAMEPLAY
To be frank, Control has quite poorly designed gameplay and greatly affects the user experience.
The game’s fighting mechanism is quite good at first: use super powers to move and attack enemies and then use guns to finish them off. Besides, players are also allowed to freely change their weapon or personal stats with accessories (mods) that drop randomly when destroying enemies and upgrade skill trees to strengthen themselves.
However, after a few hours of playing, the player’s fighting style remains the same and unchanged even though you have spent a lot of points to upgrade the skill tree, as well as attach many accessories to the gun.
Even though Service Weapon can transform many gun barrels into many different types: pistols, shotguns, submachine guns, aiming guns…, except for the barrel changing, the entire weapon still retains the shape of a gun. pistol.
Not only that, the uses of these guns are not too different because you only use them when you run out of mana to use special abilities.
Many times, just the basic Grip (pistol) form is enough to help players pass levels easily. The weapon mods that drop in the game are not too special, most of them do not create too many highlights for you to feel a big change, especially with low quality mods.
The only thing worth paying attention to is the types of enhancements for the body, helping players to be stronger, heal more, recover mana faster… And when you have found the type of enhancement that suits your playstyle, yourself, you won’t need to change much to still be able to play comfortably.
The small plus point for Control that players will probably feel is Jesse’s superpower: the psychic ability to lift objects/enemies, throw them and deal high damage.
The more you upgrade this ability, the more types you will be able to control: missiles, low-health enemies… and greatly increase the damage of objects. Later, you can also create a ring of dirt and rocks around your body to protect yourself.
This powerful super power will completely overwhelm Jesse’s gun, even if at the beginning of the game the throwing damage is already superior to the shotgun damage.
When upgrading the throwing damage, you can completely kill almost any enemy with just one attack. Plus, the ragdoll physics system is quite well done, almost all players will use this skill to fight without using guns too much.
Next, another double-edged sword that the company puts in the combat mechanism is that you cannot restore health and can only restore it with Health Elements dropped when destroying enemies.
In theory, this is a pretty good idea, putting players in dangerous positions to create challenges and urging players to kill more enemies, taking high risks to receive higher rewards. The same thing has been applied quite successfully to Doom with the ability to restore health when destroying enemies.
However, Control does not work until you can only pick up Health Elements from a few enemies, some enemies that explode will not drop blood.
In addition, the game does not have healing items for players to use in times of emergency and any type of first aid station (strangely, this is the Federal Control Department but is not equipped with any medical equipment).
Besides Health Element, players can only restore health at temporary save points – checkpoints (similar to Bonfire of the Souls series , used to restore health, save the game, fast teleport, upgrade characters) but to access To access these points, you must defeat all the monsters around to activate them.
If you’re low on health and you don’t think you can survive to find a new checkpoint, the only thing you can do is circle back to the old point to recover.
However, monsters in the game will reappear after a while, so sometimes going back will be death’s door!
Control’s gameplay is quite poorly designed and greatly affects the user experience
